TROOPER'S BIRTH STORY
On July 31 at 12pm, one day past my due date, I had my last OB appointment with Dr. Lisa Chodak. I was shocked and a little miffed to have to be going to this OB appointment. I even scoffed when they asked me to schedule it. I told them I'd never make it and humored them by scheduling it. I had gone into labor two days early with Elle so I naturally thought this was my trend, in addition --this baby felt bigger, it was my second baby, and I was much effaced and dilated than with Elle.
Dr. Chodak stripped my membranes and boy was that painful! I immediately felt crampy and began to feel that way the rest of the day. Elle happily bounced around the doctor's office so cute like she always does and ate her Princess fruit snacks while mama had her check-up. After my appointment, we headed to Target to pass the time. I casually shopped trying to premeditate anything I might need within the coming weeks. I passed a lady with her two younger daughters and I could hear them talking about me. They came up to me and asked when my due date was, I reluctantly and defeatedly answered "yesterday". She exclaimed, "I knew it, we just thought you looked like you were going to pop!!!" *Ugggghhh, thanks*. Then her next questions just about killed me, "Now are you carrying one baby or two?" *Stab through the heart* I held back tears as I answered, "one". I was too disheartened and hurt for a fight today. I called Truman crying sitting on a pile of towels in the bath department. Elle kept telling me to not cry, poor thing. Truman was sweet and comforting. I let this encounter get my spirits down the rest of the day it seemed and this in addition to the cramps, I was just not feeling well.
Truman came home from work early at 2pm which was just what I needed. I had been wanting to go to IKEA and teased that it would help put me into labor, so he offered to drive us down to IKEA. It was a good distraction, lots of walking, things to look at, and air conditioned in hot July. I felt many contractions as I walked around IKEA but nothing rhythmic or intense pain. I felt so crampy and more tired than I'd felt in months, and in hind sight, I think I was having some early labor signs. We went to In-N-Out for dinner and Elle got her very own hamburger. Truman asked if we could go to his office for a bit to put up the new New York canvas art we had bought. Elle bopped around like she has all summer as we've worked hours on Truman's new office. Truman assembled the canvas print and hung it as I sat and rested. On the way home, Truman said, "Is it an ice cream kind of night?" I smiled but bemoaned that I don't want to gain any more weight or want any more stretch marks. He said, "Well I don't think there's ever a time that it's more justified in your life than tonight". I laughed and conceded, so he drove me to Bel-Air to pick up some Ben 'n Jerry's so I could eat my feelings haha. I got a new flavor, The Tonight Dough by Jimmy Fallon and it was decadent! I ate the whole thing as we started a documentary. I warned Truman I was feeling very tired and would go to bed soon. I ended up falling asleep on his shoulder for an hour and half. He woke me at 11:30pm and we headed to bed.
Next thing I know, I was jarred out of sleep feeling like I had been hit with a sack of bricks. This extremely hard and long contraction started at 3:22am and I instantly thought... I'm in labor. I got up, went to the bathroom, and went back to bed just in case. I woke up 15 minutes later with an equally hard and long contraction. I went back to sleep and woke up 10 minutes later with another! I lay in bed awake and have another contraction 6 minutes later. I found myself confused since I had I woken up same time with Elle in labor, but my contractions were 20 minutes apart for hours! I get up and head to kitchen because I didn't want to wake Truman and these were already so painful! I wanted to wait it out a while since I didn't want to sound the alarm and be wrong. So I paced around our kitchen island and then next contraction came in 5 minutes! I then decided I better go pack my toiletries and I could barely get through that without another contraction. I already felt I was having a difficult time getting through these early contractions. I was trying to remember what my sister-in-law Yulia had coached me on... My mind felt a little numb as I tried to remember....Uhhhh...horse breathing...lean forward...head on forearms...sway hips....don't tense up....cranberry juice....Hmmm, cranberry juice sounds good....Owwwe! Another contraction!
