Evelyn Grace Crow- Birth Story

The night of February 28th, Mark and I left my parent's house and headed to the hospital.  We were told to arrive a little after midnight.  So technically, we were there on March 1st.  It started off interesting, but ended wonderfully.

When we got there they couldn't find our paperwork and had no orders for us.  But they got us in a labor room and got my preliminary vitals (monitored baby etc.).  They found our paperwork shortly after and instead of starting my pitocin then, it looked like I would start around 7 am.  I was really confused as they asked us to come in early.  But it turns out the hospital sets the two times that you can come in for an induction and the doctor sets the time to start.  Weird, right?  Anyway, they let us go to bed and we didn't get up until 6:30.  At 6:30, I got a shower and they got me prepped for the pitocin.  Soon after that they started the ball rolling.  I was still only 1 centimeter dilated though.  I very quickly started contracting, but never noticed.  The nurse had to tell me I was contracting.  About 30 minutes after starting pitocin, my sister arrived.  She and Mark kept me entertained the whole day...and yes, I mean the whole day.  Even though I had multiple people tell me that I would go quickly, it seems that my body doesn't go quickly until the water is broken...but that comes later.

Stylin' green hospital robe!

 Anyway, we all hung out and the nurse slowly upped my pitocin over time.  Around lunchtime I started having some pain associated with my contractions.  It wasn't bad, just really bad back pain.  The nurse gave me some pain meds, but I wasn't allowed an epidural as I was only 2-3 centimeters and my doctor was in a c-section for twins. Around this time, Mark's parents arrived in town, but Mark advised them to head to our house as it wasn't going to be anytime soon.  They went to pick up Elizabeth, and then headed to our house to hang out. I continued on the same road until my doctor was out of the c-section.  By that time I was 3-4 centimeters and they thought they could break my water.  They allowed me to get my epidural before, and I'm glad they did.  A little while later my doctor came in and broke my water.  I was still only 4 centimeters (a little before 4 pm).  My mom arrived a bit later and Mark & Melissa got a break.  I was having some more pain and hit my epidural button. The nurse decided to check me at the same time, I was still at 4 centimeters (around 5:50 pm).  Mark's parents called to see what progress we had made.  They had been out to eat with Elizabeth and wanted to come by.  We said it was fine, but told them it would be better to go home after as Elizabeth would need to go to bed.  Soon after that my dad arrived, and since it was looking like no baby was going to arrive any time soon they let him back.  So we were all sitting around and the pain kept coming through the epidural.  In fact, even pushing my pain button didn't help.  I finally called in the nurse.  It was right around shift change and I was sorry to see my nurse didn't come in, but a new nurse did.  I told her what was going on and she said she would need to check me.  Now it was just around 6:30-6:45, I thought she was a little silly for checking, but they ushered mom and dad out and she checked me.  I was at 10!!  The pain I was feeling was the baby moving into position.  In fact, with one of my contractions, they could see the head!! The nurse commented that I could cough her out. lol My sister ran out to tell my parents who were going to head home.  My dad ended up staying in the waiting room and my mom couldn't sit still so she was walking up and down the hall.  They all scrambled into position (including my original nurse- I was so happy!!) and thank goodness my doctor was still in the building (Mark was trying to tell me to push without her, thank goodness I knew better and waited for the doctor lol).  She was there quickly and we began pushing.  I only pushed through three contractions and she was out!!

At 7:08 pm, Evelyn Grace Crow joined our family.  The doctor laid her on my chest immediately and you definitely could hear her...very healthy lungs.  Just like her older sister she was super mad and very pink under all that goop.  She nursed immediately!  What a champ!  Elizabeth and I had a learning curve, but Evie was ready to go.  They then took her to get cleaned up and weighed.  They handed her back to me and after awhile Mark got her and then my sister.  Sometime during all this Mark's parents called saying they had arrived, little did they know that we had a baby.  They then asked if I wanted to anyone to come back (I was all cleaned up at this time).  I thought only two people could come, so I asked for Elizabeth and my mom.  Elizabeth was so excited to see her baby sister.  She was definitely super excited.  She couldn't stay long as she was so hyped up and it was time for bed.  They took her out and the nurse came in to take Evie back for evaluation.  We asked if the rest of the family could see her, they said it would be fine.  So to my surprise everyone could come back.  My dad, Mr. & Mrs. Crow, and Mark's Aunt Fran came back to see her, while Mom and Melissa watched Elizabeth.  After a lot of oohing and aaahing, they took Evie to the nursery and everyone went home, except my daddy.  He ran out and got me a Big Pal (hamburger).  I was so hungry and it was wonderful.  I think he was surprised at how quickly I could eat it. ha ha.

Ok, we both look rough, but that was when we met. :)

Meeting Grammy for the first time.

Daddy gets a look.

Aunt Melissa gets to see her.

Ma sees her for the first time.

My favorite picture of my Daddy seeing her for the first time.  Just ignore the phone, there wasn't a way to crop it out.

Looking at her Pop-Pop.

Meeting her Poppa.

Aunt Fran gets to meet Evie.

Now because I had hit my epidural button thinking it was contractions and not the baby moving into position my whole left leg was completely numb.  Since I couldn't move it, we had to wait until I could.  Since Evie wasn't back yet either, we turned on the UKY game.  Yes, I'm that big of a fan. Oh and we won. Go BBN!!

Anyway, we kept waiting around and were starting to wonder what was going on.  Can you believe that in our small hospital seven other births happened and they still had more coming in??  They were having to turn over their extra rooms to put people and that was the main hang up.  They didn't have a room.  We were lucky we got there early (didn't have to wait for a labor room), and because we were late delivering we got a larger room as they had to give us an extra room (monitoring room that doubled as a labor room).

Well, the most interesting part, was trying to get me into the bed.  My leg was still super asleep and about 5-6 times I almost fell.  It took both nurses and Mark to get me there.  They gave me some pain meds soon after and wheeled Evie into the room.  She was such a good baby.  She nursed and went right to sleep.  She slept 3 hours and we both woke up when the nurses came in.  One nurse looked at Evie, while the other helped me and trust me (without giving you gory details) with as numb as I still was I needed the help.  Mark, as usual, was able to sleep through it. ;) Anyway, Evie nursed again and slept another 3 hours.  I was so happy.

I have to say, even though it started slow, it went super fast once it got going...and I got the best gift at the end!!

So Beautiful!