our girl is here!

her entrance into the world could not have happened more unexpectedly. we were scheduled for our induction at 5 am, so we put benson to bed at my parent's house, just in case we were able to get in early, we didn't want to have to wake up benson. when i called at 4, they said they didn't have room and to call back around 8 or 9. when i called back, they said they still didn't have a room, but were, "hoping to get me in real soon!" whatever that means, haha. so mat and i hung out at home, then decided to grab lunch. i had a melt down over not being able to agree on where to eat (hormones, am i right?), and we finally ended up at ned's. i told mat that we had some paperwork to fill out once we got to the hospital, so maybe if we just casually dropped by to get the paperwork done, they'd magically have a room for us haha. worked like a charm! we got to the hospital around 1:00, got all the paperwork done, and they got us back.

i always imagined that getting induced meant you got there, got dressed in that gorgeous hospital gown, and immediately got hooked up to the IV, but it actually takes a loooooong time to get to the IV part haha. i was officially hooked up at 2:52. at that point, i was 4 cm dilated and still 90% effaced. my nurse was awesome. i was group b positive, so i needed to get at least 4 hours worth of penicillin through my IV in order to give birth and not have to stay and extra 24 hours to make sure the baby didn't contract the group b. so she said that by 7 pm i could have my baby, and she was determined to see that baby be born! i wish she had been my nurse for the delivery, but unfortunately we lasted past the 7 pm shift change.

around 6:30, dr layton came in and broke my water. at this point i was receiving the highest dose of pitocin i could, but contractions hadn't picked up at all, and i believe i was still at a 4. immediately after my water broke, the contractions started to pick up. i decided i should probably get my epidural, because i didn't want to wait too long and be in excruciating amounts of pain. i got a new nurse, and she wanted to get more fluid through my IV before getting the epidural, so it was probably about an hour before she let the anesthesiologist know i was ready. by then, my contractions were ROUGH. it took another 20 or so minutes for the anesthesiologist to come in. he prepped me, then waited for a contraction to pass before getting started. for some reason my nurse placed mat in a seat next to her, and she stood in front of me while i was getting the epidural, and had us like, forehead to forehead haha. it was a little weird, and i would have preferred to have mat in front of me instead of just holding my hand, but oh well.

oh. my. gosh. apparently i am really hard to place an epidural on! everytime he started threading the catheter down my spine, he'd hit this spot right at the top of my hips and ZING! a pain would shoot from my spine straight across to the right. i swear he hit it like 10 times trying to get it placed right. he started over after he couldn't get the catheter centered from the first spot. during all of this, my contractions just kept coming and they kept getting worst and worst. i could not believe the pain i was in. my nurse gave me a pillow to hunch myself over, but there was no effing way i was doing that haha i just pushed my back out as much as i could. but during those contractions, i was squeezing mat's hand, squeezing my leg, clenching my teeth. i cried, i whimpered, i made noises and did things that i have never pictured myself doing, bc i've never been in that much pain before. all the while, i kept having to answer, "left? center? right?" mat was watching the monitor, and any time a contraction would peak and start coming down, he'd say something like, "alright, it's coming down." i knew he was just trying to help, but it just made me want to punch him haha bc it always took a little longer for the contraction to release and to feel any relief on my end. i now understand why you hear stories of women yelling obscenities at their husbands during labor! towards the end of getting my epidural placed, the contractions started getting lower and i could feel them in my pubic bone/tailbone area. but they finally got it placed, got the test dose in, and let me lay back down.

the medication started kicking in and the next contraction i could still feel, but it wasn't near as intense as the last one, so i knew we were on the right track. the nurse let me lay flat for a minute or two to let the medicine start to settle and take effect. in the mean time, i found out that while i was getting my epidural placed, mat was experiencing contractions of his own, only they were diarrhea cramps! hahaha i was dying when he told me, but it explained his facial expression the one time i looked at his face when i was getting the epidural. i told him to go to the bathroom, so he left the room as the nurse was coming back to place the catheter and check me. as she was down there she goes, "hm. where'd your husband go?" and when i told her he went to the bathroom, she went, "okay. well her head is right there. you're about to have this baby. i'm gonna go call dr. layton." at this point it was 8:30, so just to recap, i went from a 4 to a 10 in 2 hours with no pain relief. no wonder those contractions sucked so bad!

i called mat to come back, and shortly after dr layton showed up and started prepping everything. as soon as i put my feet in the stirrups i could feel her move down and start crowning. i pushed 3 times. that's it! 3 pushes. after the first one or second one mat goes, "huh, there she is." then after the third, they put her on my chest, and it was done! i could not believe it. they wiped her off and cleared her airways as she laid on me, but she didn't cry much. she'd let out a couple good cries every 30 seconds or so, but otherwise she was so relaxed. so chunky, and so relaxed. after a couple minutes, mat cut the cord, and then she was wrapped up. i did the "golden hour" or "undisturbed first hour", where they hold off on any tests and just let the baby and mom do skin to skin for an hour. within 10 mins, she starting rooting, so i let her nurse. it took a few minutes for her to figure out how to latch, but she got it quick! it was amazing. she was so alert and so calm. her blood sugar was a little low in the beginning, so i would nurse her then follow it up with some formula, just to make sure she was getting enough food. her sugars stabilized right after that.

this entire experience blew my mind. my labor dragged on and on with benson, pushing dragged on and on, and once he arrived, recovery dragged on. we were in the hospital for 3 days with bens. this time we left right after the 24 hour mark. everything with benson was so hazy. i felt so alert and aware of everything this time. all my fears were calmed. and as it turns out, i could totally do an unmedicated birth! although i'll be honest, i don't know if i want to haha. granted, this labor/delivery went pretty quick, 6 hours from beginning to end, so we might not have time for an epidural next time. had they checked me before the anesthesiologist got started on my epidural, they probably would have told me it was too late haha.

perry is named after her dad - parry is mat's middle name. we decided to spell it with an E instead of an A because it looked more feminine to us. apparently Parry comes from the hill side of the family, but there is a Perry on the mckinnon side, so she gets to be the namesake for both sides of the family, but especially her dad. we are so in love with this little slice of heaven.

Perry Lane Shaker

November 14, 2016

8:56 PM

9 lbs, 7 oz, 21 in long