Cosette's Birth Story

3/27/17

3/27/17

3/27/17

4/1/17 (2 weeks old)

7/11/17 (Almost 4 months old) 

Cosette is here!!!! (I know she is almost 5 months old... #secondchildprobs) She has been such a delightful addition to our family and we love her to pieces. She really is the most smiley, happy baby and we couldn't be happier. SO here's the long awaited birth story!

Before we get into Cosette's full birth story, let's give you guys a little background in the timeline. Most importantly, Henry was a c-section and we were planning on having a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) for Cosette. My doctor/hospital won't induce for VBACs, which meant that I needed to go into labor spontaneously or else I would have a scheduled repeat c-section. Since Henry was a week late, I was really nervous that I wouldn't go into labor on my own before they pushed me to schedule the surgery. I ended up scheduling the surgery for March 28th, which gave me 10 days past my due date to go into labor on my own. And let me just tell you that getting a bunch of papers in the mail about your upcoming surgery doesn't help a nervous mom who is already scared of having a VBAC and kinda thinks a scheduled c-section would be kind of nice. I already know what to expect with a c-section recovery; it wasn't that bad at all. There are so many unknowns with a vaginal birth. What if the recovery is worse? Why do I want a VBAC so badly? It would be so nice to know the exact time she will be here! I digress.

I was due on Saturday, March 18. Cameron's final research dissertation was due to his committee for final review on Thursday, March 16. (Really great timing, right?).  My doctor stripped my membranes at my 38 week appointment on March 7th and nothing happened. I read a couple of stories online about stillborn babies that week and started to get super paranoid about fetal movement. The next Monday or Tuesday I start freaking out because I can't remember when I felt the baby last move. I start doing kick counts. Does that count as one movement or 5? Does that count? Was that gas or the baby? After bring hypersensitive for a period of time I felt  better because there was enough movement that I wasn't too worried anymore. Meanwhile I'm messaging Cameron, and he goes back and forth from thinking we lost the baby to thinking I'm stressing over nothing.

So at my 39 week appointment on Tuesday, March 14th, I mentioned that I don't think she moves as much as Henry did. But maybe she does and I just have a skewed memory of how active Henry was. But I'm still nervous about it. He does a quick remote ultrasound and thinks that my fluid might be low and schedules me to have a full sonogram the next day. But for now, let's do a Non Stress Test (NST) to make sure movement is okay. Oh and do you want me to strip your membranes again? Sure! Why not? I'm dilated to about a 1 at this point (same as the week before).

Cameron and I (and Henry) walk into the non stress test room and they hook me up to all sorts of contraptions and said I can't move for 30 minutes. We didn't bring a single toy or device for Henry since we weren't expecting to be there for so long, so Cameron spent the next 30 minutes chasing Henry up and down the halls making sure he didn't break any equipment. He was not so pleased with this scenario. Turns out baby was totally fine. I'm just an anxious mom. So we scheduled an ultrasound for the next day to check on my amniotic fluid.

So my appointment was at 4pm and with the non-stress test and everything, we probably got home a bit after 5pm. We most likely stopped by Taco Bell (a regular occurrence) on the way home, but I can't remember. Around 6pm my contractions started to become regular, and by regular, I mean like every 3-7 minutes with each contraction being 30-45 seconds long. I religiously became glued to my contraction counting app. They remained 5-7 minutes apart for the rest of the evening. Now, I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions basically my whole pregnancy, so I wasn't sure if these were the real deal or not. We didn't want to call on our overnight babysitter to come over and then we go to the hospital and then they send us home. So, I waited and waited, timing each contraction. I think Henry knew something was going on because he took at least 2 hours to go to sleep that evening (ugh). We gave our helper a heads up, saying tonight might be the night, we'll let you know!

After a few hours, maybe around 9 or 10pm (after Henry finally went to sleep), I told Cameron that I think I'm really in labor and that we should go to the hospital soon. *Let's not forget Cam's dissertation timeline. It's Tuesday night and he needs to submit it on Friday. He is typing like a mad man and emailing his advisor (God sent) back and forth late into the night. I'm sitting in bed next to him, breathing through each contraction, asking, "Can we go now? How about now? I'm just waiting for you, babe." He's a bit frustrated that I had my membranes stripped because of his timeline, and I was confused since we did it the week before, why wouldn't we do it again? and I also didn't think it would do anything. So I felt bad because I didn't even think to discuss it with him before I consented to having the sweep. But what's done is done and the baby is on her way. Your dissertation is good enough; they will understand. His professor told him to leave his computer at home and to go to the hospital; his dissertation was good enough and would pass as is. With that reassurance, Cam came to a stopping point, we called our babysitter, packed a few last minute things and off we went!

