Betsy's birth story

Some may not be interested in reading this, but since this is our family journal, I'm writing this mostly for me. I loved going back and reading Tristan's birth story, and I personally love hearing other people's birth stories. Miss Betsy's story is pretty simple. Round two was definitely a lot easier because I knew what to expect and I hear that the second time is easier for most people anyways.

Week 38 of pregnancy, I went into Dr. Dao (a Tuesday) and had my membranes stripped. I did the same thing with Tristan on the same week, and he was born the following day, so I was ready for this little girl to come soon! Bags were packed. Christian's mom came into town to help with Tristan (thank you thank you!!!). We thought this would be a safe week to come because baby was going to be here. A whole week went by, Christian's mom had come and gone, and no baby. I was getting so frustrated! And doctors should never tell their very pregnant patients that their baby might come 'tonight'. It only makes it harder as you wait and wait and wait for them to come. Anyways, the following Tuesday I told him to strip those dang membranes again. I'd pretty much given up and went into 'whatever' mode. I thought that she set up camp inside to live forever. It's funny because it was only a week and I was dying. The longest week of my life. But Dr. Dao said that baby had dropped and was in position ready to go, so as soon as I felt stronger contractions, even 7-10 minutes apart we should come in. He kept saying, "When it happens, it's going to happen fast..." So we were anxious.

At 12:30 in the morning on Wednesday, the 27th, (one day after the second stripping) I began to feel heavy cramping as I laid in bed. Now these were a lot stronger than the braxtons. I recognized these labor cramps, and I knew that I needed to get to the hospital. I woke up Christian and said that these pains were real and that we should head over there now. Contractions became more consistent. We called our friend Zach to come over quick and stay with Tristan while he sleeps. We checked in at the hospital, contractions were getting stronger and faster. As soon as I was in the delivery room, the pain was unbearable. I was at 5 cm and I requested my epidural. Anesthesiologist arrived quickly and did a great job with the epidural. The only problem was, my contractions were happening so fast and they were so strong, that the epidural wasn't keeping up with them. He didn't realize how fast I was progressing so he had to give me a stronger dose a few times. My contractions were back to back now, with maybe a minute in between to rest, and I could feel it all! Christian's fingers almost broke off as I squeezed his hand. This all happened within an hour and half of being there. They checked me and I was already at 10 cm and fully effaced. Finally the epidural kicked in and I was able to relax. They told me to rest a little while the baby made her way down so that pushing would be easier. Was nice to rest for a little with Christian.

Forty five minutes later, the nurse did a test push on me, and then told me to stop immediately because the baby's head was right there. She called Dr. Dao to come and we were ready to start pushing. Ten minutes later, baby girl was here! Piece of cake compared to pushing for two hours with Tristan! Baby's little cry was so sweet. They took her and weighed her and cleaned her. She was whining the whole time. When they brought her over to me, she immediately stopped crying. I loved that the sound of my voice comforted her.

Hospital stay was nice. Nurses were great. The pediatrician wanted her to stay in the hospital two more additional nights because he was concerned about her red, swollen eye lid. They put her on antibiotics and wanted to monitor her in the nursery for the next couple of nights. Turned out that the red eye was just from birth trauma and it should be just fine. We ended up naming her Betsy Talei (pronounced Tah-lay) on our last day at the hospital. It suits her well. She definitely looks like a little Betsy. We are so excited for our new addition to the family and look forward to watching her grow. She is such a sweetheart and we have already fallen in love with this girl.