Sunday, June 12, 2011

Selma Grace's Birth Slideshow

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Selma Grace Birth Story

Our sweet Selma Grace Warren is here. She arrived June 3, 2011 at 2:04 am. I had a great labor and delivery and if you'd like to read about it, I did the best I could to recall the details below. We didn't really write anything down at the hospital, so pretty much everything is an estimate time wise. If you watch the slideshow I am going to post later, the times I put on it area actually accurate thanks to my camera storing what time the pic was taken.

I think I gave this disclaimer before Selah's birth story, but I'll give it again. Selma Grace's birth story is in no way a literary masterpiece but life with 3 kiddos isn't allowing much time for editing things like this! I'm sure there's lots of typos etc... I do hope you enjoy it though and I hope it'll encourage you to go natural if you want to=) It was a harder delivery for me than Selah's, but it was totally worth it and I'd do it again for sure! If you have any questions about delivering at UAB, comment and I'll try to answer. We had a great experience delivering there and were very impressed overall by our care!

Selma Grace Birth Story

June 2, 2011 - 4:30pm. We arrived at the hospital and were triaged in MEU (Maternity Evaluation Unit). I was contracting every 3-5 minutes. At 5:00 Dr Hoover came in and I was 4/75/-2. So we got admitted, they started my iv and then we were transferred to a labor room around 5:30. They finished admitting me and got me settled in my room and about 6:30 Dr Hoover came in and broke my water. We had talked about this earlier and I wanted to try this before any pitocin to help my labor progress a little faster. I didn’t feel rushed though because Dr Hoover was on call that night, so it worked out great! We discussed starting pitocin if I was not progressing in 2 hours. She was fine with whatever I wanted to do though. I could do intermittent monitoring, walk around, pretty much whatever.

About 8:30pm I was only slightly less comfortable and didn’t feel like things were moving very quickly so I asked my nurse to start pitocin at a really low dose (2 mu/min) to get things going. Dr Hoover came in shortly after and I was 5/75/-1. After this I am really foggy on times. I slowly got more and more uncomfortable and we bumped the pitocin to a max of 10 over the next 4 or 5 hours. I was having strong contractions but was a little frustrated that I wasn’t dilating more quickly. I am guessing around 10:30 or 11ish Dr Hoover came in and I was 6/75/-1. Although I wished it was moving faster, I knew once I got past 6 it would go quickly. All the time I was alternating positions to try and help baby move down. UAB didn’t have a birth ball which was a little disappointing. If you want to go natural there, bring your own =) I didn’t think I’d miss it too much at first, but I wished I had it once I started hurting because it’s just comfortable to sit on and you can lean over the bed easier. Katie (my doula) was rubbing my lower back during contractions to help with the pain and it helped a ton. Trey was holding my hands and also rubbing my back. They were both great! My discomfort slowly inched up and I kept wondering when we’d turn the corner into transition.

