I Couldn't Ask For More

With a little prompting, Scarlett Hope entered the world on Monday, September 1st. I had been somewhat nervous about this labor and delivery since I felt like Grayson's was so easy, but it seems that my nerves were just a waste of energy since Scarlett arrived just as easily as her big brother, if not more so.

My last belly pictures before going to the hospital on Sunday evening (8/31/08).

Getting settled in at the hospital Sunday evening. The nurse inserted the Cervadil around 8pm, and once that was in we just hung out for the rest of the evening.
Getting ready to walk around Monday morning. The cervadil was removed around 6am, and after showering and having a small snack I got my IV at 6:45 and had Pitocin started just an hour later.

The strength of the Pitocin was increased every 40-60 minutes, and by 11:30am I was contracting every 3 minutes. The doctor came in at 11:45 and broke my water, and by 12:30 the contractions were coming every 2 minutes and lasting close to a minute. I was still working through the contractions pretty well at that point, but the nurse went ahead and put the call in for the anesthesiologist since she didn't know how long it would take for him to get to me. The epidural was in place by 1:00pm, and I was able to rest for a (very) short while.

Shortly after 2:00pm the nurse checked me and I was 5-6 cm dilated and completely thinned out. She told me to let her know if I felt any "pressure" and she would come back and check me again. Not thinking anything would happen for awhile, Nate and I settled in with a movie. I started feeling something happen around 2:40 so I called the nurse back in. She checked me and very quickly said, "Don't sneeze or cough. I have to call the Dr." I had dilated 4-5 cm in about 35 minutes. The doctor walked into the room at 2:58 and after 2 or 3 pushes, Scarlett was born at 3:02pm

Our very first thought was how tiny Scarlett was. The doctor had thought she would be a little bit bigger than Gray (7lbs, 9 oz), but she was only 6lbs, 15oz. She came out screaming and kept screaming for the next 45 minutes. ;)



Scarlett's Apgars were 8 & 9, and the only problem she had was getting her body temperature where it needed to be. She spent a little bit of time under the warmer, but after that and some skin-to-skin contact, she seemed to be fine.

After spending some time cuddling and nursing, we were moved over to our Post-Partum room and got settled pretty quickly.

This was a wonderful experience and I honestly couldn't have asked for anything more. Welcome to the world Scarlett!