Welcome, Lucy!

I don’t actually think that anyone who reads this doesn’t yet know about Lucy’s arrival, but just for the sake of having it recorded in writing before we forget, I’ll post about it anyway. 

The quick version: Lucy Elizabeth Panning was born at 5:16pm on March 5, 2010, measuring 19 inches and weighing 6lbs, 10.7oz.  Mom and baby did great and came home just as soon as they were done with the 24hr. bloodwork for Lucy.  I even felt good enough to cook dinner when I got home.   (Thanks, Birthing Inn, for the gift basket with dinner ingredients)

The long version:  On Thursday night, I was working on a sewing project (for the baby) and had some semi-regular contractions for a couple of hours before heading to bed.  I remember spending way too much time with Henry timing contractions and getting our hopes up, so I didn’t even bother with that.  I figured I would know when the time came.  I remembered the 5-1-1 rule we learned before Henry was born, though: contractions 5 minutes apart, lasting at least 1 minute each, for at least an hour.  No sense in even getting excited until I got to that point. 

A couple hours after going to sleep, I woke up with noticeably stronger contractions, so I started watching the clock.  Nowhere near the 5-1-1 yet, so I tried to go back to sleep.  Which didn’t really work.  After awhile, I got up and decided to pack a bag for the hospital… just in case.  The activity didn’t seem to increase the intensity of the contractions, so I went back to bed.  Around 6am, I got up and finished packing my bag and one for Henry (so he could spend the night at a friend’s house), and suggested to Matt that he might want to get up and pack one for himself.  This was the first he’d heard about it, so he was a little surprised.  But I was still not close to 5-1-1, so I told him to go to work and I’d let him know if anything happened. 

Henry and I went about a normal sort of morning (though I was a bit distracted by the presence of our packed bags in the car and the intermittent presence of contractions).  We went to Mass, did some laundry and cleaning at the old apartment, went out for a donut date, took a trip to Walmart, and finally headed to playgroup at a friend’s house.  Matt called and wanted to know where things stood so he’d know when to hand off projects before paternity leave.  I didn’t have anything new to report; things hadn’t picked up OR slowed down, which left me a bit confused.  So I left Henry at playgroup and went to the midwives’ office to get checked.  Surprise, surprise… I was already dilated to 6cm!  I hadn’t expected to hear that.  Anyway, they told me to come in to the hospital anytime after 2pm (the birthing center at the hospital was pretty booked) or whenever things got worse.  So long as my water hadn’t broken and I was comfortable enough, I could stay home.  (Note: still not at 5-1-1, though starting to approach 5)

I called Matt to let him know, then headed back to playgroup.  It was fun and exciting, but a little surreal and confusing.  Even though I’d planned for this to happen (hence, the bags in the car), I wasn’t quite prepared for it when it did.  My wonderful friends worked out among them who would watch Henry for the weekend, and I was able to leave him there playing happily with his friends.  I met Matt back at the house and we drove together to the hospital.  And on the way there, we decided on a name for our baby.  We’d had the middle name picked out, but hadn’t settled on a first name yet.  For no particular reason (other than that we liked it and it fit all of our criteria), we chose Lucy. 

We got to the hospital and they had a room waiting for me (score one for the Birthing Inn!).  I got settled with some wireless monitors (again, hooray for the Birthing Inn), and decided to let them break my water before waiting around anymore.  That was about 2:45pm.  For the next hour and a half or so, I walked around the room, sat in the rocking chair (yay Birthing Inn!), and waited for things to get worse.  They didn’t.  The contractions never really got to a full minute and were not consistent (so much for 5-1-1).  The good news was that they were also extremely manageable.  

And then I stood up.  And they suddenly got a lot worse (thanks to Matt for being very supportive!).  The nurse came in to check me after half an hour or so of this and told me I still wasn’t quite ready to push (although I felt otherwise), and that the midwife was assisting in an emergency C-section so she wasn’t available right then anyway.  When the midwife finally came in, she told me I could go ahead and get ready to push if I felt ready (even though I wasn’t measuring “ready”).  There was a quick scramble while everything and everyone got into place, and then we started.  It didn’t take long; just a couple of contractions (so no more than 5 minutes) worth of pushing, and Lucy was out.  Did I mention there were no drugs involved?  I honestly had forgotten all about that part, and I’m not at all sorry for doing this naturally.  Apparently I’m a “natural” when it comes to birthing babies (haha!).  They were asking Matt while I pushed if I had taken hypnobirthing classes (I still don’t know what that is), because I was following the technique perfectly.  After it was all done, I felt great (and not the least bit sore or like I’d just had a baby).  I almost feel guilty for having had such an easy pregnancy and delivery.  We were very, very blessed!  Thank you Lucy, and welcome to the family!