Thea's Birth story

Welcome to the world baby girl!!!




Thea Dalene Coobs was born on Friday March 13th (The same day that her Aunt Cassie and Uncle Clay were born, 23 years ago). She was 4 days past her due date and weighed in at 8 lbs, 10.5 ounces and was 21 inches long.



Cory, Leila and I debated about baby names for months. We were pretty set on what we would name a baby boy, but we just couldn't decide on a girl name. In the end, the girls won, as Leila and I both had Thea as a top pick, though I think Cory was really coming along to it, and watching me endure natural childbirth may have soften him a bit into letting me have my way ;)



Thea is a Greek name that means "Gift of God," and that she definitely is. Dalene is my grandmother's name. My grandmother was and still is a huge part of the person that I am, and I am very proud to pass on her love and her name to my daughter. I just wish that she was here to meet Thea.


So far Leila has done a great job with her baby sister. Sometimes she ignores her entirely and other times she wants to hug her and cover her with soft blankets.
I am doing really well, my biggest struggle is worrying about Leila and how she will adjust. I don't want her to feel neglected, but at the same time, I just don't have as much time for her now. I wonder how my parents managed this with 5 kids!












If you aren't interested in hearing some details of labor and delivery, you might want to skip this post. :)

So, on Thursday night I was feeling kind of crappy from spending the day chasing Leila. I had kept her home from daycare so we could have some mommy/Leila time before my induction on Monday.
I was scheduled for a non stress test on Friday at 9 so I called my mom and told her that as long as she was up here by 8:45 to watch Leila, we would be good. (She usually comes at 7 on Friday's and watches Leila and my nephew.)

I went to bed at like 10:00 and I woke up at 1:00 because I had to pee really bad, so badly it was causing me to have a terrible sharp pain in my groin (or so I thought).
I went to the bathroom and came back to bed, only to have another one of those terrible cramps like 4 minutes later, and it kept coming back. At that point it occurred to me that I was either in labor, or I was going to die. I laid in bed until about 2 timing them loosely...they were about 3-4 minutes apart, and then I got a really strong one and I woke Cory up and told him to call Labor and Delivery, that this was definitely it and we needed to go NOW.
He called and I was laying in bed shaking from the pain and anxiety...I was totally freaked out, you would think I wasn't 4 days past my due date and hadn't realized I would be going into labor at some point!
So we woke up Cassie, who is living with us for a few months, to let her know that we were leaving and not to leave the house in the morning until mom got there to watch Leila.
We got to the hospital at about 3 and they checked me. I was at 5 cm dilated and 100% effaced (I had been 3-4 cm and 50% effaced on Monday). By then I had calmed down some and was handing the contractions better. The nurse asked me what my goal was for labor. I told her that I was open to see how things went, but I wanted to try to hold off on an epidural if I could, because I had some bad side effects from the epidural with Leila's birth.
The nurse asked if I wanted to try out the whirlpool and I jumped at the chance. I am SO glad I did this. Not only was it very relaxing and allowed me to deal with the contractions so much better, but I really appreciated not having a monitor hooked up to me for the majority of my labor.
It was about 3:30 when I got in the tub. I got checked sometime around 5 and I was 7 cm. At that point I was really dealing well with the contractions and I felt like I might be able to make it. I got back in the tub and almost immediately my water broke. It was a very weird feeling! My doctor wanted to check me again to see if that had made a difference, so I waited for one more contraction in the tub and got out for the check. I was at an 8 and my doctor told me that if I wanted an epidural this was my last chance because anesthesia was going to prep someone else for a cesarean. I told her I felt good and I was going to go for it. About 5 minutes later, at around 7:30 I began to regret that decision! The pressure was so bad I could hardly stand it.

Looking back, I really wish I had gotten back in the tub, but every time I got out of the tub they wanted me on the monitor for 20 minutes. By the time my 20 minutes were up at 8 cm I thought I was going to die. Instead of getting back in the tub I sat on a birthing ball, which helped very little. At the same time I was still on the monitor but it was so low on my body to catch the heartbeat that every time I moved it would lose the heartbeat and this nurse kept trying to hold it in place against my body. It was so difficult for me to concentrate on relaxing through the pain with her pushing on my guts!
At that point I told Cory that I was no longer able to do this, and I was just going to die. It was awful, I was trying not to cry, and I know I was behaving like a big whiny baby. I am embarrassed about it now, but Cory thinks I am overreacting. I am sure I annoyed the nurses.
I was feeling so much pressure so the nurse said I could push if I needed to and they would check me when it was over. It really really helped to push, but when I was checked I was still at 8 so they told me I couldn't push anymore. I tried to breath through them, but it was so hard not to push, finally my doctor checked me and I was 9 cm. To help me out she held my cervix up while I pushed through a contraction to try to get me to complete. I don't actually know if I ever got to ten because she kept holding it open while I pushed until Thea's head was through my cervix. Then they gave me the go ahead to push her out and ten minutes later, at 9:09 AM Thea was born, face up with her hand next to her face. When I heard her crying it immediately reminded me of Leila's baby cry.
I have just a couple of little tears but I am already feeling pretty good...not perfect, but pretty good. There is a lot to be said for being able to give birth and then immediately get up and walk. I haven't decided which is better (with or without the epidural) because there are benefits and drawbacks to both. But I am proud of myself for Thea's birth.

Now if I could just get Thea to understand that night time is for sleeping and that beds are where we do our sleeping, life would be grand!