Thanks for stopping by our little corner of the blog world! Austin and I plan on using this blog to write down Zia's story and post lots of pictures of her. :) Thanks for reading!
Zia's Birth Story....
(Disclaimer: I'm warning you in advance, this post has lots of parenthesis! I just wanted to make sure I got all the little details. There are no scary, icky pictures, though! They only nakedness you'll see is Zia's.)
On April 10, 2013, Austin and I went to school just like any other day. We were running pretty late, so we walked from free parking to the school as fast as my 39-weeks-pregnant body could handle. Austin kept telling me to slow down (or I might go into labor), but I hate being late to school and kept at it. At that point, we were both pretty ready for Zia to come anyway. My contractions started soon after that and were stronger than the Braxton-Hicks contractions I'd been having since week 20 or so.
I kept on having contractions every so often throughout the day, but I finished my classes and even went to volunteer at a local literacy center to check off some volunteer hours for my anthropology class. (Remind me to never take 16 credits while being hugely pregnant.) I also went to my last midwife appointment. Zia's heart rate dropped for just long enough to worry the midwife, so we settled in to have a non-stress test done. My contractions were probably between 15 and 30 minutes apart at that point, but Zia's heart rate stayed up just fine, and we were free to go. Unfortunately, I had also lost a pound since my last checkup, so they told me to keep eating a lot! The funny thing is, I had been eating a milk shake almost every day due to the "prescription" one of the midwives had given me the week before to help get my calories up. I'm not sure how I lost weight, but I treated myself to a yummy chicken sandwich, fries, and a shake after that.
A few hours later, my contractions reached 10 to 15 minutes apart, and I decided to get a hold of the on-call midwife to see when I should go in to the hospital. She recommended waiting until the contractions were 3 to 4 minutes apart, since it's a lot more likely you won't get an epidural if you do most of your laboring at home (which is what I wanted). She basically told me that it could take a few hours or a few days to get to that point. (Isn't labor so predictable?) I finished packing my hospital bag, just in case things got going sooner rather than later. Austin got home around 10:00, and he finished packing up his portion of the bag and got really excited! He couldn't believe I hadn't called him and told him to come home, but I told him we still had plenty of time.
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| *Note the pre-workout and shaker bottle on top of the nursing pillow. Austin brought them to make sure he could stay awake if we ended up at the hospital in the middle of the night. |
I let Austin sleep, knowing that both of us would be happier if he was able to get his rest. My mom asked me to let her know when contractions were 5 to 6 minutes apart, so I sent a text her way at 5:25. My cute dad texted back to ask if he should wake her up. (He is the lighter sleeper of the two, so I should have known a text would wake him up, not my mom.) I told him that he probably should if Mom wanted to get to the hospital in time, but I felt bad for waking both of them up so early! They were so excited that they didn't seem to mind.
This was also around the time that I sent emails out to all my professors letting them know that Zia was coming a little earlier than we had expected and asking them to work with me on deadlines. Austin gave me such a hard time about this, but I just wanted to make sure they knew what was going on, and I figured letting them know in advance would be better than sending an email a week or two later and asking for leniency.
From then on out, I just had to focus on getting through contractions. They were hard, strong, and long at that point, and I was using a hot rice pack and focusing on breathing through the contractions (without the CD at this point, as it annoyed me more than it helped after I woke up). Eventually the contractions were painful enough that I decided to take a bath. (I didn't know this at the time, but I'm pretty sure that's when I went through transition. I lost all sense of logical thinking.) My contractions finally reached 3 to 4 minutes apart while I was in the tub, and Austin called the midwife. She told us to head into the hospital, planning on meeting us there. Austin had to convince me to hurry and shower off so we could head to the hospital (thus my makeup-free face and crazy hair in the pictures below). I was feeling like I should push with each contraction, but I figured that I was just being crazy and fought the urge while I showered, somehow got dressed, and got in the car. Austin got us from Provo to American Fork in record time. We got to the hospital around 8:00. Austin parked the car, and I walked myself to the door while he grabbed all our stuff (no small feat).
When we finally got up to the third floor, I was having contractions very close together and definitely feeling the urge to push. When the receptionist in labor and delivery was checking us in and I made a comment about feeling like I needed to push, they let us skip paperwork for a bit and checked me into a triage room. The first nurse checked to see how far along things were, and we were all a little shocked when she said she could feel the baby's head (meaning 100% effaced, 10 centimeters, ready to have a baby any minute now). She was second guessing herself, especially because I was a first-time mom, so she grabbed another L&D nurse to double check. She also said she could feel Zia's head, so they moved me right to a labor and delivery room. Our midwife still didn't show up for a few more minutes, and the nurses told us that we had both the night and morning on-call midwives headed to the hospital (there was definitely a hint of "hopefully one of them makes it here before the baby does" in the air). Luckily, both midwives and my mom arrived pretty soon after we got set up in the delivery room. That was a relief! After the rush to get us into our room, I was kind of under the impression that the baby would be here any minute. That was not quite the case.