We got to the hospital a little after midnight. Contractions were coming in strong and very uncomfortable. They were a bit different than Henry's (from what I remember) and the pressure was really low, making it hard to sit through them. Because it was after-hours, we had to enter the hospital through the ER entrance. On our way in, we actually ran into a Labor and Delivery nurse who was about to go on her break, but she took me upstairs instead. I got all dressed in a gown and was told I was at a "loose 1" haha. Awesome. All this work for barely any progress. The nurse who checked me even said, "He stripped your membranes at a 1? Well, that wasn't very nice." So they got me all hooked up to monitor the contractions and let me labor. Cameron soon came in from getting me registered with the hospital and we got set up for the night. Before they called my doctor, they monitored me for an hour or two to make sure I was actually in labor.

I was soon at a 2, so they decided to give my doctor a call. I don't know about all hospitals or doctors, but in our small town, you only ever get the doctor that is on call. Meaning you only have like a 1 in 8 chance of actually getting your doctor, the doctor who has been with you every step thus far. We previously requested that he perform the delivery to which he agreed since I was having a VBAC, which makes me a higher risk (you know, of uterine rupture and death). So he made a special note in my file to call him instead of the on-call doc. One of the many reasons we loved him. They gave him a call to ask him if I should stay or go and he said to admit me and that he would be on his way shortly.

The nurse was excited and a bit surprised and told me "He is coming in! You're having a baby today!" Because I was having a VBAC, he needed to be at the hospital for the whole time, not just when it was time to deliver. I was like, "Great! Can I get the epidural now?"

Now that I was officially being admitted, they put in an IV and hooked me up to even more monitors. They said I needed to get through a whole bag of fluid before I could get an epidural. They also had to take my blood and get the lab work back before I could get the epidural, as well. This seemed to take forever. I wanted that blasted epidural stat. My sense of time totally goes out the window about now, so I'll try my best to remember the sequence of events.

I remember my doctor doing a quick sonogram to check on my fluids and everything looked good. I also know he broke my water at some point. I'm assuming right after he got there and after the ultrasound? I'm not sure. I mainly remember desperately waiting to get through that bag of fluid in my IV so I could get the epidural.

The epidural guy finally came! All went well and he was super friendly. He treated me like I was wonder woman even though I felt like I hadn't really done much. Cameron, on the other hand, was being watched like a hawk by the nurses who kept on saying he looked like he was going to pass out. He did not own up to this until later :p

The last they checked me I had been a 2, so big whoop. I had several very strong contractions while he was in there getting everything ready and right before he put it in, I had a big one so I made him stop. With Henry's labor, I was weirdly embarrassed that I was in pain and would try to hide it from everyone and act like nothing was happening during a contraction. I have since come to my senses and embraced being in labor. Yes this really does hurt. It's supposed to. So I was kinda proud of myself for speaking up and saying, "Wait. Not now. Give me a minute."

I have no idea what time I got the epidural, but everything seemed to happen super fast once I got it. Cameron and I were so excited to finally settle in and take a nap for a few hours before it was time to push. But that was not the case. I remember them checking my blood pressure over and over and over again. I literally had dark red lines on my bicep for weeks from the blood pressure strap. It squeezed so hard! Apparently my blood pressure was super low, but since I felt fine, the nurses weren't overly concerned about it, except that they checked it every 5 minutes on the dot. I remember that they tried to put an internal fetal monitor on Cosette's head, but it never took. I don't remember why they did, but I'm thinking it was because of my low blood pressure.

*Side note- I don't remember when it happened, but I know I puked twice during labor. Much less vomit than Henry's birth and I was prepared for it this time. Still gross though. Meanwhile, Cam was just enjoying Graham crackers, peanut butter, and diet Coke from the snack room. Nice ;) They did let me sip on apple juice from time to time. Once it got pretty close to delivery, they made me stop and admitted that they weren't really supposed to let me have anything the whole time. So I'm happy I had a little juice to get rid of the vomit taste!

At some point, I mentioned that the water tricking out of me felt funny, like I was peeing my pants. We laughed and the nurse checked and it was actually blood. No worries though, it was just my bloody show. Just trying to freak us out. While down there, the nurse checked me and I was at a 6! Wow! When did that happen? Great! No wonder I was bleeding a bit. Cosette was getting to work! The nurse left for a few minutes and we could hear her telling the other nurses in the hall, she's already at a 6. This is going so fast!

