Not Nice Spice
Ask any mom and they’ll tell you nothing is weirder than befriending someone simply because they have a kid. Well, my first two mama friends happened just like that—Oh, you have a baby?! Me too! To be fair, the first was still pregnant with her first, so you can definitely put me in the too awkward to care category (HA!). When we moved out of the city we only had one car, and sadly I wasn’t licensed to it. We chose a gorgeous walkable town on a lake to accommodate this, but I underestimated how long we’d be living there and how mundane my quaint little walks with Chickadee would become. A little saving grace came when I was introduced to Emma and Gracie Mae. Only a few doors down and her daughter is just as much wildfire as Chickadee (maybe more so—depends on the lack of sleep the night before). We connected on the woes of colic, co-sleeping, extended breastfeeding, and allergies, among other random baby goodness. And to boot, she has a freaking fab Easy shop! Feel free to keep busying follow With Grace Designs Co. on Instagram, while the shop takes a little break and Gracie Mae is prepping to become a big sister! Her birth story about Gracie reminds me that our kids are worth every bit of us. And they’ll take what we feel like is every ounce from us. But they give, too. With every challenging moment, of labor or raising our children, there are also boundless amounts of joy. When we aren’t certain of this, allow God’s grace to fill in the gaps. My pregnancy with Gracie was marked by 24/7 morning sickness right up until I delivered, which was not fun; BUT she was very much wanted and planned for, which made it a little easier. I spent most of the third trimester researching what labor would be like. I hate surprises and wanted to know exactly what to expect and actually felt fairly confident that I was ready and knew what I was in for, lol. When my due date came and went I started getting a little nervous because I hadn’t had any real contractions yet. Finally, 2 days before I was scheduled to be induced, I started having time-able contractions. That night the contractions grew stronger and I had the “bloody show” which sent both my husband and I into a panic and caused us to jump in the car and go straight to labor and delivery.
After the nurses rolled their eyes and we realized we came too early; they decided to keep us for a few hours and have me walk the halls to see if we could get things moving as I was barely dilated. Fast forward 24 hours and I was still pacing the halls with 2 minute apart contractions and vomiting every few minutes (why did no one when say that’s a thing?!). After I had enough and was ready to tackle the nurse who kept telling me to keep walking and handing me new puke bags, they asked if I wanted to try the jetted tub. It sounded great and I read a bath really helps, but I felt like I was drowning when the mother of all contractions came and I couldn’t get out of the tub fast enough. A few hours later, I was finally getting closer to being fully dilated but I was so exhausted I asked for the epidural. I was able to sleep a couple of hours, but the epidural slowed the dilation and my doctor decided to induce me. Things still didn’t get rolling so she broke my water and Gracie started becoming stressed in the womb and with the broken water came meconium. The rest feels like a blur, I didn’t know it was time to start pushing because the room didn’t look like they said it would in Lamaze class (do not waste your money). No one was counting, the epidural wore off, I kept forgetting to breathe, Gracie’s heart rate kept going down, and she got “stuck” in the canal behind my pubic bone. My mom and Jon were in the room with me and my mom thought I was confused on how to push and kept whispering “push like your pooping” every couple minutes. I felt utterly helpless on how to move her and make my pushes count and kept telling Jon to pray. Finally after 3 hours, Gracie entered the world with the (loudest) and most beautiful cry (seriously though, the nurses were impressed with the lungs on her). They put my blue skinned little baby with a full head of hair on my chest. Jon and I cried right with her and were so relieved our baby was finally in our arms. It’s amazing that you really do forget all about the pains of labor when you finally meet your bundle of joy. Gracie didn’t come easily and due to colic it wasn’t an easy first year. But, our lives wouldn’t be the same without our beautiful, spunky, and kind spirited 2 year old. She’s brought us an incredible amount of joy and has taught me so much about God’s unfailing love for us.
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Kate FrancesWhen you don't know what else to do, then it's time to write. Then write a little while longer for good measure. Archives
February 2020
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