I am in enough pain and this had finally been going on for an hour so I decided to call my doula Julie Martinez at 4:20am. She could tell by my disposition on the phone that I already seemed significantly into my labor. I told her how this couldn't possibly be! Inbetween hard contractions I regaled her with Elle's birth story. I told her my OB said I didn't need to go to the hospital until I had been having contractions 10 minutes for an hour. How could I have only one contraction that was 10 minutes apart?! She advised going to the hospital and I was adimant that I wouldn't need to go just yet. I was in a lot of pain and over the course of this 20 minute phone call, my contractions went from 5 minutes apart to 3 minutes 30 seconds apart. She advised me to start calling people and to head to the hospital. I was in disbelief, but I finally agreed to wake Truman and my parents up but told her to come to the house. She told me she still thinks I should go to the hospital but she'll meet me at our house. I walk back to our bedroom and rub Truman's arm to wake him up at 4:40am. I tell him, "I'm in labor" and he says, "Are you serious?". No, just kidding! haha. I tell him, "Yes, I'm serious" and he later tells me he could tell I must have been up a while because I looked sweaty like I had been working. I explained I had been up for an hour and twenty minutes but wanted him to get some more sleep. I then called my parents at 4:45am to alert them. My Mom would be working that day and would need to leave in a few hours so my Dad offered to come to the house and sleep here for Elle. He asked when I wanted him to come and I told him within the next 25 minutes --still not realizing how quickly I was progressing and how many sets of contractions I would have to endure in that amount of time. Luckily he didn't listen to me and hopped right over and was here in 7 minutes. I then called my doula Julie and told her to meet us at the hospital after all. Truman was scrambling around during this time putting food and epi pen out for Elle, grabbing stuff for his bag, and grabbing my things and putting them in the car. Two minutes after my Dad arrived we left and good thing! I was in a world of pain and tried to get into the wrong car to the hospital. Truman guided me to the correct car and he sped to the hospital.
The drive down to the hospital was miserably long even though it was only about a 12 minute drive at 80mph. It felt like I was in a bubble of pain, I could barely sit on my seat. It was dark and I felt I couldn't see anything more than a foot away from me anyway. My doula later guessed that when her and I were on the phone for that 20 minutes, she guessed I went from a 4 to a 5. Then the drive she thinks I was probably at a 6, and arriving at hospital was a 7. As we drove, I tried so hard not to grasp the seats for dear life and not tense up because I remember that made my labor go terribly slow with Elle. We arrive at Mercy Hospital of Folsom and Truman runs to get a wheelchair. A lady is parked right next to us and watching intently as I'm sweating and agonizing in pain, and through her car window says "Congratulations!" I wanted to scream at her but didn't have the energy. Truman helped me into the wheel chair and starts running me to the emergency entrance and I yell at him to STOP! I was having another contraction and felt blinded by pain. He started moving again because apparently we were smack dab in the middle of the street and blocking cars but I screamed again for him to STOP! We make it the entrance and I cannot sit any longer! I turn around in the wheelchair so my forearms are resting on the back of the chair. The receptionist asks us if we are pre-registered and sees my obvious amount of pain and points Truman to wheel me to a back room. Every time I have a contraction I demand Truman stops the wheelchair as I rested my head on my forearms and shook my head back and forth. I don't think I've ever used such an angry tone with Truman haha.
