Our Zelie Mae’s first birthday has officially come and gone! And just like her brothers, I cannot believe it! How is she ONE?!! How is she now considered a toddler?!! I swear it was just yesterday that she was placed on my chest for the very first time and I snuggled her close. Time really does go by too fast, but in hopes of soaking up every moment, I thought I would recap her grand debut.
First of all, Zelie was our first baby where we found out the gender before D-day. I grew very impatient with already having two boys, a husband who came from a family of five boys, and a mom who is a sonographer. It just made sense for us to find out the gender, and for my mom to be the one to deliver the news. My mom did an ultrasound and then when we got back to my parents’ place, we did a “legit” gender reveal. **Side note: I still look at her in awe. I cannot believe we have a daughter! I was so prepared to see blue :-).
Sorry for the detour. Ok, so we knew we were having a girl and as excited as I was for her to make her entrance, that knowledge brought about a peace in me that I didn’t have with my first two pregnancies (9 months is a long time to go wondering what your baby is). However, starting at 37 weeks I was feeling pressure, or rather excitement, from my doctor. She even offered to induce me around 39 weeks. But like I said, I had this sense of peace and wasn’t in any (super) rush to get things going. That’s not to say that I wasn’t eating all the pineapple I could find, constantly drinking raspberry tea, and “spicing” up every meal. But, I knew baby would come when she was good and ready. (Oh and my husband was in the middle of taking finals…)
So Monday, March 19th was the official start of my husband’s Spring Break. We went to the gym and put in some work on the treadmill before heading home for lunch and quiet time. We went for a walk to the closest park and then made our way home for dinner. I decided I was going to treat myself to wine, which I NEVER did in any of my pregnancies, and even joked to Mike, “watch, now I will go into labor and they’ll ask me if I had anything to drink haha.” Sure enough, we cleaned up dinner and did family prayers in William’s room. I decided I was going to lie on the bed instead of kneeling (which again never happens, but I was almost 40 weeks pregnant) and as I jumped up to get off his bed I felt a movement of liquid. I ran into the bathroom and between my husband and myself we decided it was best to get the on-call doctor on the phone to see if we should go to the hospital—we were pretty sure it was my water, but thought it was best to call the doctor to make sure. Since we were close to our due date, she told us it sounded like my water and to come on in. This was another Godsend (the first being Mike was officially on a 2-week spring break) because my brother and his fiancé lived about 45 minutes away from us and the plan was to have them stay with the boys when we had baby. So, once they got to our place, we went into Will’s room and told him his aunt and uncle were going to be staying with him and his brother because we were going to have his little sister that night. He wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but he was still so excited. It was so sweet.
My brother drove us to the hospital and dropped us off (which seemed as bizarre at it sounds) because they did not have a car and needed car seats for the boys. We checked in, told the front desk my water broke and walked into our labor and delivery room. SO DIFFERENT from my first two deliveries where I was walking/ waddling in the midst of super painful contraction
We got to our room around 9:30/10:00pm and the resident came in and told us she was gong to check that my water did in fact break. They asked me if I wanted to continue naturally or to go on Pitocin. My natural inclination is to go naturally, but considering the time and the fact that it was closing in on my bedtime, I opted for Pitocin. My biggest hesitation was that I didn’t know how my body would react to it and I knew I wanted an unmedicated, natural birth (God-willing). Luckily, my water had broken, Z’s head was still down, and the Pitocin was starting to kick in. At this point, I had a feeling that things weren’t going to magically happen, so I told Mike he could sleep while I prayed to saints Zelie and Louis Martin, Saint Gerard, listened to Father Mike Schmitz’s podcast and also some of our favorite Christian music.
Around 12:30am, Mike woke up. Our doctor said she was too excited that she decided just to come to the hospital now–she was not on-call, but wanted to deliver our baby. So sweet of her, especially since she was a trooper during my whole pregnancy by dealing with our 2 toddlers running around and pushing random buttons during every appointment.
She checked me and I was around 7 cm. I think she was in shock because I was so calm and content. But trust me, I was having some very tough contractions. Honestly, the Holy Spirit was getting me through every single one. Side note: I really wanted to labor in a tub (highly recommend), but there was only one at this hospital and someone was already in that room—very hard on me mentally, but I didn’t let it get me down too much.
So, since Mike was awake and things were getting harder, we decided to start praying the rosary. I told Mike during a contraction he would have to take the lead because I didn’t think I would be able to talk. And I couldn’t, but praying to our lady gave me the strength I needed to keep going.
A little after 2 am, I was checked again because I knew I was starting to feel pressure and the pain was getting stronger and stronger. I knew I had to be close. They checked me and said I was an 8, which felt so defeating. When I told the resident I was feeling quite a bit of pressure, she assured me that there was still about an inch of cervix around the head…UGH! However looking back, I was definitely in “transition” because I knew I was feeling pressure and was having serious second thoughts about going all natural (which happened with Jack and was something I read about in Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth book). I told my husband how intense they were and how I was feeling significant pressure. He suggested that I switch positions and the nurse agreed that maybe standing would help with some of the discomfort.
I stood up and prayed through two more contractions before I felt a ton of pressure and knew things were different. I knew there was no time she was coming NOW! I literally jumped back into bed, and as I did this, our babe’s head popped out and with one more little push the rest of her came out into our nurse’s arms. She handed me our sweet baby girl as the doctor came in and let Mike cut the cord. I honestly felt so bad that she missed the whole thing! To be fair, she was also convinced that she wouldn’t have caught Zelie even if she were in the room. It was such a whirlwind.
The next couple hours, we snuggled and praised God for our newest little member. There was a part of me that still wasn’t convinced that the baby that popped out of me was going to be a girl. But here she is! Our little Zelie Mae! She is the happiest, sweetest babe and is exactly what we needed for our family! God is so good! Praise the Lord for sending this sweet little soul to us!
Sorry for all the ramblings! 27 weeks and counting! Pregnancy is awesome!
Running with Grace 