Romney Beth Nelson

I can't believe it's taken me so long to blog about Romney's birth. I guess I've just been enjoying my baby :)  I could stare at her adorable face all day and I totally would if I could. Anyway, Enjoy!

I woke up the morning of October 27th with a feeling that something was going to happen. Call it mother's intuition or whatever, but I knew before I got out of bed that I'd go into labor that day. I took advantage of this and soaked in the moment as much as possible. I laid in the quiet wondering about everything that was about to happen, how I'd feel and how everything would play out. I'd been anticipating meeting my baby girl for months and months and all of a sudden it was here. It was such a surreal moment. When I got out of bed I fully expected my water to break the minute my feet touched the floor. That didn't happen.....even after walking around for a while. I began second guessing myself and started to put the thought out of my mind completely. It was a Saturday, so Tyler and I filled our morning doing random things around the house. As the morning progressed, I thought my water could be leaking, but last time I thought that, I was wrong. So again I just put it out of my mind and continued to busy myself with other things. Around 11:00 I was pretty certain my water was leaking and I  really started considering going to the hospital. I wasn't feeling any contractions, so I figured I could still be wrong. Tyler had plans to go to lunch with some friends at 12:30 and I told him if I still felt the same when he got back, we should probably go to the hospital just to be safe. At noon, I was standing in the hallway talking to Tyler when I felt a gush of water. I just froze and started saying "something's happening, something's happening". Tyler looked confused and said "what are you talking about?" I answered with, "um, I'm either peeing my pants or my water just broke." I was wearing a pair of big, baggy pajama pants so Tyler couldn't tell I had water running down my leg. His response was to say, "I can't see" as he reached over and yanked my pants down to my ankles and then he said, "....Oh!". At this point, I was certain it was time to go to the hospital. I was only 36 weeks 4 days pregnant, so I didn't have a hospital bag completely packed. While I took a shower and finished packing my bag, Tyler quickly installed the car seat and put everything he thought we might need together and in the car.  I felt kind of frantic as I was getting ready feeling like I needed to rush and get there as soon as possible, I kept trying to calm down by reminding myself that since this is my first baby, labor would be extremely long....little did I know.

We arrived at the hospital around 1:30.

Props to those who can look amazing during labor with their hair and make up done. This is as glamorous as it got for me.

We decided not to spread the news until the nurse confirmed my water had broken. The last thing I wanted was Tyler sending out a never-mind text saying, "false alarm, Sara just peed her pants". With all my preterm labor stuff, we had been to the hospital a few times but always ended up being sent home, so when the nurse told us my water had in fact broken I was exited about knowing that when we left this time, it would be with a baby.

Ready for her arrival!

The nurse checked me and I was only dilated to a 1 1/2. They monitored my contractions for an hour and when they weren't doing much, decided to start me on pitocin. At this point, it was about 3:00 pm and we all figured I wouldn't deliver until well into the morning. In fact, the nurse told me I could have the epidural anytime I wanted but to remember that once I got it, I wouldn't be able to move around and since it was going to be a good 12+ hours before I delivered, it might be a good idea to wait. So I waited, I was a little uncomfortable but nothing unbearable. As the pain started to increase, she gave me a little medicine in my iv to take the edge off. After that, the rest of the night was a blurry whirlwind. The pain was still bearable and I told myself I'd wait until it was borderline unbearable to ask for the epidural. Stupid idea, but I guess I just wanted to see how far I could go without it, plus I figured I had plenty of time to get it. Around 5:00 my mom could tell the pain was starting to increase quickly and suggested that I think about the epidural. I decided she was right and asked the nurse to get the anesthesiologist. Luckily, he came within a few minutes which was a blessing because from the time I asked for him to the time he got there, my pain had increased so much I was in tears. He quickly inserted the epidural and I tried to relax as I waited to feel better.

Tyler was so sweet and such a great support.