We arrive in the hospital room and I start another contraction and brace myself up against the best thing I could find which was their computer monitor table which was very tall. They told me I couldn't use that because they need to access the computers but I didn't care and couldn't listen because of the pain. After that contraction they quickly help me change into my hospital gown and I look down and see blood dripping onto the ground. I yell, "Is that normal?!" They assure me yes and keep telling me they need to draw my blood and put a saline lock on me, I keep telling them I don't want an IV, but I finally concede to a saline lock and blood draw. They check us in at 5:20am and I am already saying, "I can't do this". I try to keep loose, tried to visualize, tried to breathe calmly and deeply, my doula applied pressure on my hips from behind and helped me sway my hips at times. I tried to rock my head on my forearms and it would get so painful it would turn into an aggressive shaking of my head. As I went through contractions, the nurse kept touching my stomach trying to monitor Trooper and I angrily kept saying, "Don't touch me!". She kept touching me and I screamed at her, "DON'T TOUCH ME!!!". I am usually much nicer but this really showed me the fog of pain I was in. Then they want me to lay down on the bed so they can see how far along I am. In my mind I'm thinking, are you kidding me?! I lay down and before she can even get her gloves on I pop back up and go for their monitor stand to get through the contraction. I could tell she seemed frustrated with me but I frustratingly told her "I CANNOT lie down while having a contraction". We went through this three times of me laying down and popping back up before the nurse Becky could actually check me. Just as she finished checking I pop back up, and she says, "You're an 8!" I can faintly hear them wheeling a cart in to place the saline lock/draw blood, and all of a sudden I had the worst contraction thus far. This was the first time I screamed out in pain and I started hitting the top of their monitor stand as my water broke all over the floor. I don't even remember because of the blinding pain, but apparently when my water broke the nurse Becky checked me standing up and said I was fully dilated. At this point, they still hadn't even called my doctor! I had the immediate and undeniable urge to push and the nurses were not encouraging it because there wasn't even a doctor there. One of the nurses gloved and masked up ready to deliver my baby. I could hear them yelling at this point to call my doctor and could hear rushing around. They told me it wasn't safe to stand anymore because they couldn't see and didn't want my baby being birthed on the floor. I agreed to get into the bed as long as I didn't have to sit. They inclined the bed and I labored on my knees turned around with my forearms resting on the back of the bed. I had my head on my arms and without feeling any break had two more wrenching contractions one right after the other. I yelled out in pain and told me doula many times through this experience, "I can't do it anymore Julie, I just can't do it". She was sweet and kept telling me, "You are doing it, you are doing great". I kept shaking my head so vigorously that one of the nurses tried to stop me and was trying to hold me head still and I screamed at her to NOT touch me. It seemed the only way I could get through the contractions and not just keel over and die was to release some of the built up pain through shaking me head.
I continued to push and started to feel very weak. There were some screaming and hitting of the bed. I tried to refocus my energies and finally the on call doctor, Dr. Phelan came in. I had a couple more contractions and pushing, and he suggested I turn around and "with a few good pushes, I bet he'll be out". Exasperated, I said, "Are you sure?!". He said "yes" and apparently under his breath said, "I've only done this a couple thousand times". Haha. I said, "But then I won't have gravity on my side!" He replied, "At this point, it doesn't matter". I hesitantly turned around and started to contract and push while laying on my back. After everything thus far, it was actually a good move and I felt more strong pushing this way. I finally understood what the "ring of fire" mothers talked about was! It all felt like a bubble of pain and chaos and I closed my eyes for most of it. Even when my eyes were opened, I didn't feel I could see more than a foot in any direction. Dr. Phelan wasn't there for more than 10 minutes when Trooper finally made his appearance. As I pushed, I only remember Truman talking once during the whole experience. I remember smiling at him after he said, "He has a bunch of hair just like Elle!". As I pushed, I felt loads of pressure all at once and then a sudden pop of a release as Dr. Phelan caught him at 6:11am. He held my baby and said, "I think you will have a blondie on your hands" and "I think he's a 9 pound baby". I said, "What?!" and laughed for the first time. They immediately put my baby boy up on my bare chest and I held him tight. He was warm and chubby and his eyes were wide open. I said, "Hi Trooper, I'm your Mama. Were you the one causing all that trouble?? You're so chubby! You're so cute. Hi sweetie!"
What a whirlwind of unbearable pain, relief, deep love, and a new unbreakable bond. I was so nervous as to how I would feel when he was born... After all, Elle was my first and my cherished sweetie pie. How could I love anyone else as much? But from the second that baby was born, I have felt an unsubsiding love for this boy that has only grown. Somehow, my ability to love has increased and he feels like the perfect addition to our family. I feel tears of joy welcoming this baby boy into our lives. My heart feels it could burst with happiness and I am loving every second.
