
It has been less than two weeks since we welcomed Poppy Odette Davis into our little family. It seems like almost everything was different this second time around. I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, but the Friday before, we found out baby girl was sideways so I had to be prepared for a possible - and likely - c-section if she didn't turn before then. I devoured the spinning babies website and spent a lot of time weightless in the pool willing with all my might for baby girl to turn.
Sunday after dinner, my parents took Lyla home with them with plans to meet us and baby sister the next afternoon in the hospital. Rob and I finished cleaning around our house and took a few last pictures of my swollen belly before crawling in bed and watching a movie. It was a little after 10 pm when I finally decided to start timing my contractions. They were consistently four minutes apart, but not very painful. Since baby girl was sideways, it made things more complicated and I knew that if I was in labor there was no hope of the doctors being able to perform a version at the hospital, so we called the doctor to see what we should do. She wanted us to come on in. I had gone in to labor on my own hours before I was scheduled to be induced.
A little before midnight, we loaded the car with our bags and headed in. They admitted us around 12:30 am and called in the sonographer to see if baby girl was still sideways. We were so relieved - and in a little bit of disbelief - to find out she had turned head down. We soon found out that the reason she had so much room to move around was because I had Polyhydramnios, or an excess amount of amniotic fluid.
The next 32 hours were exhausting. My contractions -though frequent and increasing - weren't doing anything because of all the fluid and likewise, baby girls head wouldn't drop. We needed my water to break, but the doctors couldn't break it until the baby's head was far enough down. Our doctors were awesome and consulted with us constantly. It seemed like every five hours or so we'd come back to the possibility of a c-section.
Finally, 32 hours or so in, my water broke and I went from 2 cm to 8 cm in 30 minutes and from 8 cm to 10 cm in less than 5 min. Once I was at 8 cm, baby girl's heart beat started slowing down with each contraction, so they gave me an oxygen mask and had me move around to try and get it to come back up. Nothing worked...and for a moment, I started to panic at the urgency of the nurse's voice when she paged the doctor to come quick.
Thankfully though, after 10-15 minutes of pushing, sweet Poppy girl was here and healthy. There was such an immense relief after 33 long and stressful hours to finally have her sweet little body in my arms.
She still seems too good to be true. She's perfect. I've been relishing every moment with her snuggled up on my chest the past week and a half. Wanting desperately to freeze time and simultaneously see where she will go and what she will see and dream. I want to see her play with her sister - who loves her even more than this mama's heart had hoped she would - and see her learn and do and become.
But right now, we are in this sleep-deprived dreamlike state, in which I hang on her every breath and hold so tenderly her tiny body close to mine.
I am so in love and thankful for this little family of mine.
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