I'll start off by warning you that there are probably more photos than you wanted to see on here, but this was me cutting it down. I mean, I could have also included the pictures of her getting her ears checked, the photo I took right at 24 hours old and more. But I practiced restraint! Still, it's a good portrayal of the first 24 hours or so of Willa's life. If you don't want to read the story of Willa's birth, feel free to scroll down to the pictures.
Now lets go back to Wednesday, February 20. I found out the day before at my doctor's appointment that I would be induced on Wednesday. At that point I was dilated to 1cm and really nothing was going on. On Wednesday, I was having mild contractions all day. It gave me hope because up until this point, I wasn't having any contractions at all. I was told to call labor and delivery at lunch time to confirm my induction. They were full and told me to call back at 5pm. So, I went on with my day. I took Isla to ballet after school. I had a contraction just as we were walking out the door to the car, then another one as soon as we got to ballet, so at that point I decided to start timing my contractions. They were around 8 minutes apart...and at ballet was the only time I ever timed my contractions, haha! I called labor and delivery after ballet and talked to a rather funny doctor who told me that I needed to come in tonight to get this baby out, no matter how full they were. At this point, I pretty much agreed. She told me to come in at 9pm. That was the perfect time because we could still do all our normal evening routines with the kids.
Once we got to the hospital, we just chilled in a triage room for a while, as they were cleaning the room that would become my labor and delivery room. The good news was that my contractions were continuing. With Callum, they totally stalled out when I got to the hospital. After a while, they got me all checked in and stuff and the midwife came to check on me. At that point, I was 4 cm dilated. Because of that, they decided to not do the procedure they were originally going to do to get my labor started (a foley catheter) and instead maybe give me pitocin to speed things along. I got into my room, which always has felt a bit emotional to me...walking into the place you know you are going to meet your child. They hooked me up to an iv and I was sort of just chilling there at that point. Ian went to get food and it was close to 11 when he left. While he was gone, my contractions really started getting painful. Like where I needed to focus and breathe. I stopped doing anything (i.e. playing on my phone) and was only focusing on contractions. Ian came back and started helping me by pushing on my back where it hurt during the contractions. About that time I remembered I wanted an epidural and why should I work through the contractions when I want an epidural!?! So I asked for it. But the bummer was, I had to wait over an hour to get it. It was close to 1am when I got my epidural and at that point my contractions were about 2 minutes apart. The hardest part of that experience was staying completely still while they shove something in my spine while having a contraction. But I made it. The awesome thing was I never lost control of my legs, even with the epidural. The nurses were impressed and the midwife said it was a sign of a good epidural. After the epidural was in place, the midwife came and checked me. At this point, I was only 5cm and rather bummed about that. I was hoping those painful contractions had done something! The midwife had me started on pitocin and broke my water. And then we waited. Ian and I both went to sleep. Next thing I knew, I was awoken by a nurse coming in and checking the baby's heart rate. Apparently the baby's heart rate was dipping super low at the end of each contraction. The nurse left, then came back like two minutes later with a baby nurse as well. They left again and came back and this continued for a few minutes until all the sudden there were about 8-10 people in my room. At this point I was getting rather nervous and wondering if I should wake Ian. Thankfully all the commotion woke him. They put a monitor in the baby's head to accurately monitor the baby's heart rate. It was still dipping and they discovered baby was sunny side up. So, they decided to try to flip the baby. They were able to flip it and also put something in to refill the sac with fluid, as they thought the cord was wrapped around the baby's arm (which ended up being correct) and was being squeezed with each contraction. They talked about trying to deliver the baby right then, even though I wasn't 10 cm yet, but everything they did worked and the baby's heart rate was no longer dipping, so they decided to leave things be. And as quickly as all those people flooded my room, they all left.
It took a while for the adrenaline of what just happened to wear off. The nurse kept asking if I was feeling pressure and I said only during contractions. But she said if the baby was down low, I should feel pressure all the time, so they just left me. After a while, the nurse checked me again and the baby's head was about half an inch from coming out. The nurse ran and grabbed the midwife. She came in. The midwife asked Ian if he wanted to deliver the baby and I've never heard him say no so fast in his life, haha! The nurse put me in this horrible laying down position, claiming it was the best for pushing, even though I told her I wanted to sit up. Thankfully, baby was born in two pushes, so that ended up being a moo point. I had asked to grab the baby and bring it up to my chest and as I was doing that, I saw it was a girl. I was actually shocked. I was seriously convinced I was having a boy. That leaves me at 0/4 for ever guessing any of my children correctly.
After Willa was born, she got to hang out with me for close to two hours before they weighed her and measured her. Our hospital doesn't do baths in the hospital anymore, so they just wiped her down while she was on me and put on her hat and diaper and we started skin to skin. Then after a bit I nursed her. The kids facetimed us right as they were taking her to be weighed and measured, so they got to see all of that. Willa weighed in at 7 pounds, 1 ounce and 19.5 inches long. She was my smallest baby. After she was all done, they transferred us over to postpartum.
^^ We took a picture like this with Ian's hand as well and Ian's skin and Willa's skin are literally the same color.
^^ I always look at pictures of me with my kids in the hospital and can just tell how tired I am. Those Grimbleby babies just love me laboring through the night.
After one night in the hospital, we were more than ready to go home. I swear the nurses just love to disturb you throughout the night, then also tell you to get rest. We were ready to leave like two hours before they finally took the baby alarm off Willa's ankle so we could go.
And so we begin our life as six.
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