Genevieve's Birth Story

So here is the story of the birth of our beautiful daugher, Genevieve Sophie:

Throughout this pregnancy, we prayed every night for a "safe, quick, and easy vaginal delivery."  Without fail this was a part of our nightly prayers.  We also prayed that God would keep our little girl safe and healthy.  With that being said, things could not have turned out better.  On Monday, January 24th, we shared a nice italian dinner with each other, Joseph, our friend Alyssa and her son Caden.  After dinner, Alyssa took Joey back to Cottonwood, AZ with her for a few days.  It was difficult to say goodbye to Joey, but he did so well and had a wonderful time with them.  After Alyssa left, we gathered a few last minute things and hopped into the car to drive to the hospital for our scheduled induction. 

I know there are a lot of people who have had poor experiences with inductions, and people who strongly disagree with them, but we, after much prayer, felt it was what we needed to do.  My doctor had been concerned that this baby would be big like Joey, and didn't want me to get too big and be forced into a c-section.  We both felt very much at peace with the decision.  I had already given birth vaginally and I felt my body was ready to deliver.  Now that I look back, I do not regret our choice to get induced (you will see why further into the story). 

We showed up at the hospital around 7:30pm to register and get checked into our room.  After about a half hour (our room was apparently wet?) we got settled into our room.  I was given my IV and met my night nurse.  She was such an amazing nurse.  I was her only patient, so she spent a ton of time with me.  She was so personable, and I honestly felt like we had been close friends for a long time.  She was such a blessing for us during this induction process.  We laughed a ton together and she just made me feel so comfortable.  At 11:45pm, they placed a gel into my cervix, which was already dialated 2 cm, to help it thin out more.  I was already experiencing my own contractions, but once she placed the gel, I dialated to 4-5cm and was having more painful contractions.  After laying down for an hour, she let me walk around.  I was beginning to feel a lot of pressure and pain.  At 4 am I was going to start the petocin.  I decided at that point to get an Epidural.  I had one with Joseph and decided I would do it again.  The placement of the epideral went well and I immediately felt its effect.  The nurse stayed in the room to make sure everything continued to go well.  We were chatting together, and then I started to feel a little nauseous and dizzy.  The room began to spin and then I started to black out.  The next thing I knew there were 4 nurses surrounding me.  My pulse had dropped, but then went back up.  I was given oxygen, but never experienced that again.  My nurse told me that this happens sometimes after the epidural, but she said usually the blood pressure drops, not the pulse.  Thankfully all turned out okay. 

After she was sure I was stable, she started the petocin.  It was about 5 am when this began, I only dialated 1 cm more between 5-9:30am.  My doctor came in at 9:30am and broke my water, and in about 1.5 hours I became fully dialated and I could feel the baby moving down.  There was a TON of pressure.  I was told not to push until the doctor showed up....not an easy task :).  Once the doctor came, I only pushed about 3-5 times and she was out. 

*This is the scary part*  As she came out, my doctor announced that the cord was wrapped around her neck once, and then he said twice, and then he said, three times!  Luckily my cord was thick and the cord was wrapped loosely around her neck.  Had she gotten bigger, we could have been in some trouble.  My doctor, a man of faith, told me we were very blessed that she came out okay.  I talked to a girlfriend who is in physical therapy school, and she told me that she has seen many children who have mental disabilities because they had the cord wrapped around their neck and had a lack of oxygen in the brain.  We are so thankful she was healthy, and even scored a 9.9 on her apgar!  Go Genevieve :).  This is why I am thankful we did the induction.  As my mother in law pointed out, had we waited, she would have gotten bigger and the cord may have gotten tighter around her neck.  So we feel like the induction was right for us in this situation.  It doesn't mean we will do it everytime, but in this particular situation, we felt at peace with the decision and are thankful for how things worked out.

We are all enjoying this new transition and we just love having a daughter.  Joey is doing pretty well.  Whenever he sees her he gives her a hug.  But he also seems to be craving attention too.  It will be interesting to see how things go once I am home by myself with the babies.  I am sure it will be a transition for us all.  Well time to go to bed, but I hope you enjoyed Genevieve's birth story!