Julia's Birth Story

Our sweet Julia is here! I can not believe it. Tomorrow(Friday Dec 13th) would have been my due date.  We were blessed to meet her 8 days early, on December 5th. I did not write a birth story with Ela for two reasons. 1. I was completely overwhelmed being a new mom. 2. If I did it would have been pretty simple. High Blood Pressure, Induced three weeks early, Got epidural before contractions were strong, slept and pushed for 15 minutes. The experience bringing Julia into this world was completely different. I apologize in advance for the long post.

Julia Marie Baran

12/5/2013

6.12 pds 20.5 inches

9:58am

                                

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Operation Julia eviction began when I was 37 weeks. I had been having podrominal labor for the two weeks prior and was sent to labor and delivery 3 times. I was dilated 1cm at 35 weeks and having regular painful contractions. The adage is true that you will KNOW when you are in labor. Julia was posterior(face down) for most of the last 10 weeks of pregnancy which meant lots of pain for Mommy. On the Monday before Thanksgiving I went into the hospital with contractions every 2 minutes. My cervix had softened completely and I dilated another centimeter. We though this was it. I wanted her to wait until that Wednesday when my Mom came into town so she could be with Ela. After walking  10 miles in two days nothing was progressing. My mom came Thanksgiving and we were all convinced Julia would be a little Turkey baby. NOPE! In fact I woke up Friday with no contractions or pain. At my sonogram the following Monday, it appears that Julia turned anterior(proper position for delivery) Boy does position make a difference! Although I was not in pain any longer, I felt defeated. I was more anxious than I should have been because I had basically been having false labor all month. I was ready! I also had anxiety over Tomasz not being home when I went into labor. I prepped myself(or thought I did) mentally that he might not be there if he happened to be on a layover in another city and I went into labor in the middle of the night. (Thank god this was not the case ). I was put  out of work on Monday. My Mom left on Tuesday just as disappointed as I was that she did not get to meet her newest granddaughter. 

Flash forward to Wednesday. Tomasz was off the next two days and I was praying to go into labor. I had a feeling I would not be that lucky as I had minimal contractions. We went to my sonogram appointment at noon and then walked around the city and got some lunch. The whole time I was having contractions, but I figured whats new. They would probably cease soon enough. We went home that night, picked up Ela and decided that we should put up our Christmas decorations since we might not get another chance. It was such a fun time with our family. We put up the tree, danced(through contractions) to Christmas music, ate dinner and just enjoyed our time as a family of three. I even posted this picture on Instagram, telling Julia we were ready for her to come now. 

We put Ela to bed and I decided that I was going to get some sleep. If I could sleep through contractions surely I was not in labor. I slept until 11pm until I was woken up. I labored by myself for a while because I was still not convinced it was the real thing. At 2am, I woke up Tomasz and we decided to head to the hospital. We called my friend, and dropped off Ela with her best friend Mackensie.  We tried to page the doctor unsuccessfully so off to the hospital we went....

The drive to the hospital was MISERABLE. I was contracting every three minutes and by the time I was in the car was starting to feel the urge to push. I was scared I was not going to make it in time to get an epidural. The Brooklyn Bridge was closed so we had to go around to the Manhattan Bridge(one of my other fears) to get to our hospital in Manhattan. I never realized how bad NYC potholes are until I was in too much pain! It was like a scene out of a movie; Tomasz speeding through the city, me screaming and squirming and finally pulling up to the hospital. Once in L&D I was examined and I was already 5cm dilated. I was immediately admitted, started on an IV, and we continued  to get in touch with my doctor. I was laboring quick and the nurses told me it would not be much longer. At this point, I did not care who delivered Julia, just please get her out! I had to fight for an epidural as the anestesiologist was with another patient. I was not as nice as I should have been but we had a small window to get one as the contractions were getting closer. I finally got one and it was smooth sailing from there. The epidural slowed my contractions down.(Apparently this is common) The decision was made to break my water to get things going again. We were going to try to find my doctor one more time because once my water was broken it was expected that I would deliver within the hour. My doctor finally came to the hospital at 8:30am and upon an exam my water had broken on its own. I was so excited that my body was doing the labor process on its own and since the contractions started strong again I did not need pictocin.

At 9:00am and  9cm we were anticipating I would be fully dilated within the next 15 min. The nurse was starting to prep the room when the heart monitor for Julia went off. The nurse called code and immediately I was put on oxygen and 4 doctors, including mine rushed in. Talk about being scared. They put a new electrode on Julia's head and were able to find her heartbeat. This was so extremely scary and I could not stop shaking. Who was I kidding? As much as I convinced myself that I would be ok if Tomasz was not there, I was lying to myself. He calmed me down and was there to be just as scared as I was. Julia had taken matters into her own hands and decided to come down the birth canal on her own falling off the heart monitor on my belly. She was determined to come into this world. After stabilizing Julia and I, we were ready to push. I literally pushed three times(Tomasz says two) for less than 6 minutes and we met Julia. All of my visions of a baby with a head full of dark hair were true! They  put her directly on my chest and she did not even cry. She was so much smaller than I imagined and just perfect!  My heart grew so much bigger than I even though possible.

Coming home we decided to have Julia wear the same thing as big sister Ela. Winter babies!

Julia coming home 12/6/13

Ela coming home 1/14/2011

All in all, it was a much different experience. Pregnancy amnesia has already set in and I don't remember most of the pain. Recovery has been very quick and I was released from the hospital after 24 hours as Julia was born so early in the day. Most importantly, this little lady is just as in love as we are. She has been such a great, sweet big sister and embraced Julia wonderfully. 

Talk about an heart exploding with love. Our family has been so blessed.

FunFact:  I started this blog to chronicle my pregnancy with Ela. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to keep blogging. Originally the blog was named Pickles and Ice Cream. When I started blogging after Ela's birth I spent weeks trying to come up with a new name. In the hospital on the wall of the Labor and Delivery is mural with a quote from Winnie the Pooh. I could not help but smile when I saw it as we were bringing Julia home..