Alexa Rae Glass--your birth story

11 p.m. on Saturday, June 18th, I felt them.

Real contractions.

Its hard to explain the difference between Braxton Hick and the first few real contractions since by all accounts and purposes they're basically the same. But I knew.

We were up in Ashburn to celebrate Bryce's 10th Birthday AND Father's Day. Yes, I know I should have been in Charlottesville on my due date, but all my babies have been coming later and later, and I hadn't made much progress in the dilating arena, so I figured I was fine for at least another week. Oops.

George had worked 9-5 that day at UVa and then drove up afterwards, arriving at his parent's house around 8:45 p.m..

Midnight, he was back in the car driving his actively laboring wife all the way back to Charlottesville, leaving the sleeping kids at Grandmom and Pop Pop's house. We called my mom and we were on our way. I wasn't sure we would make it, since labors that started naturally for me have been fast in the past.

We eyed Culpeper, the half-way point and the only other hospital between Ashburn and Charlottesville, and decided I could hold on until we got all the way to UVa.

We arrived around 2:30 a.m. and went right to the L&D floor.

They put me in a room, hooked me up to the monitor and checked my cervix.

3-4 cm dilated, contractions 2-4 minutes apart.

Sweet. This baby is coming today!

My blood pressure was a bit high (for me), but that was probably due to nerves and being dehydrated.

Laboring in the hospital can be boring. The only non-boring labor story I have is Jude's which I did naturally. If you're laboring with an epidural...meh. It's a lot of waiting.

George charting for his previous shift:

They rechecked me at 5 a.m. Not much progress: only 4-5 cm dilated and the baby was still very high. I decided to get my epidural since my contractions were becoming more painful.

The epidural worked a little too well! I couldn't feel anything from the chest down, couldn't move my legs, and the contractions slowed waaaaay down. This happened with Cole and Lily's delivery, too.

So we took a nap.

Waiting...

I was rechecked at 8:45 a.m. by a new doctor who determined I was still only 4 cm, 60% effaced, and -3 station (that means the baby is super high and not yet engaged in the pelvis). Bummer.

They started pitocin to get the contractions stronger and more regular. I asked them to turn down the epidural a bit so I could feel the pressure of the contractions and move my legs which were lead at this point.

11:45 a.m., there was a significant increase in my contractions. I was checked again at 12:45 and was finally making progress. 5-6 cm dilated, but baby was still high, about -2 station. They talked about options to move things along, since I'd been laboring for 12 hours at this point. We decided with the next check they would break my water, assuming the baby had moved down and I was dilating.

2:45 p.m. I was still at 6 cm. Ugh.

And then at 3 p.m. something awful happened.

My epidural broke.

Broke. Not stopped, or slowed down. The contraption literally broke.

 I'm not sure how long I had gone without the epidural medication, but had noticed for a while that the contractions were getting stronger and more painful.

We had been updating family members by text message all day long in a large group message. It was wonderful to have so much support, especially now when it felt like I was literally dying.

(ignore the time stamp at the top of these messages... that was when I took a screen shot a few days ago)

I used to be a labor and delivery nurse. I've seen people deliver naturally. I've seen women in excruciating pain endure labor with such grace and composure.

That was not me. The epidural wore off completely and I was curled in the fetal position on my bed, cold sweat running down my face, screaming and crying (and maybe swearing) with each contraction. They turned off the pitocin and my sweet little nurse ran around panicking while I writhed in agony for an hour and a half before they got it fixed.

George held my hand and offered words of encouragement (later admitting he had to stifle a giggle or two because of how crazy I was reacting). At least he was considerate.

By 4:30 the epidural was fixed and finally providing relief. And I had made progress while laboring naturally! Baby moved down significantly and I was at a 7.

George was surfing Facebook afterwards and this popped up on his feed, giving us both a laugh:


5:00 I was checked again. 8 cm, 90% effaced and at 0 station. Yes! They broke my water, which was clear.

I suddenly felt very nauseous, so they gave me Zofran IV. I was still shaking from the labor pains and so, so sleepy...

AND I was starving! No food for a laboring mom and this labor had been going on for more than 18 hours.

Getting ready to deliver... had to erase those tear streaks from earlier.

7:00 I was fully dilated!! It's go time!

This is what the kids were doing at the time:

Celebrating Father's Day with Pop Pop and Uncle Eric at Outback.

My cheerlearder and photographer:

Setting up

Daddy's delivering! 

Happy Father's Day!

Okay, we're ready! Push!

Boom! One push!

She's here!! 

7:16 p.m., one push, baby girl arrived with apgar scores of 9 and 9. 

Finally...

After hanging out with me for a bit, it was off to the warmer for her first check.

 

She was bigger than I thought! 8 lbs, 7.5 oz.

20.5 inches long

Squishy face.

George ran down the street and brought me back an amazing burger for dinner. Nothing has ever tasted so good!

A perfect end to Father's Day.

And my amazing mother who was there from start to finish, running on no sleep. She's incredible!

And my nurses! The one in grey was with me all day and even extended her shift so she could be there for the delivery and my recovery. The nurse with the red hair had admitted me during the night and was my baby nurse after delivery. 

Look at all that hair!

We were moved to a new room and George said good-bye so he could go home and sleep while the baby and I got to know each other during the night.

It was a ROUGH night! UVa doesn't have a nursery. Not at all. Everything for the baby is done in the room. So even though I had been awake for more than 36 hours, there wasn't anyone available to hold my baby while I slept for a couple hours. We made it through alive, although tired.

This sweet face made it totally worth it!

And a shower makes everything seem better:

We finally decided on a name for this baby:

Alexa Rae Glass

Jude had wanted to name the baby Lexi for my entire pregnancy and I was totally on board with the name, but it took George the entire 9 months to finally be okay with it. We gave her the middle name Rae after my grandma Rachel Brewer.

Mom came by to hold the baby one more time before driving back to Ashburn to help take care of the kiddos. George's parents were watching them through Wednesday and my mom was going to take them for the rest of the week so George and I could rest and relax for a week before going back to "real life".

Mom brought the baby a sweet gift, too. Mom, you're amazing!

We were trying for a 24 hour discharge and even though there was some concern about Lexi's bilirubin level, we were finally allowed to go home around 9 p.m. on the 20th.

Daddy dressing her for the ride home:

She wasn't a fan.

Facetiming with the kids so they could meet the baby and hear her name:

We arrived at home to this on the door, and a couple other balloons outside, compliments again of my wonderful mom.


I was totally exhausted and settled in for some good sleep, which I didn't get. I may or may not have been ugly-crying around 4 a.m. when Lexi was crying and just wanted to nurse for hours at a time.

Its these moments you forget about, which is probably the reason you agree to have more kids. Thankfully I got a couple hours of sleep that morning when Lexi finally passed out.

My amazing friend Heather stopped by later that day to meet Lexi and bring us some dinner. Chili never tasted so good! Heather is the best!

All the kids were staying with the grandparents up in Ashburn except Lance who was hanging out with Abbey in Charlottesville. He was the first of the kids to meet Lexi.

Seasoned big brother:

He wasn't a fan of her name and doggedly called her Rae for the first couple days until he finally acquiesced (most likely helped by George calling Lance by his middle name "Paul" whenever they talked).

Welcome, welcome baby Lexi! We love you with all our hearts! I can't wait for the other kids to meet you!