Cara and Steve: January 2010

She's finally here! Our baby girl was born on New Year's Eve and she made quite an entrance. Last week Steve was joking around with me during a moment of stress and said "well our little girl is in 'breech' of contract."A few days before Grace was born we found out that what we thought was her bottom was actually her head. Yep, our baby girl decided that she liked to be right side up instead up upside down... and nothing would make her budge... she was what is medically termed as a"breech" baby. Interestingly this occurs in only 3% of pregnancies... Grace likes to do things different, just like her mom :)

Her first night home...

Getting ready for bed in soft jammies...

A proud daddy...

So, I will now tell you the iteresting story of the days before Grace's birth. The day after we got the news, we decided to try EVERYTHING we could to turn our baby. I did handstands in a pool, layed for hours at a 30 degree incline, attempted a headstand, coaxing with music, wrapping my belly with an ace wrap, and chasing her with an ice pack. None of these natural measures seemed to work. So the next day I went to the hospital to have what is called a "version" to manually turn the baby. This just left me with a sore red belly.

The next day I was having consistent contractions and I thought that there was a possibility that I could be in labor. We finally decided to go to the hospital, when we arrived my contractions seemed to stop completely... I basically spent 4 hours hooked up to a monitor for no reason. They asked me if I wanted to schedule a c-section while I was there. I was totally exhausted and I felt that for some reason our baby wasn't supposed to turn. I asked if I could schedule it for the next day (New Year's Eve). Apparently it was completely booked up and I couldn't be scheduled unil the following Tuesday. I went home discouraged and exhausted.

Trying to coax her with music...

With the help of some Ambien, I finally got good nights sleep. The much needed sleep must have given my tired body the energy to actually go into labor. I had contractions all day that definetly felt different than before. I didn't want to go to the hospital for fear that the contractions would stop, but they were getting pretty intense. By the time I finally gave into the idea that it was "real" labor, my contractions were 2 min. apart and lasted a good 45 sec.-1 min. We got to the hospital at 6:30 and baby Grace was born an hour later.

I never even considered the idea that I may have a c-section during my pregnancy. I spent a lot of time planning my natural childbirth and pushed the alternatives aside. Grace was pretty much folded in half inside of me (she looked like a diver in a pike position). I couldn't imagine trying have a vaginal birth considering the circumstances. I am just grateful that she arrived safely and that I was still able to make it a special experience.

Before I had the c-section, I gave the nurse this blanket to wrap her in. I hung it in my closet so that it would have my scent since I couldn't hold her immediatly after she was born. After a quick weigh in and other measurements, Steve was able to bring her close to me. (She came in at 6 lbs. 12 oz. and 22 inches long).

The whole procedure was actually pretty quick and she was in my arms just 1/2 hr. later.

I told the nurses not to give her a bath until I was able to get up and share that experience with Steve... she didn't like it all that much, but she loved having her hair rinsed under the faucet.

We arrived home a day early. I did laps around the nurses station while pushing Grace in the bassinet... they really had no reason to keep me another day.