A few minutes go by (maybe 10?) and she checked me again and I was at a 7. We're like, what the what? Go Cosette, go! She was just kicking away and the nurses said that's not typical. She was just so excited to come :)

A few more minutes go by and I was at a 9 (at 5:20am- I just checked Cam's video log). The nurse disappears and we're like, Uh Hello? This is not the time to leave us. Baby is about to be here and everyone just left. I am starting to feel something different, like something is happening down there. There's a whole lot of pressure and I think I'm complete. Where is the nurse?!!

About that same time, she and a whole slew of nurses come in with all the carts for delivery. They turn on the giant spot lights  above me which lit up parts of me that don't get a lot of light. They then drop off the equipment and then all of them leave except for our one nurse. And she was like, "Okay, are you ready to push? I will hold one foot and Cameron will hold the other. With each contraction, you will do 3 big pushes for 10 seconds each. Breathe in and then exhale for those 10 seconds for each push."

Real talk- It was so nice just having Cameron and our nurse there. It was so quiet and intimate and not what I imagined for a hospital birth. After each contraction, we would just chat for a couple minutes until the next one and then we would go again. I had requested a birth mirror so I could see her head, and I saw it for a few minutes but for most of the time I kept my eyes closed so I could focus on pushing. It was also really cool how I could feel a contraction coming on before the monitor even picked it up. They didn't need to tell me when to push- I told them when I was about to push.

After a few contractions, the nurse calls my doctor (who was sleeping in an on-call room nearby) and told him it was time for delivery. And we were like, "What? We just got started? I thought this would take like 3 hours?" A few minutes later, my doctor came in and a bunch of nurses. You could tell he just woke up because he had pillow lines all over his face, haha. What a champ.

This is where it got real. Oh wow. We are really doing this. She is coming right now. I don't need to save my energy for 3 hours of pushing. I can give it all I got and she could be out this very push!  Once I realized that she could be out with this very push, then I started pushing even harder. I think I was subconsciously holding back a tiny bit because I thought I had hours of pushing to go.

Cosette was still kicking away on the monitor in between contractions and pushing, which I find hilarious. I can just imagine her kicking off my ribs or organs, making her way down. She was ready and nobody was getting in her way.

After pushing for a mere 20 minutes, Cosette Louise Brown was born. They placed her on my chest and we were so happy she was here! It all happened so fast and it felt like we blinked and she was here! It was the most perfect VBAC I could have imagined! (Minus the tearing. That wasn't my favorite.) She screamed and showed off her powerful lungs and we all just oooed and awwed at her. At some point my placenta slipped out and my doctor stitched me up, but I was so focused on our beautiful baby girl that I didn't notice anything else.

She latched on super quickly and that also made us so very happy. She weighed in at 8lbs 10oz and 20in long. She was an ounce bigger than Henry! And she was 3 days before her due date, when Henry was a full week late. I was discharged the next day and the initial recovery has been so much better than my c-section! My c-section recovery wasn't all that bad, but the hardest part was getting in and out of bed for feedings. So being able to sleep on my side and get out of bed easily has been the biggest positive difference in the two recoveries.

I am SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY that I got my VBAC. We went back and forth a lot about whether it was worth it or not, but I am so happy that we decided to give it a go and that it worked out for us. I had a really positive experience with my doctor and our hospital and we are happy that our two babes were born in the Little Apple. Kansas has been so good to us and we are sad we had to move. Hopefully when the kids are older, we will be able to make a trip back here and show them their birthplace.

If you made it this far, congratulations! I didn't think I had this much to say, but I guess I did. Woo babies and birth stories!!

And because she's the second child, we didn't take quite as many pictures in the hospital, but here are a few we did take:

5:20am dilated to a 9

5 hours old

Meeting baby sister for the first time- 12 hours old. Please excuse my hospital hair.

First picture as a family of 4

When we put him in the car, he said "Bye, bye, baby!" thinking that she was staying at the hospital.
And then we put her next to him... haha

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY, COSETTE!!!! We love you so much. You are the perfect addition to our crazy home!

PS. For those who are too embarrassed to ask, we spell her name with an S, but we pronounce it like a Z. It went well with her middle name, Louise, so we kept the S to be consistent. And that's how they spell it in Les Miserable, which is where her name came from. Louise is Cameron's maternal grandma's name, who passed away well before Cam was born. From what we know, she is an incredible lady and we were honored to name Cosette after her.

PPS. I may not post every month like I did with Henry's first year, but I do hope to post more often, so stay tuned!

Anna