Zoe Jane!!

Well here we are 3 weeks later and I am finally getting on here to post about our new addition! What an amazing 3 weeks it has been. Our lives have certainly changed but we wouldn't have it any other way. Our Zoe Jane is just a perfect little love bug and she has stolen our hearts.

Let me share how Zoe decided to make her appearance...

April 29th was a normal day and still a week before my due date. I wasn't feeling any different. Brian did mention that morning that "She's sitting lower today". I didn't think much of it and we went on with our day. That afternoon we walked down by the beach with Magnus. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. Magnus got to play out in the ocean and absolutely loved it. I was having braxton hick's throughout our walk, but again didn't think too much of it since I had been having them everyday for several weeks.

We went up to bed late that evening (just before midnight). A few minutes after settling into bed I felt a weird "pop". I got up and went to the bathroom. I noticed a small amount of fluid. I opened the bathroom door and told Brian that I thought my water had broken but I wasn't really sure. I got back into bed and sat and waited to see if more fluid came. About 10 minutes later I started to have what I thought was a Braxton Hick's, but then it became a little painful in my back. I went back to the bathroom and there was a little more fluid. I was convinced that it was my water. So I called my midwife (it's now around 12:30) and told her what was going on (by now I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes). She said she would meet us at the birthing center in about an hour (I had to go in to get an antibiotic because I was Group Beta Strep positive - you can look it up if you want). I called my Mom at about 12:45 and told her things were starting. She decided to make her way down from Sacramento right away. We got to the birthing center around 1:45. My midwife put on the monitors to watch my contractions and the baby's heartrate (everything looked great). She placed my IV and gave me the antibiotic. She didn't check me at this time to see how dilated I was due to the fact that my water was broken, I was GBS positive, and we didn't want to introduce any bacteria until the antibiotics had some time to kick in. She gave me the option to stay or go home for a while to labor there. I felt like the contractions weren't too awful so I decided to go home. About three blocks down I told Brian, "Maybe this wasn't a good idea" but once that contraction was over I told him to keep driving home.

We got home and about 2 minutes after walking in the door I was hit with 3 super strong contractions, each about a minute apart. I told Brian that we needed to go back to the birthing center. He called my midwife and told her we were headed back. But I needed to use the bathroom first... Yes, this labor and delivery nurse said she needed to use the bathroom...what happens when I got there? Suprise, suprise I felt like I had to push!! Duh Beth! I think Brian was probably freaking out at this point although he was very calm about everything. But he was very insistent that I get up and get in the car. I felt like I was frozen on that toilet though. Finally I was able to get up and I moved as fast as I could out to the car but another contraction hit me as I opened the car door. So what did I do? What felt natural of course! I squated down. Brian tells me "Your'e not having this baby in the parking lot!" and into the car I went.

Luckily, it is now about 3:30 in the morning so the road was clear and the birthing center is not that far away...but it still felt like an eternity getting back there. As I walked in I told my midwife that I was feeling the urge to push. A contraction came and I again squated down in front of the bed. She checked me before my next contraction and told me those wonderful words "you can start pushing". Lovely!! And push I did...and yell...alot. I was frozen on the floor so I pushed on my hands and knees for a few minutes. Then they brought me a birthing stool and after pushing for another 5 minutes or so, at 4:09, I reached down and pulled up my precious little girl. It was amazing. We were so in awe of her. We couldn't believe she was already here. And she was just perfect.

She stayed on my chest for about 2 hours. My midwife made gave me an amazing bowl of fresh fruit and we made some oatmeal. Then Brian held her while we relaxed and tried to get a little sleep. Then we weighed and measured.. 7lb 4 oz, 19 inches. Perfect little size.

My Mom arrived around 8:00. We had updated her when we were going back home but not that we were going back to the birthing center. Well, she told me that at around 3:30, as she was driving and the sky was pitch black, she saw a shooting star... she knew something was happening. So she called around 3:45 and Brian told her that we were back and that I was pushing. It was a sign that my little Zoe was on her way!

We left for home around 10 am and spent the rest of the day laying on the couch, sleeping and just staring at this little thing we had created. It was an amazing, exhausting, wonderful day.

It's crazy how someone so small can change your whole life in an instant. We are so happy to finally have Zoe here. She is an awesome baby. She is eating great, gaining weight, sleeping...well she's sleeping...sometimes for an hour, sometimes for 4. Now if only I could convince her that the 4 hours should be in the middle of the night and not the middle of the day.

Brian is an amazing dad. He is so in love with this little girl. She definitely has him wrapped around her little finger already.

Magnus has adjusted well to her being here. He is very curious about her and wants to lick her but overall he is doing great with her. I think he likes being a big brother.

And now for the pictures (click on the link below)...Enjoy!


http://www.kizoa.com/slideshow/d2709692k7984680o1/zoe