Violet Eileen Poulsen

Hello once again! I realize it has been well over a year since my last blog post and obviously MANY things have happened! A couple of the most important were of course, the return of my amazing husband and the birth of our beautiful baby girl. I know that this blog is shamefully overdue, but I figure better late than never. Since Violet’s birth did happen almost a year ago I am not sure if I will be able to remember all the details of her labor/delivery, but here it is.

A week before my due date of September 7^th, 2010 I had a doctor’s appointment to check how things were progressing. Baby girl was of course healthy with a strong heartbeat, I was measuring small but not so small as to give the doctor concern, and I was actually pretty comfortable considering I was just about due. Unfortunately though, I was barely dilated and still not effaced. We still had a week to go before the actual due date so I was hopeful that within that week something might change. Well, a week came and went to find me sitting with no contractions, barely any Braxton Hicks, (let alone painful ones), and at the exact same dilation as before. The doctor said that I was at a two but could stretch to a three and was about 40-50% effaced. While that may sound like a lot to some moms who go into labor the next day, I was at this same dilation with Oliver before he was born and was not hopeful since I had to be induced with him. I asked the doctor to sweep the membranes, (you can google that if you don’t know what that is), but he told me that if baby girl was not ready, then she was not ready and sweeping the membranes would not start labor. I was determined to go into labor naturally so I told the doctor to not schedule me for an induction until I absolutely had to, which was in a week. That week I did everything imaginable to start labor. I was already taking evening primrose oil, black cohosh supplements, and was doing jumping jacks along with long walks up steep hills. Well, again a week went by and not even a peep from baby girl. We had run out of time. I was willing to wait her out but the doctor was not, explaining to me that she could start to starve if we were to keep her in there any longer. The good side to this situation though was the fact that my sister Julia was going to be able to be there for the birth. The day before the induction, (Monday, September 13^th), my sister Jessica drove down to South Carolina with her kids and Julie in tow. I was really excited because this was going to be the first time all of us sisters had been together since Seth and I had gotten married over three years before. Plus, Jessica had just had a baby boy almost a month before and this was going to be the first time that I got to see him. Beckett Michael did not disappoint!!! He was so stinking cute and SUCH a snuggler!!! It made me excited to meet our baby girl, which was going to happened in less than 24 hours. We all got to hang out at the park and just be with each other. Needless to say, we had a blast. It had been WAY too long since we had all been together and it was so cool to be able to be surrounded by my sisters just like when we were little. Sadly, Jess and her family had to return home that afternoon, but Julie was to stay with me so she could come to my induction the next day.

