Saturday, May 2, 2009

Laura Munk, May 1, 6 lbs 7 oz











I went to the hospital on Thursday for a routine fetal NST monitoring appointment. During my visit, the nurse found that Laura had an irregular heart beat pattern, so she transfered me over to labor & delivery to be examined by a doctor. After 4 hours of monitoring and an IV stuck in my arm (I still don't know what the point of that was), they sent us home saying that everything seemed to be okay and telling us to come back the next morning for more monitoring. After being stressed out all night about the health of our baby, we called our doctor Friday morning and asked if we could be induced. She fit us in at 1:30pm. So yesterday morning we cleaned our house, packed our bags, rented a couple of movies, and left for the hospital to have our baby.

They started me on pitocin and after several hours of painless contractions, they broke my water to help speed along the process. This was followed by an epidural. That was the best thing that has ever happened to me. Don't ask me why some women choose to go natural. I was perfectly relaxed and calm and we spent the next several hours of labor hanging out with Peter's family in our room. I was so relaxed that Peter was even allowed to watch a basketball game, which I never would have imagined my husband would be doing while I was in labor!

By 10pm, the family was getting tired and the end still seemed several hours away. I was dialated to a 4 and 80 percent effaced. The nurse guessed the baby would be born sometime around 5am, so the family took off with plans to come back in the morning when things heated up. Meanwhile, Peter and I got ready to take a nap and rest up for labor. Around 10:15 the nurse came in to check and see how things were progressing and, much to her surprise, as well as ours, I was dialated to a 10. She called the doctor in and we were told it was time to start pushing. It seemed like up until this point, labor was way too easy, but I figured the pushing would make up for it. They told me that lots of first time mothers push for 1 to 2 hours. But, once again, things were way easier than expected. After 9 or 10 pushes, and no more than 10 minutes, the doctor said, "Push really hard on this next contraction and you are going to have a baby."

And that is exacty what happened. It's a good thing that it was over so quickly because Peter almost didn't make it. He was holding one of my legs and everytime I looked over at him his face was turned towards the back wall and he looked like he was going to faint. Not really the encouragement I was looking for from my labor partner.

So with in 10 hours of checking into the hospital we were blessed with a beautiful and healthy baby girl with brown fuzzy hair and the cutest nose I've ever seen. Since then she has continued to be the perfect baby and is nursing well and sleeping lots.

Thank you all for your prayers and

6 comments:

Chelsea said...

Oh my how I love that picture of her clutching onto the side of the scale while screaming.....so cute!

Your labor sounds like a dream. I'm glad she's nursing well. That was the hardest part for me. She is absolutely adorable, and I LOVE her fuzzy hair. Sooo cute!

Unknown said...

YEAH! Congrats! I'm so happy for you, what a darling baby, and a wonderful delivery! YEAH!

Tom and Jen Loveland Family said...

Congrats! So glad things went well. Hope they continue to. Your labor and delivery sound a lot like how mine have gone. Nice. :)And what a BEAUTIFUL little girl you have!

Life is Full of Adventures! said...

Congrats! She is beautiful!

blindblogger said...

Congratuatations Candace! She is beautiful.

Tania Gisele Flores said...

Iporaterie la nde memby che amiga!!!
Estoy tan feliz por vos y tu familia. Espero siempre seas muy feliz y que Laura les llene el corazon de esperanza y fortaleza.
Te extraño... Es triste no poder compartir momentos de la vida como este, pero que bueno que siempre podemos saber una de la otra.
Cherohayhu terei.