Somewhere around 1:20am I was lying in bed and baby’s heartrate dropped. I had a big decel for several minutes. We changed positions though and got her happy again. A big benefit of being unmedicated was being able to move around myself when I needed to for her sake. The nurse checked me during the decel and I was still 6 cm. Katie told me not to worry though because I had started shaking and hurting a lot worse and she assured me I was entering transition. The contractions felt so strong but I only felt them really low in my abdomen and back. We tried hands and knees position to try and get her to move down or rotate if she needed to. Dr Hoover had told me earlier that the baby was transverse meaning she was looking to the side instead of at my back.
I was really having to concentrate and breathe through these contractions and I got up to the bathroom several times over the next 20 minutes because I kept feeling like I need to pee. My teeth were chattering and I was shaking so hard at this point. I knew it had to be soon which was good because I didn’t think I could do this for too long. At 1:45 am roughly, Dr Hoover came in the room and was happy to see (judging from my pain level - breathing heavily, making noise and shaking violently) that I was definitely progressing=). She checked me and I was 9cm thank goodness!! I remember being a little surprised though because I didn’t feel like I needed to push yet. She asked me to push once and tried to stretch me to 10 cm, which didn’t work right and hurt! She told me to hang in there another 30 minutes and hopefully I’d be ready to push then. I was thinking, “30 minutes, you have got to be kidding me!” I didn’t remember hurting like this with Selah and I started crying and grabbing Trey’s arm during contractions. I was really thinking, “I can’t do this much longer but Katie reminded me just to take them one at a time. Not long after that though, I felt like I had to push even though I knew I shouldn’t, so I just bared down a little bit to get more comfortable. Anything was better than just sitting through the contraction. I started to feel a bit of panic because I was feeling so much all at once. Dr Hoover had stayed in the room after she’d checked me I guess because I was acting like I was ready to deliver, which I was thankfully. Several other people came in and they started setting up the room for delivery. Dr Hoover and Katie were talking to me and coaching me through the pushing. I’m not really sure what anyone was saying but I know I heard them and I was trying to do what they said to do. I am guessing I pushed for maybe 10 minutes, but I’m not really sure. It felt like an eternity. I do remember them encouraging me to let the contraction build up before I started pushing which was hard to do. At that point, the pressure was so intense I was scared to push but I knew to make it stop I had to. Finally at 2:03am, she was crowning and I was feeling the “ring of fire” one of the hardest points, if not the hardest part of my whole labor. I was trying to push in between contractions but Dr Hoover was telling me not to push until I had another one, she was trying to help me avoid tearing (which worked). I remember saying something along the lines of “she better come out with the next contraction” and I also remember saying or possibly yelling “get her out” a couple times. At 2:04 am on June 3, 2011 I had the privilege of delivering my beautiful baby girl though. She was worth every second of discomfort and somehow, the pain of her labor made me more emotional than I’ve been with either of my others. I got to pull her out up onto my chest once her shoulders were delivered, which was the MOST amazing thing. I just started sobbing, partly because I was soooo relieved she was out and I wasn’t hurting anymore and mostly because I was so in awe of this precious little baby girl. (Katie captured a couple of great pictures of this moment!) We dried her off and I put her skin to skin pretty quickly. My nurses and doctor were so great to honor all my wishes at delivery. We delayed the bath so I could do skin to skin and breastfeed. They also delayed the hep b vaccine until she was 2 days old. I vaccinate but hate the thought of them getting a vaccine immediately after birth=(.
My recovery was so relaxed and not rushed at all. They gave us plenty of time to bond and let me get up when I was ready. We were there about 2 or 2 ½ hours after delivery and then they wheeled me up to my postpartum room. All in all, I felt like Selma Grace’s birth was harder on me than Selah’s, but Trey said from his perspective, I acted about the same during transition and delivery. I’m not sure, but if I have another one, I plan on going natural again. I definitely couldn’t have done it without Trey and Katie’s support. They both helped so much. My nurse Chrissy was fabulous too. She kept telling me how great I was doing and was so supportive of everything. I am so thankful to have been blessed with 3 healthy children, easy pregnancies and normal births. To God be all the glory!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

38.3

Hoping to be able to annouce the arrival of our new baby girl (name and all) and have some pics along with a great birth story soon!  I was so happy to have an unmedicated birth last with Selah last time, however I did speed things up with a good bit of pitocin.  I am hoping this time to let things really happen all on their own, no pitocin or any other medication.  We'll see how that goes though.  I'm not really opposed to having my water broken once I know I'm in active labor, but I'm just curious to see how my body will handle things all on its own.  If I don't have her this weekend, hopefully I'll get here nursery done.  Nothing like waiting til the last minute to pull everything together!  I guess that is how it is with Baby #3. Here's a snippet of what I've been working on...


This is her ($50garage sale find) armoire that is in the process of getting a facelift and will hopefully be much cuter when its done!