Tuesday, September 14^th: INDUCTION DAY

That morning, I had to wake up at around 3:30 since we had to be at the hospital by 5:00 am. I wanted to make sure that I got in a shower and was able to eat breakfast before the whole process started. I was very excited that morning and could barely sleep the night before from nerves so I was ready to get the show on the road and meet my daughter already. Our house was clean, our bag was packed, and Julie and I left the house at 4:30 so we could be at the hospital on time. I let Seth stay and sleep in with Oliver because I knew it would be a few weeks before he could do that again. He was going to come in later that day after he had dropped Ollie off with our neighbors who volunteered to watch him for us. The starting up of an induction is the boring part. LOTS of waiting around with nothing happening. Julie and I got there on time, but got lost in some of the labyrinthine hallways that surround L&D. (To confuse baby snatchers…?) Anyways, we finally found where we were going and were assigned to L&D room 4, which was a bonus from last time because we actually had a window! We had packed several games and gave the nurses a laugh because here we were walking into a delivery room with Cranium, Uno and Phase 10 under our arms. Jules had also packed me some snacks since eating while you are being induced is NOT allowed. This however is a very outdated school of thought since all of my recently published baby books said that eating small snacks and taking small drinks of water actually helps keep up the energy of the mother, thus making labor and delivery much easier and shorter. Badda bing. (and it totally did). Anyways, I got all hooked up with the baby monitor stuff, argued with a nurse about wearing a sports bra during labor, and she then had to stick me a couple of times since she missed my vein to start the pitocin. (so she claims) She also decided to put the IV into my wrist crease, making it impossible for me to grip the side rails of the bed without pain. I did not really care for that particular nurse. Luckily, she was a night shift nurse so the nurse that was going to be with me during my labor and delivery showed up a little later and she was AMAZING!!! Her name was Stacie and she was the BEST. Julie and her hit it off, and it was relaxing for me to listen to them talk and joke while the contractions started. She was also very helpful since I told her I would like this to go quickly, so she upped my pitocin on time, every time. I had also told her that I had a wish to do this without an epidural since my one with Oliver had left me feeling nauseous and wasted. She told me that she would not offer one, but that if I changed my mind to let her know. The doctor came in at around 7:30 and broke my water, which I must say is one of the nastiest feelings in the world. It didn’t hurt, but it just felt like I had peed my pants in bed. Goo. After awhile, Seth showed up and it was about 10:00 in the morning. The contractions had started to get a little more intense, but were still pretty irregular. I passed the time by browsing on facebook, cake wrecks and reading Harry Potter. Finally, I was checked again and told that I was actually staring to dilate! Woo hoo! I was only at a four, but that was better than nothing! The contractions started getting more frequent so I asked if we could play Phase 10 to keep my mind off of the pain. It worked surprisingly well. Since I was so focused on dominating my opponents, I was not able to give all of my attention to the cracking pain in my pelvis. We played until I got to Phase 9 when a nurse came in to do another check. When that happened, we all had to move the table the cards were on, Seth had to move off the end of the bed, etc… Anyways, after that particular check, the contractions really increased and it sucked since I was only at a five. I wanted to go back to playing cards, but Jules had turned on our other laptop so Seth and I decided to watch a movie. We finally decided on Armageddon and made it about a third of the way through, (I don’t think they were even in space yet), before I wanted him to shut it off and just talk to me. My contractions were horrible but the stupid monitor was not registering them, so while I was having an intense contraction, Seth would be telling me that I wasn’t having one. Not fun. Contractions were coming every 3 minutes but lasting for about 45-90 seconds. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take, especially considering we couldn’t tell from the monitor how bad they were so I broke down and asked for an epidural. The nurses told me the anesthesiologist was busy with another patient and that it would be at least another 20 minutes before she could come in and administer the epidural. I stared at a spot just above the clock and tried to focus all my attention to that little patch of wall. I was breathing and doing all that lame stuff, but I was getting annoyed waiting for the anesthesiologist to arrive. After 40 minutes the woman finally arrived. She was rude and looked like a dragon. I don’t know what her problem was, but she also gave me a lot of flack about wearing a sports bra during labor. (apparently, they like to have you buck naked under those hospital gowns and I HATE not wearing a bra). Anyways, the doc made me take the sports bra off, which was extremely difficult with my arms all hooked up to blood pressure cuffs and IV lines, not to mention the raging contractions that were threatening to break my pelvis into pieces. Once she finally had started, I had the shakes pretty bad and she kept telling me to hold still. A real peach this woman was. I obviously could not help the convulsive shaking since I was not consciously doing it. Jules left the room when the needle came out, and Seth said, “It’s crazy watching this huge needle disappear into your back!” Thank you for that Honey. Anyways, she got the stupid thing in, but I was feeling no relief. She looked mad at me for it not working, and kept upping the dosage. She would up the juice and say, “Do you feel your contractions still?” as I was panting through my current contraction. Again, she looked irritated that I wasn’t answering her, but what the heck did she want me to do? It was a miracle that I was not screaming at her when I wasn’t having a contraction and I just wanted to think about my little patch of tan wall above the clock. She finally left, saying that it would take a few minutes to kick in, which it never did. I had rolled to my side to ease the pain in my pelvis, and finally felt like pushing would help. So that’s what I did. A nurse asked me if I was pushing, and I said “YUP!” They then asked if I could roll onto my back, which I tried and had to have help with. When they had checked me to see if I was trying to push to early, they saw the top of baby girl’s head. Stacie ran to the phone and called for the doctor because if he wasn’t there in a few seconds, she would be playing catcher. They asked me not to push for the next two contractions which was the worst part of the entire labor. I had to breathe through them waiting for the doc to get all scrubbed up, gloved, and put on his little paper hat and booties before I could push again. When he finally arrived, push number one delivered the head, push number two pushed out her little body.

And just like that, it was over. We now were looking at the most beautiful baby girl in the world. The doctor loosely wrapped her in a paper pad and placed her on my chest so I could count her little fingers and toes, marvel at her full head of curly hair, and stare into her puffy little blue eyes. She was perfect. Seth cut the cord, Julie was crying and looking a little shell shocked in the corner, and I was in love with my brand new daughter. I kept thinking, “I have a daughter! I am a mother of two! I have a GIRL! Seth has a baby girl! We have two kids! We are a family of four!” It was the greatest day of my life. After I had gotten to see her, the nurses came and cleaned her off and swaddled her up. She weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and was 20 ½ inches long. Seth was in line to hold her next, and was impatiently waiting next to the little isolet for the nurses to let him get his hands on her. I have never seen a more proud father. He got to snuggle her for a few minutes before I asked him to let Auntie Julie hold her. Julie carefully took her into her arms and just looked amazed. I don’t know what was going on in her head, but I will never forget what she looked like. I then asked the nurses if I could try to feed her, which they all replied “Yes! Of course! If you’re ready!” Since the epidural had never kicked in, I still had full functioning limbs and did not have the wasted side effects of the drugs. I felt WONDERFUL!!! I asked if I could stand up yet and they kept telling me that I had to wait at least an hour before they would let me get out of bed. I then started to feed her and to my utter amazement, she latched on with no problems and was nursing like a champ! It was SO EASY! A different nurse then came in and asked us her name. Seth and I looked at each other and said, “Violet Eileen Poulsen”. We had not told anyone the name we had picked before she was born so it was great to finally announce the name of our baby girl. Violet. Our beautiful, little flower. After a bit she fell asleep and the nurses took her away to be warmed in the nursery and to receive her first bath.

Since that day almost ten months have passed and they have been the most wonderful of my life. Violet is the sweetest, most good natured baby I have ever seen. She always has a smile, loves to babble, and is our little snuggle bug. She loves watching her brother play, (as long as he doesn’t get too close to her), loves being tossed in the air by Daddy, and loves to have me tickle her little face with my hair. We all love her so much and feel the blessing of her spirit in our home every day.