Puddle Jumping: Family Edition: June 2011

The Schillemats had a family get-together this weekend to celebrate my great grandmother's 100th birthday. The secret to my grandmother's longeavity? I think she would tell you that it was because she danced. She says she used to listen to music when she was a little girl out in the countryside and dance with her sister. She is quite a character, and quite an amazing woman. I am glad that Lucy knows her.

5 generations of "Schillemat" women

We also finally purchased a stroller, which Lucy seems to like. We have the rest of the summer to figure out how we are going to get all of this stuff back to Virginia. Lucy has accumulated quite a bit of gear in the last month.

Today I took Lucy to the doctors for her 1 month appointment. Before I tell you her stats, I would like to say how nice it was that she was in a good mood this morning. It was the first time just Lucy and I went out, and it went very well. I realize this will not always be the case, but it was thoughtful of her to help me transition into motherhood without a major meltdown. I felt so good about driving with her that we stopped at the store on the way home.

But onto the appointment. Lucy is now 9 lbs 12 oz, 22 inches long, and very healthy. This last week she had some rough patches with gas, but after talking to the doctor about some gas drops, I think we will be able to help her feel better. We are learning....

I thought I would share a little bit about my birth story since there were some who seemed interested. I wrote this a few days after the experience (on my birthday in fact) and I must say it is a little sappy and may be a little too much detail for some of you. Also excuse the poor writing technique. Take it as you may, this was my experience...

I guess it is time for me to write a little birth story. It is my birthday today, so I am going to take a little time to myself to write a little description of my experience of giving birth.

I would like to start back on the 21^st early in the morning. I woke up with twinges of contractions. They felt like cramps in my lower back and stomach, similar to menstrual cramps. They were about 10 minutes apart, and not terribly painful. Jimmy and I stayed in our room and I got up a few times to kind of push out some of the crampiness. I must admit it was making me a little bit excited because I knew that this was something different than Braxton Hicks contractions, i.e. they hurt a little bit more than general tension. The contractions started around 2:00am and ended around 5am. I knew this because I feel asleep without much problem.

We lazed around most of the rest of the day, I felt slight contractions, but still nothing terribly painful. At 4:00 pm I called the doctor mostly as an opinion because we were heading out to my cousins wedding and didn’t want to go into labor while there. The doctor said I had probably had some false labor and that I should just be aware of the signs. We went to the wedding, ate WAY too much candy, and headed home around 9:00 pm. We went to bed anticipating another round of false labor.

At 1:30-2:00 am the contractions started up again. Jimmy thought it might be nice to walk them out a little bit more, so we moved down stairs and turned on a movie. During the contractions I would walk back and forth in the living room and do some stretches on the birthing ball. It was at 3:30 am, about 30 minutes into the movie (The Princess and the Frog...in case you were wondering) and half way through a contraction, that a very unfamiliar but knowing important gush occurred. According to Jimmy my eyes kind of lept out of my face. My water had broken. But it didn’t break and stop, it gushed two more times while we were still at home and continued in the hospital. Jimmy called the hospital and they advised we make our way to the hospital.

I cleaned up the best I could, grabbed our hospital bag and we headed to the hospital around 4:30 am. I remember commenting about how great it was that there was no traffic to make Jimmy or me anxious. We arrived at the hospital around 5am, and parked in the garage since I still felt well enough to walk. We walked in and the 1^st nurse had me change and prepare to be initially checked. Mini Coop at the time was being a little bit fussy in womb, and her heart rate went way down, and the nurse within 15 minutes of the hospital suggested two changes to our birth plan. First was constant monitoring, but thankfully they had wireless connections so that alleviated my concern of being confined a bed for labor. The second was that the baby would have to be suctioned before she could be put on my chest. She had swallowed muconeum because she was seemingly stressed.

I guess that I was also a little disappointed because they hooked up an IV right away but thankfully it was short-lived and was changed to a saline block for most of the pregnancy. Yes, I worked hard to stay hydrated!