What a chubba chubba :). I still cannot believe I gave birth to a baby that was 9 lbs 4 oz! He weighs almost 2 lbs more than Elle at birth!
First Daddy snuggles
The moved me to another room to recover and it took at least a couple hours before I felt I could stop twitching and shaking. Truman stayed with me and the nurses were attentive and kind and got me snacks and juice cocktails. It felt weird to not have an epidural this time. I had a second degree tear this time in the same spot, but at least it wasn't a bad third degree tear like with Elle. They give you lidocaine to sew you up but that felt like an agonizing 20 minutes after going through everything else and feeling very done with pain! Sewing me up was painful without having an epidural this time around. There was a lot of bleeding and they nearly gave me Cytotec to help stop it but luckily as they pressed down on my uterus and had Trooper nurse, the bleeding started to subside. It felt weird to not be hooked up to anything and to be able to get up right after giving birth. What a different experience! It was amazing and terrible all at the same time. I will say it was fast, furious, and extremely intense. I couldn't believe I birthed this baby in less than 3 hours! How did I go from having a 19 hour labor with Elle to a 2 hours 45 minutes labor with Trooper?! It's a good thing I did listen to my doula Julie or I could have been one of those people having my baby in the car! The hospital staff teased me, that they call people like me "Stop & Drops" because we basically just show up at to the hospital to deliver our baby! Haha. The level of pain made it hard to fully enjoy meeting and holding Trooper when he was placed on my chest. However, meeting my goal and going through the whole experience brought a sense of elation and joy that I hadn't felt with Elle.
At about 12:30pm, Truman left to go get Elle to meet her little brother
Here is Elle seeing me and Trooper for the first time
She said Hi to Trooper with a smile and we handed her the specially wrapped present from Baby Trooper.
Trooper gave Elle a Little People Disney Princess set and it was a hit!
She put them down for naps on tissues haha
Our first family picture
Elle wasn't so sure about him at first :). We put him on her and she said, "He's too big for me". I was perplexed at first but then realized she's use to small weightless baby dolls and this baby is near half Elle's weight with her only weighing 25 lbs at almost 3 years old! I took him back and we giggled at her comment and she gave him a kiss on the forehead.
My girl & me
She kept saying, "It's Trooper"
My Mom worked both days I was in the hospital and would come visit me before work, eat lunch with me during her break, and visit me after work :).
When Truman took Elle to go home, she was upset that I couldn't come. She had been looking so forward to visiting me in the hospital. Her Grandma and Grandpa Weston would watch her that afternoon and planned to take her swimming. She didn't understand why I couldn't leave and go swimming with her. She said, "Put Trooper back in your tummy" haha. Oh boy...this is going to take some getting used to ;).
My Dad came and visited as well and was a great support especially with Elle. Elle even got a coconut milk ice cream sandwich for breakfast when he watched her. Life is good.
Newborn snuggles are the sweetest, I felt I never wanted to put him down in the hospital and still feel that way. I just want to watch him and hold him constantly. I love his sweet face and all his expressions and sounds while he sleeps. He is so much more mellow and sleepy than Elle was.
This baby would barely wake up for baths, blood sugar tests, heel sticks, exams, or diaper changes while in the hospital
This picture is sweet to me because I lay him down on the hospital bed with me and looked straight into his eyes and he looked back and we had a moment
My sister Rachel came to visit me and brought me a yummy Starbuck's drink and pumpkin bread. My other sister Tara and her family came to visit me with a Jamba Juice and balloons and presents for Elle. My Mom and Dad brought me two Happy Birthday balloons :). This picture was taken right before we left the hospital. I ended up only sleeping on night in the hospital because it was so hard to get rest while there!
This is Trooper's going home outfit, a navy and white gingham checkered romper
Such a handsome boy, just like his Daddy & "Soooo Seeerious!"
This little boy has been my perfect cuddle bug and has captured my heart.
Welcome to the family Baby Trooper!
Well...maybe a fresh cleany baby!
Team Dad!
Troop, one day you are going to wear hats like this, just like you Daddy!
