Naomi Rose Pulsipher

I'm a mom now. It's weird to say or write but living it feels so natural...or maybe inevitable? It's what I've been working up to since I was like 5 years old and always answered "mom" when somebody asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. Does that mean I'm "grown up"? Probably not. But I do have the cutest baby around. See.

Naomi Rose Pulsipher was born on January 20 at 9:34 am and weighed 6 pounds, 13 oz. Her official measure was 19.5 inches long but 3 days later she measured 20.75 inches. I don't really think she grew an inch and a quarter in a couple days but then what do I know about babies?

Birth Story:

I woke up at 4 am on Saturday, January 19th (10 days past my due date) to the discomfort of minor contractions occurring every 15-30 minutes. No more sleep for me.

The contractions continued throughout the day, but didn't seem to be escalating much. At one point, I even got a nap in. I wasn't quite sure what to do with my day since I didn't have any real plans and now my body was thinking about having a baby. So we took a walk to HEB and bought some chocolate (to eat after contractions), we went visiting/home teaching, and I tried to decide whether my mom should drive up to Austin or not. She ended up doing so which turned out to be a good thing.

By 7 pm, the contractions were much more regular (5-10 minutes apart) and getting more intense. At 9:30, we deemed them 5 minutes apart and went to the hospital. They admitted me and hooked me up to the monitors, but my contractions slowed down a bit and when they checked me I was only dilated to 3 cm, the same that I had been at my doctor's appointment on Thursday. All day labor...no progress...kind of depressing. 

I think my nurse thought I was a total wimp. All the other nurses I had in the hospital were great, but this one had some kind of bee in her bonnet. Around midnight, she told me that they were sending me home to sleep since I wasn't making any progress. They gave me a sleeping pill and home I went. We'll see you back on Monday for your induction, she said.

I got home, laid down in bed and within minutes I felt my water break. Time to go back to the hospital. They couldn't turn me away now and my contractions were increasing in intensity anyway. However, it was also the middle of the night and I hadn't slept much the previous two nights and I was on a sleeping pill. I don't really remember this part of the night very well, but I know I wasn't handling the pain very well.

Sometime after we got back to the hospital, the anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural. All I remember from that is the sting of initial needle and the weird sensation of cold fluid going up and down my back. As soon as the epidural kicked in, I slept.

In fact, I slept through the rest of my labor. They woke me up about 8:30 am the next morning and told me I was dilated to 10 cm and that it was almost time to push.

My mom told me they did a really good job of telling me how to push even though I couldn't feel very much.  I just know that it didn't seem to take long at all for her to be born. Seeing her head in the mirror definitely helped. The part that seemed long was when they took my baby away after I saw her briefly (she had a bowel movement before she was born so they needed to do some immediate clean-up). But then they brought her back and it was lovely.

Part of me feels kind of lame for sleeping through my labor, like maybe it was something important that I should have been there for and missed. Mostly, though, I think it was a medical miracle. It allowed me to get some rest so I could have the energy to care for Naomi after she arrived. My body seemed to manage labor perfectly fine without me there - the delivery was uncomplicated and so far recovery has been very smooth.

I am loving my sweet baby girl (those words get stuck together, don't they?) and loving the time I get to spend with her before going back to work.