About 30 minutes later, I was still in pain and feeling so much pressure. I remember being so mad and thinking, epidurals don't work like everyone says...I thought I was supposed to be completely numb! When I told the nurse how I was feeling, she seemed puzzled and decided to check me. To everyone's surprise I was a dilated to a 7! It was barely 5:30, I had gone from a 1 1/2 to a 7 in less than 4 hours. 30 minuets later the nurse checked me again, I was at a 10 and she told me it was time to push. Everything had happened so fast! My legs were numb but I was still feeling pressure. It wasn't until 15 minutes into pushing that I finally went completely numb. A few minutes after that, they decided to turn the epidural off. Everything happened so quickly the epidural only worked completely for a few minutes. It's a good thing I got it when I did, I could have missed my window. After pushing for a 1/2 hour the doctor discovered Romney was coming out face up. This meant it was going to be harder for me to push her out and make the whole process harder on her. So I pushed...and pushed...and puked...and pushed some more. After pushing for an hour and a half she finally came! (Later on the nurse told me that the last woman to have a face up baby pushed for 4 hours. After that, I was pretty pleased with my pushing efforts.) I was so exhausted and so exited I just cried.

Romney Beth Nelson was born at 7:37 pm, weighing 6 lbs 10 oz and 19 inches long. Which  is rather big for a 36 week baby. I truly thought she'd be in the 5 lb range. She surprised us all. The doctor told us that if she had waited much longer to come, they would have had to do a c-section. I completely agreed with Tyler later when he said that she simply ran out of room, so she clawed her way out. Her nose was so smashed, it was literally flat against her face accompanied by a massive cone head with plenty of bruising, poor thing looked like she'd been through the ringer.

As they laid her on my chest I could tell she wasn't breathing right. I only got to hold her for a few seconds before they took her away. After looking her over, weighing her etc. they decided she needed to spend an hour or so in the NICU. She came out with the cord wrapped pretty tightly around her neck. So between that and being early, she was having a hard time filling her lungs with air completely. They assured me everything would be fine (that didn't stop me from worrying) and that I could come see her soon. After I was able to get up and move to a wheel chair, they let me stop by the NICU on the way down to Mother Baby. When I got there she was hooked up to a CPAP machine (blows air from your nose into your lungs) with a tube down her throat. She looked miserable and she was clearly not happy. She had a bunch of nurses surrounding her trying to start an IV. Poor girl had poke marks all over her body. They let me look at her for a little bit before they said I needed to go get checked in at Mother Baby and she needed to stay a little longer. She had already been there for 2 hours and I was hoping she could go with me to Mother Baby. I was heart broken as we left, but held back the tears until I got to my room. This wasn't what I had imagined at all. I thought I'd get to love and cuddle her from the minute she came out. I was grateful she was getting what she needed, I just couldn't stand the fact that I had to leave her and couldn't be by her side every minute. They kept promising she'd get to leave the NICU soon, but it kept getting pushed back. When they finally did release her, I thought I'd see her in a matter of minutes, but it was another hour and a half because of the stop she had to make at the nursery. Tyler finally got to bring her to me at 12:30 am. Those 5 hours had dragged on and on. I was so happy when I finally got to hold and kiss her.

We had lots of family that came to see her and it was so nice when we all finally got to oooh and ahhh over her. I didn't sleep or put her down the rest of the night. I now have the greatest respect and empathy for anyone who has to leave their baby in the NICU. Those few hours away from her were so difficult, I can't imagine how hard it would be if that lasted for days, weeks or even months.

Poor bruised head and smashed nose.

This was on her little hospital bed :(

 With her NICU adventure behind her, she was healthy as could be and problem free. Two days later we came home. We absolutely adore her. I'm positive no other baby gets kissed as much as she does. She tolerates it really well, probably because she has to. The past 5 weeks have been amazing. I won't lie, I did reach a level of tired that actually brought me to tears, but it's all been worth it. She is the sweetest and most easy going baby. We just adore her and love being parents!

  

*Thank you to my little sister for being apart of this and taking these pics!