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Birth Stories

Julia Grace

I am pleased to report that on Sunday morning, October 21st at 6:44am we welcomed a baby girl into the world!! Her name is Julia Grace ("Gracie"), she weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces and measured 21" in length. She is beautiful and we have been enjoying every minute of our new responsibilities as her parents!!

My labor was different than what I had expected but all worth it in the end. The first labor sign I noticed was some dull but consistent back pain starting Saturday morning. By about 4pm that afternoon the pain had crawled around to my lower belly, as well. And by 11pm my contractions were 4 minutes apart and over one minute in length and we were on our way to the hospital.

Much of my labor was back labor (poor Gracie was stuck on my tail bone) so I spent several hours on the birth ball, in the shower, and practicing my breathing. My doula and husband were tremendously supportive throughout -- they counted through my contractions, held my hand, and applied pressure to all the right areas. When the back pain became too strong I requested an epidural only to find out that the anesthesiologist was in the OR and would not be available for another hour (yikes!). He finally came in at about 4pm and I was comfortably resting by about 4:30pm. At that point my contractions slowed quite a bit and the doctor became concerned about the fact that the baby's heart rate was starting to level rather than bouncing around -- an indication that she was starting to get very very tired when I still had a long way to go. After some careful observation, the team recommended that we go in and get her so at about 6am I was on my way to the OR ... a tough pill to swallow after a long night of tough labor. We have since learned that two of Gracie's soft spots had prematurely fused in utero so no wonder she was stuck, her head was not able to mold and shape to my birth canal ... unfortunately, a vaginal birth was not in the cards for me. In any event, the surgery went fairly quickly and before I knew it, I could hear her test those strong lungs (a sound I am all too familiar with at this point :). By 7:30am or so I was able to feed her and was thrilled to learn that we connected instantly and we have both been enjoying the experience of nursing ever since!

Her two-week birthday is tomorrow and I just cannot believe how quickly the time has gone -- she is already growing up too fast! Please send my best to the girls and let them know that I look forward to bringing her into a mommy and me class as soon as we're up and about.

Best,
Jennie

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