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| Just waiting for Zia to arrive. |
Claudia ended up being the midwife who assisted with the delivery. She also happened to be the midwife that assisted my mom with the birth of my little brother, Adam. What a coincidence, right? I was very glad that she ended up being the one to be with us for the birth. She was great. Other than me, Austin, my mom, and the midwife, we had Jolynn (our awesome L&D nurse--I will always love her), one or two nurses in the background, and three nursing students from BYU all hanging around to watch Zia be born. Normally I think I would have been bothered by having so many strangers staring at me while I was so...exposed...but I so did not care at that point. I joked with everyone that I had worked so hard on a birth plan, but I had left it on the printer. Jolynn joked back that I had pretty much done my birth plan at home! I guess she was right. :)
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| Jenn is the one on the left. She was the night on-call midwife. Claudia is the one on the right. You can see the nursing students in the background. |
When all was said and done, I pushed for around two and a half hours (in the hospital, not counting however long I felt like I should before we got there). I was absolutely exhausted from having a busy day the day before and hardly sleeping at all that night. The pain of labor and birth was more manageable than I had imagined, though it was no cake walk! The hardest part for me was just being sooo tired. My contractions slowed down once we were in the delivery room to be between 5 and 10 minutes apart--yeah, that was a little frustrating. The midwife and everyone else kept on saying that I would make good progress, but Zia would slip back, undoing most of my hard work. The contractions were just too far apart to allow for much progress. They broke my water after a little while, thinking that might get things going, but it didn't change anything. They kept asking me to push longer and harder each time I did have a contraction to try to get her to come down a little more. I was so tired that I had a hard time doing so, but I did my best. Even though things were going slowly, her head was right there. I was even able to reach down and feel it between two contractions.
I was able to really relax between contractions, and I was not vocal at all about the pain, and my midwife kept on telling the nursing students that I was absolutely NOT normal--especially for a first-time mom! They were all telling stories of much louder and meaner moms, especially one who had been in that same room the night before. Apparently I was an angel. Honestly, though, breathing and relaxing and just staying calm through it all was my way of coping. Screaming would have just made me more freaked out, I think. I was able to talk a little bit and even laugh some, but I mostly just stayed quiet and let the room go on around me, letting everyone know when I needed to push. Since things were going slowly, Claudia even left for a minute to induce a mom down the hall. I sucked on my ice chips and fell in love with a cold cloth on my forehead and just did my best to get Zia a little closer to coming with each contraction.
Finally, Zia was about to arrive. Austin had requested to catch her, and Claudia helped him carefully do so. Before I knew it, my beautiful baby girl was on my chest. She was born at 10:31 am. As soon as I finished saying how beautiful she was and how glad I was that she was finally here, I immediately told Austin that she had his nose! Not only that, but she looked just like him! I had always joked about Zia having Austin's cute nose, so it was kind of fun that she definitely does. She pooped on me while they were cleaning her off, but I didn't care! I was absolutely smitten with that little bundle of joy, and I was bawling my eyes out with the incredible love, happiness, and relief I was feeling with Zia's arrival. I did it! I had our baby (without any pain killers, no less!). My mom was also crying. I am so grateful she was there to capture so many pictures and videos to help us remember this special day. Austin was able to cut the umbilical cord after a few minutes, and Zia got cleaned up, measured, and weighed. I didn't stop bleeding as quickly as the midwife was hoping, so they added some pitocin to the saline in my IV drip. I am proud to say that was the only "drug" I had the whole time I stayed in the hospital!
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| She was not happy with us after her vitamin K shot! She was very awake through the whole process of getting her cleaned up and ready to go, which was adorable. |
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| Zia weighed in at 6 lbs 2 oz and measured 17 inches long (though I'm pretty sure somebody said 17.5 at one point). Her head measured 32 centimeters around. |
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| I got to nurse her for the first time after she had a hat and diaper on, but I'll spare you pictures of that. :) |
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| Austin was immediately smitten. It was so tender to see my own feelings mirrored in his big, tough-guy face. |
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| She really did look just like Austin, though her eyes were blue from the beginning (sorry you can't tell from this picture). |
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| My first calories since dinner the night before-- heartburn-free orange juice! Yes! I hadn't been able to drink orange juice without heartburn in months. |
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| Our first family pictures! She was so tiny! |
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| It was really special to have my mom there for the birth of my little girl. |
I was able to get cleaned up and into a new gown soon after this, then they wheeled Zia and me down to the second floor where we were given room 217 in the maternity ward. They helped me to get settled while they took Zia to the nursery and gave her a bath.