The next 24 hours were a blur of contractions that ranged from 4-10 minutes apart. I went through 4 different nurses which all did a relatively good job of keeping me moving. I even had the opportunity to use the tub, which flooded while I was having a contraction. It was humorous mostly because Jimmy didn’t even notice. Did I mention how wonderful it was to have both Jimmy and my mom helping me throughout the entire process? Not to mention Karen, who waited outside in the waiting room throughout most of the process. I felt much loved. The second to last nurse helped me into several labor positions to ease the baby down, and even reminded me a breathing technique that kept me from hyperventilating and throwing up.

After 24 hours, the nurse checked me again and I went from 3-3.5 centimeters. Not much at all. She said the baby had moved down, but because I was getting tired, my uterus was having a hard time contracting and everything was slowing down. This was a very difficult thing to hear. I am pretty sure throughout the next contraction I was crying only because I felt like I had done so much and achieved so little. It was then that I looked at Jimmy for some guidance. I had hoped to have a purely natural childbirth, but little mini coop wasn’t coming very quickly and my body wasn’t helping. So we asked the nurse for some advice and she suggested a drug to help take the edge off the pain, and then use pitocin to regulate the contractions. After praying with Jimmy we decided it was the right thing to do. I was exhausted and I needed something to give me hope that I could finish the process that I started. I still feel a little upset that I didn’t do it exactly as I had planned, but I acknowledge that it was the right thing for me.

After the nurse administered the pain medication I was able to rest through some manageable contractions. Jimmy also slept while my mom helped me breathe through the little pain I was feeling at the time. About an hour later the pitocin kicked in and thus began the regulated contractions with the normal amount of pain again. They hurt, but they had purpose, and that made me happy. The only strange part of the labor at this point was that I was literally falling asleep during my contractions. So for 2 minutes between a contraction I would rest. Strange but true. In the final hours of labor I was switched to one final nurse, who was sweet and very understanding. I was getting close and I knew it, and when she checked me I was 6 centimeters, but very low and well on my way to having the baby.

Through more contractions and a regulated breathing technique I was checked again. I had begun to feel the urge to push, and wanted the nurse to see how close I was. I didn’t have to say anything, she just knew to check. I was 9.5 centimeters, still not time to push. Through every contraction I screamed that I wanted to push. Jimmy, my mom and the nurse urged me to breathe through the pain. It was extremely hard. It was amazing to me, from start to finish, how much of a voice I seemed to have. Meaning, I really did know how to express my pain. Jimmy said he had to leave a few times, just because I was in pain. He really was the most amazing support person.

When I was told I could push, there are no words to describe the relief I felt. I knew that now I would have purpose. With every push I was getting closer to seeing my baby. It took 45 minutes for our dear mini coop to arrive. The doctor, now the second one I had seen, even had me feel the head as I was pushing. Yes, I could feel the head. Jimmy watched the whole thing, although there really was now way he couldn’t avoid it. There were no shields. With some pretty major burning, finally mini coop emerged from by body and was carried away to be suctioned. As soon as they were done they put her on my chest for the magical skin-on-skin. It was amazing. Within a few minutes she even started to nurse.

Those moments were unreal and undeniably imprinted in my mind. I am not sure I will ever forget holding her for the first time. After the in and out of several nurses and my mom, Jimmy and I had a moment to discuss the name of our firstborn child. We had talked about both Susan and Lucy. We liked them both. In the end we chose Lucy with the middle name Pearl. I think it suits her quite nicely. She is the most amazing gift I have every received and I am indebted to Heavenly Father for entrusting me with this honor and responsibility.

To finish this account I was to honor my husband Jimmy and my mother Kathy. When I think about the word support I think about them. There were times I was walking down the halls or sitting in bed, that I didn’t think I would be able to finish was seemed an almost insurmountable task. I knew that ultimately the baby would come out, but in all fairness when one is in pain, it doesn’t seem that way. Jimmy is an amazing husband. He cares for me in the most subtle and important ways. He never left unless I said he could leave, he never stopped caring for me. There was even a moment when I asked him how he was doing, and no one could believe it. It was because he deserved every bit of credit that I received. I would not have had this baby so successfully without him.

And that was how little miss Lucy Pearl Cooprider entered the world and joined our humble family.

Lucy is a keeper, beautiful and healthy and a wonderful addition to our family.