Adele Christine Zuber

It's a GIRL!  Adele Christine Zuber joined our family on December 17, 2013 at 10:02pm.  She weighed in at 7 lbs 2 ounces and was 20 inches long.  We are so relieved and grateful she is here!  Our family is complete!

The morning started like all mornings. I felt way over due. This was yet again, the longest I'd been pregnant. I felt sick to my stomach like all mornings and I even threw up. I couldn't believe I was 39 weeks and 2 days and still having morning sickness. Thank goodness Wes' mom was here to help me through these last couple weeks.

I went in for my normal check up that morning to see the midwife that works my doctor. My blood pressure was up, which it always is in the office, but I was also spilling some protein in my urine, which indicates gestational hypertension. She was concerned about this, and rightly so, but was very slow in assessing me and talking about options. She wanted to check me to see if I was dilating and go from there. Turns out I was 4cm dilated and 90% effaced. Because of the protein in my urine, and the fact that I was already dilated and effaced, she and my doctor recommended coming back later for induction. She encouraged me that just some pitocin or breaking my water would probably get things going quickly. Then she stripped my membranes and sent me home to get my stuff, and come back later when labor and delivery had time to induce. So we went home, got filled up the van with gas for grandma, got the girls to nap, and tried to get ready to go back to the hospital.

Around 2:30pm we called labor and delivery to check in, and they told us up come in. So we packed up, went to pick up Elizabeth, and headed to the hospital. I started having some contractions on my own by the time I came back sometime after 3:00pm. They were still irregular but it took the nurses a while to get me all checked in and so we waited a while and they seemed to get stronger. I got a new nurse, Katie, around 4:30pm, and she felt like by the state of my contractions, I was already in labor and perhaps we didn't need to do anything more. So I continued to labor with Wes and Elizabeth. 

My doctor came down to check me around 5:30-6pm. When he checked I hadn't made any more progress, despite the more painful contractions. I felt discouraged. But we decided to break my water before trying some pitocin. He broke my water at little after 6:00pm.  Almost immediately, the baby had a major heart rate drop. Nurses rushed in and gave me an IV, oxygen, and a scalp monitor for baby. It was very scary. I wasn't sure what would happen next. The baby's heartrate came back up shortly after that, and remained stable for the rest of labor.

Breaking my water did get my contractions going. They got much more painful and closer together. But at my next check a few hours later I was only to 6-7cm.  I felt very discouraged and like my body wasn't doing the right thing. Kate was born in less than 2 hours, and Emeline was born after only 6 hours of contractions. Even though Emeline's birth was longer, both her and Kate's labor were very straightforward. I had thought that starting out labor at 4cm, then breaking my water would just shoot things along, so I was regretting forcing the induction and worried my body wasn't ready and we'd need more interventions to get the baby out.

Wes, Elizabeth, and our nurse were great support and we tried some more positions, including this thing called a peanut ball. They had me lay in bed on my side with a huge pill shaped ball between your legs to open your hips. It was super uncomfortable, and I was really getting to the end if my rope with the pain, but after a short time with that I was overwhelmed with the urge to push. Maybe 15 min of pushing, and the baby was out. I asked if it was a boy or a girl, and everyone said "we can't see yet!". One more push, and they said, "it's a girl!" and quickly laid her on my chest. I just breathed in relief, resting and praising God that it was over and my third daughter, Adele Christine, was here. 

After Adele was born, they saw that she had a lot of facial bruising, and they assumed this was caused by her being stuck in a posterior position for a while. Once we realized she had been stuck, we understood why things had been so up and down for a while. She needed to turn to get in a good position, and when we finally tried the peanut ball, that helped her turn, then things finally went fast.

All in all, it was about a 5-6 hour labor, and despite the heart rate scare and the slower process, I was grateful that she was born without pain medication or pitocin. She's here and healthy and we are so grateful! Here are a few pictures from the birth. Welcome Adele!