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| Austin tagged along with Zia pretty much everywhere she went! |
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| Lunch time! Frozen pizza has never tasted so good! Hospital food is not my favorite, but I was so hungry that this meal was delicious! If you can't tell, I was one happy mommy! |
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| After Zia's first bath, they stuck two cute bows in her soft peach fuzz hair. |
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| Everyone fought for a turn to hold baby Zia. She was one hot commodity! Gabe loved stroking her soft head, which was so cute. |
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| My dad loved holding her for the first time, and he sang her her first lullaby, "Sleep My Angel," by Howard Jones. That had me tearing up again. |
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| I wish there was a better picture of them, but my dad also brought down a beautiful bouquet of purple flowers (my favorite color). You can kind of see them in the corner there. He also brought Austin a Costco-sized bag of beef jerky. Austin was thrilled. :) |
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| I don't have a picture of this, but the whole family sang U2's "MLK" to Zia. That was the song I remember my dad singing to me to help me sleep, so that was really sweet. |
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| Hyrum and Gabe have been very different from the start, but they definitely both love their niece! It's cute that they are both different when it comes to holding her, though. Gabe is really confident and comfortable with holding her, but Hyrum is nervous and a little uncomfortable still. Both of them are so cute! |
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| This picture shows four generations! Great-grandma Georgia, Grandpa Mike and Grandma Becky, Me, and Baby Zia! Zia is lucky enough to have all four of her great-grandparents still around on my side and three on Austin's. |
Austin's sister Shantel and his cousins Shelby and Seth came over a little later. Shelby and Shantel thought Zia looked just like Austin's sister Candace. She and Austin definitely look similar, so I'd say Zia looks like both of them! Candace has been sad that she hasn't been able to see her little look-alike yet. She's planning a visit soon, and she can't wait to meet Zia.
Joyce Hasting, Austin's surrogate mom, and her granddaughters Ella and Sami came to visit, too. It was so cute to see how excited they were to meet their new cousin! They had been practicing saying "Baby Zia" for a long time, and they could hardly believe she was finally there. Joyce told me that she had been showing them pictures of Zia earlier in the day only to have them yell that they wanted to go see her, not look at pictures! Joyce and her husband Joe only had boys for kids and only have girls for grandchildren so far. Even though we're not blood related, we have kept with the tradition so far! Joe kept on teasing us that Zia was going to trick us and come out as a boy, but it wasn't to be--thank goodness! That would have thrown us for quite a loop! Later on, Joyce and Joe's two boys, Josh and Jordan, came to visit with their wives. Josh, Melissa, and Ruby came in one group. Ruby was just as excited as Sami and Ella to meet her new cousin. Melissa helped Ruby hold Zia, and it was so cute. The girls were all very sweet with her. Jordan and Tanika were able to come later while Joyce was watching the girls. The Hasting family loves all its little girls!
Dustin, another of Austin's cousins, came to visit the next day before he headed to school. It was so nice to have so many people come to meet Zia and show their love and support. Thank you all! I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of all of you--I was a little preoccupied! My mom has been the master photographer of this blog post.
I'm going to back track a little bit to talk about Zia's first night. It was a little rough. Since I hadn't slept much the night before and we had company all day, I was completely exhausted. Unfortunately, since Zia was on the small end of average, she was more prone to low blood sugar. This meant she had to be woken up to eat every two to three hours. (If you haven't tried to wake a newborn to eat food they don't really care about eating, it's no picnic. Especially if you want to sleep just as much as she does!) Because her blood sugar was staying fairly low, the nurse came to test her blood sugar every few hours to make sure she stayed in the safe zone and to remind me to feed her. That was one of the longest nights of my life, and I was pretty sure I wanted to spend the next one at home in my own bed after that. Zia also had a little amniotic fluid still in her tummy, and it made her throw up (not spit up) every few hours. (That'll scare a new parent to death if nothing else will!) She was still able to keep down most of what she ate, but it was loud and scary and sometimes made her choke. Austin and I were paranoid and couldn't sleep well because of that, too. We woke up with a start at the slightest noise. Poor little Zia. I was very happy when all that yucky stuff got out of her tummy.
On Zia's second day of life, the hospital photographer came to snag some pictures of Zia. They are sooo precious! Here are a few of my favorites...
My mom also snapped a few candid shots while the photographer was there.
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| Of course the photographer came right after I got out of a much-needed shower. |
All in all, Zia's birth and first day were wonderful! I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life, but every moment was totally worth it!
A word on natural childbirth...
As a side note, I would like to put in my two bits to promote natural childbirth methods. I was fairly skeptical that I would be able to do it, and pretty much everyone I talked to about it either doubted me or told me it wasn't really what I wanted. That was pretty discouraging to me. I did quite a bit of research, and I wanted to do the best thing for me and for Zia. I just want to say that if I can do it, you can do it too! Hypnobirthing worked great for me, but I'm guessing other methods work just as well. I know going natural is not for everyone, but if it's what you want, you really can do it! I felt totally on top of the world after my experience, like I could do just about anything. It's not easy, and it hurts, but it's doable. If nobody else believes in you, let me be the one person who does. :)
Thanks for reading!
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