Birth Day + update

The story, the story. Here comes the story.

On Monday, March 1, my labor with Miss Marvel was induced. I was supposed to be there at 6:30 am, but my alarm didn't go off and I woke up 10 minutes after we were supposed to have left. I flipped out for about 2 minutes, then realized it really didn't matter that much. It wasn't like a surgery that I had to be punctual for. Plus, I had lost more than a few hours of sleep the night before in anticipation. My body needed the extra rest.

So we got to the hospital a little after 7, and they started me on the pitocin. Luckily I was already dilated to a 2 and almost completely effaced, so the pitocin took effect right away. After about an hour of steady and fairly strong contractions, I asked for the epidural. (I had thrown around the idea of going without one, but you've got to be one TOUGH broad to handle the pitocin sans epidural. Oh. Wait. I've DONE that. With Spiderman. It sucked. It sucked rocks. DON'T TRY IT.)

So I got the epidural and got much happier. Warm and tingly in my legs, and much less stressed otherwise. Doctor came in around 9 and broke my water.

Miss Marvel did great throughout almost the entire labor. She was moving the whole time. The nurse had to put a monitor on her head because we kept losing the heartbeat in her movements. I had to smile at her still moving all the time, thinking about what a little dancer she was. It was remembering that that made me finally decide to name her Aubrey. (If you don't know the song Aubrey by Bread, it's on my playlist. I set it to autoplay just for this, so sorry if you're not a fan of that.)

By the way, I had an AWESOME nurse. I decided to deliver at Orem Community Hospital because they're rated #1 in patient care in Utah. (I think. They're rated #1, but I'm not sure out of how many.) I'm so glad I went there. I had the best labor and delivery nurse yet. She was very thorough and attentive and good at putting me at ease. She explained everything she was doing and why she was doing it. She was fantastic. I highly recommend Orem Community. I stayed in the same room the entire time and took a relaxing bath in a jetted tub the 2nd day I was there.

So a few hours in, I had the epidural and was progressing nicely. By about 10 am I was dilated somewhere between a 3 and a 4. We (Superman, his mom, my mom and I) were starting to get bored, so I sent Superman to the closest Blockbuster to pick up the next episodes of Lost we were ready to watch. (Remember how we started watching it for the first time a few weeks ago?) We got through another 3 or 4 episodes during the labor.

I think around noon they turned off the pitocin. I was progressing well enough on my own, but Miss Marvel was starting to show some signs of distress. They turned it off, put me on oxygen for a little while, and her heart rate went back up immediately.

At 1:30 I was dilated to a 6. By 2:30, I was fully dilated and ready to push her out. But my doctor wasn't there. In fact, he had two other deliveries ahead of me. (Ironically, my OB is the one who convinced me to deliver at Orem Community over Utah Valley. But if I had gone to Utah Valley, I would've delivered sooner. One of the people ahead of me was there.) So he took care of that woman, then came to my hospital and delivered the other woman. Then he came to deliver Miss Marvel.

I think it was for the best, though, because it gave Miss Marvel an hour to stretch me out. For the first time, I didn't have to have an episiotomy, and I didn't even tear! WOO HOO!!!! I gave two good pushes once the doctor got there, then got nauseous. The doctor said my body would be pushing when I was throwing up, so just to puke then get right back to pushing. (He was really nice about it, though.) So that's what I did. But when I had to stop pushing to puke, Miss Marvel started to turn purple. I threw up then started to push again. The doctor reached in, put his hands around her head, interlaced his fingers around her neck and popped her out. (This info is according to Superman and my mom. I'm not one of those ladies who wants a mirror down there. No thank you.) Superman said he was really nervous when the doctor did that, but figured he was the professional and knew what he was doing.

Miss Marvel was really purple and not crying immediately. I remember being mildly alarmed at that. The doctor suctioned her out and she started crying and pinking up, which made me oh-so-happy. The nurses cleaned her up and did her APGAR stuff, then they got her right over to me. Miss Marvel and I cuddled skin-to-skin for a good 30 minutes. And she was just an angel. She didn't cry at all. She was just content for me to just hold and talk to her. It was a really special moment.


And guess what song was playing when she was born? I had the Glee soundtrack on, and by the time she arrived, "Somebody to Love" was on.

Now it's two weeks later. Miss Marvel had a stint in a light suitcase to get rid of some jaundice, but she was only in it one night. She's a great eater. Spiderman and the Hulk just adore her. They want to hold her and play peek-a-boo all the time. They are adjusting really well. The first week wasn't easy, but that was understandable. We had several changes all at once.

Hulk and Spiderman

My mom and grandma were here till Saturday morning. I am SO GLAD they were here. It was a huge help. Mom took more than one night shift for me, and now Miss Marvel's got her days and her nights straight. Well, she hasn't had awake periods the last few nights like before. I was able to nap almost every day, go to doctor appointments with ease, and have dinners for the next week and a half. They boys got out a LOT las week -- lots of playtime with Nana.

Hulk, Nana and Spiderman. If you're wondering, they're pretending the headbands are Indiana Jones's shoulder bag.

4 generations

So to sum up, we're doing GREAT. Really, really great. I'm still a little paranoid about taking Miss Marvel out, so we're as homebound as much as possible for the next week or so. Maybe. It snowed on Saturday, but the high is 60 on Wednesday. We might hit the park, depending on how crazy I've gone.

So what was it like for you other moms out there going from 2 to 3? I've heard it's the hardest. So far we're doing okay, but Miss Marvel's still sleeping a lot. Was it as hard as everyone says?


p.s. here are her newborn pics!!!!!