Birth Story

Hi there fans.  Sorry for the hiatus in posts...I had a baby.  Big surprise. 

So I'm going to start this out by saying duh me...

When we had our ultra sound to find out the gender of our baby U2, the technician said that from the size of her, the due date was going to get put at Sept 23.  However, our dates that determine when we got pregnant were fool proof...only one cycle from breast feeding to positive pregnancy test....not much room for error...so we stuck with the due date of Sept 11....silly me...she came out on the 23rd....so 12 days late? or on time...you decide...her records will always say 12 days late....was it really late, or just me hoping to have her out sooner than later?

We got home from San Diego all ready to have baby U2...time came and went.  Due date came, Jake's parents came, we went hiking a few times trying to encourage her to come out...to no avail. We went to Cafe Trio for their labor inducing pizza (lots of roasted garlic...) Didn't work.  Ate pineapple, drank red raspberry leaf tea, took some evening primrose, and even a few doses of black and blue cohosh...nothing was getting this girl going.  Mike and Mary's trip came and went.  Jake and I toyed with the idea of inducing her before the Ulasich's had to go home...but in the end really wanted to go into labor naturally.

Time kept ticking away, Jojo and Sarah's wedding reception came and went.  That was fun having everyone ask me when I was going to have that baby...really people?..haha...every night I went to bed hoping I'd wake up with contractions....still nothing to get excited about.  We had a non stress test...everything was looking fine on the inside..but because when you are over 41 weeks, the placenta can go bad...I was getting a little nervous.  We decided to schedule the induction with the advice of the midwife.  We wanted it for friday the 23rd, but they were full so we opted for the Thursday before.  I didn't want to wait through another weekend...too much mental stress.

So at 730am on 9/22 we got the call to come into the hospital for induction at 9am. We delivered at IMC with the midwives (LOVED IT! Highly recommend.)

  I called my Terri mom....Vickie mom had flown in that Tuesday so she came with us, I called Melissa B to come up to the hospital...Betty M THANKFULLY was able to stay with Emmaus...and we were off.  Once we got settled into the room and the midwife came in to check me out I was expecting things to get going quickly and we'd have U2 in our arms in no time....not so much.  When the midwife did the first check to see how far I was...I was still barely at a 1...not even all the way through ....grrr...some of the other midwives had said I was at a 1 for like a week,and the last appointment  had said I was 1 and a wiggle...I have never been so happy to hear I was a wiggle..but that wiggle apparently went away over night..SO

Next step was to take Cytotech..(not sure how to spell that.)  Cervical ripener...a little pill that I had to keep in my mouth till it disolved...So I sat in bed, walked around a little bit..I was hooked up to a fetal monitor..if I remember correctly...so jake and I were walking around together, he was holding the monitor around his neck...it was quite adorable.

After 4 doses (I think..) and 24 hours later we were finally 100% effaced...and at a 2.  I didn't think that was much progress for 24 hours and I had my break down and started crying and losing it...sigh.  Midwife came in to break my water..tough little thing it was too..again. no surprise (gma's water never broke naturally, neither did moms, nor did we with emmaus.)  They started the Pitocin and we were off...NO epidural!

On came the more severe contractions....I think serious labor went on for about 6 hours.  We were in every position imaginable....nothing was really doing it for me...hands and knees...on my side, in the tub, with the pole...I had someone pushing on my back the entire time..thanks again everyone..sometimes it helped me get through the contractions sometimes it didn't...I couldn't figure out what was working...I'm sure everyone was getting frustrated with me...but they only showed me love....such a great group of peeps..including the nurses.  Couldn't have done it without them.

The midwives were extremely busy that day...tons of induction/labors...so another midwife who wasn't supposed to be on the floor walked into my room...just in time.  We were struggling trying to get into a position that would work and she very calmly says have you tried....yadayadayada...I didn't care which position it was, I just wanted help!! So she had me sit up in the bed...it converted into what I like to call a throne..I was sitting up, and the midwife pushed on my knees so that my back was flush up against the bed...it's hard to explain...point being..the pain seemed to miraculously go away...it was amazing.  I went from freaking out to being able to breath through the contractions...it was magic! Praise God for Ida walking in when she did.

From there on out..things went well...then an hour of pushing...and out came Imogen Silver Leigh Ulasich!  (Her name origin...We had 2 names picked out...Imogen Leigh and Silver Joy.  I knew Jake would have a very hard time not picking Imogen...so close to delivery date I had an idea to add Silver as a second middle name since we are done having kids...he agreed and there it was.  We got Imogen primarily Imogen Heap..she's a british musician that we both like a lot...from the band Frou Frou..perhaps you heard them on the Garden State soundtrack...then I found out that Imogen is also a Shakespearian princess from the play Cymbeline...and a photographer, and an actor I think...and the aunt in the newest Alice in wonderland..which makes me think the character is in the book, and someone told me it was Julia Stiles characters name in a movie ...Down to you..or something like that with Freddy Prince...and it's the name of a British war ship...so not as obscure as Emmaus...we like it. and I said her name to her today (11/3) and she smiled..hehe...me think she likes it too.)

4:09 pm on Sept 23, 2011.  She was breathing and they handed her to me immediately.  The chord was a little short, someone was pulling on it...and after all that pain of pushing etc...that is the most memorable pain...the tugging of the chord before it had been cut...haha. (Jake cut the chord.)  My placenta was HUGE...I won't post the picture, but it was like 10 lbs...I'd say like 12 inches long and 6 to 8 inches wide...crazy huge.  Imogen got cleaned up 7.14.5 lbs 21 inches...just .5 oz. off from her brother...someone told us 7.15 so that is what we announced, and I wasn't going to correct it over .5 oz anyway...so we'll just say they were the same. 

When she came out she was wide eyed and looking around, she latched after they had her all weighed and measured, that was amazing...we didn't get to hold emmaus until a few days after he was born due to the whole NICU thing.

The rest was normal...went to the post-pardum department, got woken up every few hours by the nurses and the baby to feed..Emmaus came up that night to meet his sister wearing his awesome big brother scrubs I bought for him.  He seemed to love her immediately.  And he seemed to understand that sister was no longer in mama's tummy but that sister was now, this baby.  I thought that was cool. 

anything I left out?...if you have any questions let me know.

Our family is complete, all is healthy happy a little sleep deprived, but we'll get over that. Thanks for reading my novella, I look forward to posting more about life and the various goings on with me...

as always...