Lucy Kate Smith

Thursday October 9th I went to a Dr. Appointment and was told that my baby was going to be very large.  Probably not 10 lbs but at least 9.  Dr. Konradi asked if I thought I could do it or if I would want a C-section.  I told her that I would way rather recover from labor than a C-section and that I could do it.

I had been having contractions for 2-3 hour blocks of time on and off for the last two weeks.  I was feeling pretty tired and irritated by it ;) as soon as I would think that I might actually be in labor the contractions would stop.

So Thursday afternoon I find myself at Spencer's soccer game feeling pretty uncomfortable.  As we make the long walk back to the car I tell Stevenson that it might be tonight.  We hurry home and get the kids fed and to bed.  I tidy up the house and fold some laundry, all the while having contractions, and then sit down to time them.  And they start to get further apart.  By now it is about 9:20pm. Just as I start to tell Stevenson that it's another false alarm I have two big contractions 5 minutes apart.  I know what real labor feels like and this was finally it.  I also know that when it hits for me I don't have a whole lot of time.  I wait about 20 minutes and then have Stevenson call Jessie to stay with the kids.

We call the hospital on our way and they try to tell me to call my doctor first to make sure I should come in, ha.  I let them know that it's my 4th baby and that they are usually fast and that I know when I'm in real labor, that we were calling our doctor next, but wanted to give the hospital a heads up since we were on our way.  We called our doctor and the on call dr and the back up on call dr were both at the other hospital in town.  They asked if we could meet them there instead (as we were about to pull into the other hospital). I said no.

We get to the hospital and no one knows who we are or remembers us calling (??) and they are under construction so even though we get a new room, they can't find anything (heart monitor, towels, etc). At this point it is 11:00pm and we are wondering if maybe we should have gone to the other hospital.

They finally let me get in the tub which feels amazing.  After about 30 minutes of that I am ready to get out and have them break my water.  It never breaks on its own, and I knew as soon as that happened I could push and get this over with ;)

The on-call doctor, Dr. Sarah Schram was awesome.  She broke my water (which Stevenson says splashed everywhere (TMI, I know!) and then we were ready to push.  I knew it would be hard with a big baby but I still thought that once I got the head out the rest would follow.  Well, that wasn't the case this time.  I pushed and pushed and finally got her head out.  And then they told me I needed to push again.  I was so worn out that I didn't think I could.  Stevenson said that the doctor reached in and helped grab her out.  She was born at 12:45am weighing 9lbs 11.6 oz and measuring 21 inches long. Lucy was so chunky and had the chubbiest, cutest cheeks.

I could not have done this delivery without Stevenson.  I grabbed his hand so hard through each contraction.  He is the best support , and  this was the smoothest birth yet (despite the construction thing ;). All the nurses commented on how good Stevenson was as a support/coach and that we seemed like a perfect team.

My recovery was awesome.  She did almost zero damage despite her huge size.  Nursing, besides a breast infection during the first week, has been problem free.  She sleeps so much, and started sleeping through the night around 9 weeks.  The hardest part really has been Nora adjusting to not being the baby (and teething and being sick).

We feel so blessed to have Lucy in our family.  The kids adore her and everyone looks out for her.  Our family wouldn't be complete without her.