 Used a Heather Bailey Fabric to make her changing pad cover.  You can see the COLOR of her nursery here too =)  It's definitely a happy room!

Here's the fabric for part of the window treatments.  I think they are going to turn out super cute and can't wait to post a pic of the finished product.

Here's another pic of her changing table and one of two cute pink metal baskets I got at the same garage sale where I got her armoire.

Praying for a healthy baby and safe delivery soon!  Hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Nursery inspiration!

Sorry for the absence, but we've been living in limbo for a while as we are in between houses.  My in laws graciously took us in for a few months to help us out, but I am excited that God has provided a precious house in Homewood that we'll be renting for the next two+ years.  I've been a busy preggo bee the last two weeks picking paint colors and figuring out things for our new house.  We are super excited to have a big yard and great location to look forward to this spring!  I'll probably be picking up the blogging by showing you what I'm planning for the house.  I know it's a rental, so we can't do anything permanent, but I'm going to try to make it as homey and comfy as possible for the time we are there. 
So, lets get started with the NURSERY for a precious little baby girl who is yet to be named. 
Here's her wall color called Gypsy Rose by Benjamin Moore.  I'm not sure how true to color this pic is, but it seems to be pretty close.  It's a very saturated rosy pink and I heart it so much!  Her nursery has great light so I felt it could handle the color.

The bumpers that I found at Target ($45) were my starting point because unless you are making your own (which I was hoping to avoid) this is the hardest thing to find, or find affordably I should say=)  So, now that I have bumpers and a paint color, I can get creative! ( I should give the disclaimor that the color in this pic is definitely off, they are a brighter pink and  I promise they go with the wall color.  Both are almost a watermelon pink if I had to name them.)
After a little net surfing, I came across a gold mine of a fabric site http://www.heatherbaileystore.com/
Cheerful, unique and a hint of vintage is how I'd describe the feel of her fabrics. 
I am thinking this one will be the crib skirt.  I ordered 1/2 yard to see the colors before I commit.
If I like it enough, I may even use it for the windows or a pillow or something...
You can find it by going to her site and clicking on the Nicey Jane Fabrics.
 Here's another gem of a fabric from her site, apparently it's almost all gone, so I may just have to snag some of it and find a way to work it in.  Love the colors and pattern.  Perfect for a nursery=)
These next two fabrics from the same site have a little more of a retro feel to them and I can't decide which color to use.  All of these fabrics are going to be about $9 a yard so I'm trying to figure out a way to incorporate them while getting the biggest bang for my buck.  One idea I had is to use sheets or just plain white inexpensive curtains and add a border to spice things up. 
This room has 2 large windows and IMO it's screaming for drapes.  The windows are black metal, so they need to be covered beautified! 






The last plug for the Heather Bailey Store I'll do is this precious little ring stacker pattern that would be a perfect project for a rainy day (boy we've been having a lot of those lately!)  It seems like a great way to add a personal touch to any nursery while using scraps of leftover fabrics from other projects.  I haven't ordered it yet, but I may soon....  Would be great to make for a baby gift for a special friend too!
























The house has almost all hardwood flooring which we've never had so I have zilch in the way of rugs.
I am LOOOOVing these shag rugs from Restoration Hardware
They seems oh so soft and plush, they also don't look like animal hair which is one thing I sometimes don't like about shag rugs.  They are cotton and wool I think.  At only $129 for a 4x6, my only dilemma is pink or white???


 And last but not least, my most recent Craigslist purchase!    Scored this fab mirror for $20.  I saw it, I drooled,  and immediately emailed the guy with the subject line "want the mirror!"  When I went to pick it up, what I thought was going to be a 24"-36" tall mirror is more like 48"-60" tall.  Nevertheless, I was excited that it was so big feeling I had "gotten my money's worth."  Just needs a good coat of paint and voila!  It may be too big for the nursery, but I'm sure I can use it somewhere else.