**A Beautiful Birth Story

***This post will be updated with pictures at the end of the post.

**All pictures in this post are done by our dear friend, Anika Upton. Her work is fabulous, and it was an honor that she could capture it on in photos for us. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

 

On Tuesday, December 4th, I woke up feeling just a little bit different. God put it heavy on my heart to be ready to meet our sweet girl, but I was in denial and thought I was just making myself think something was actually happening. Wednesday, December 5th I went to work and had the busiest day at work we have had yet. Suprisingly, I felt "normal" and was convinced the day before was just "in my head." I worked a 12 hour day by the time I went to work and went to a dinner that we had afterward. I remember thinking that having baby that night wouldn't be ideal because I was so tired that I didn't think I would be able to get through labor.

Aunt Roo came to our house as I was getting home Wednesday night for PA school interviews that she had the next two days. We sat up and talked awhile and she gave baby girl a good belly rub and told her she should make her appearance tomorrow while she was in town. I laughed, and thought "yeah right."

At 38 weeks and 1 day, and just after 4:00 am on Thursday, December 6th, I woke up feeling uncomfortably different. I went to the bathroom and tried laying back down in bed for about 45 minutes. I was thinking that I was probably having contractions but they weren't a whole lot different than what I had felt before. I tried timing them but at that point I couldn't tell a definite start and stop with them. Daddy was getting up for work around 5:00 and by that time I thought I could maybe tell a start and stop to them. By that time Daddy decided he was going to stay home from work (which is totally a God thing - they had been short staffed at work and by his grace there were 2 people in the office so one of them could do his Crete route on the truck so he could stay home) to see what happened. At this point, I wasn't convinced that this was necessary. From about 5:00 to 7:00 I talked myself into thinking that I could tell a start and stop and that the contractions were about 7 to 10 minutes apart. She had been more active that morning than she had been in a long time.

So I got up and took a shower and got ready for work around 7:30 (I was planning to go to work after I decided this was all in my head). While I was getting ready the contractions lessened and were farther apart, so I was convinced that it was probably false labor if anything. I came out and Dan and I were sitting on the couch trying to decide what to do. At this point Dan was pretty sure we should just go to the hospital and have them check it all out, but I wasn't so sure. I was positive that it was just in my head. After all, I was not going to be that girl that went in and got sent away from the hospital without a baby. (If that happened, Little Miss probably would have been born at home because I would have been so reluctant to go back). After much prodding from Daddy and Aunt Roo, I finally agreed to go to the hospital around 9:15.

One last belly picture before walking out the door.

As we were walking out the door, I texted our friend Anika who was going to come take pictures at the hospital that we were on our way but that I didn't think it was going to be anything. She texted back that it was perfect timing because she already had a babysitter for her 3 kiddos, was in Lincoln with her camera, and had just bought a new lens. Couldn't have been more perfect timing (another God thing).

As we were driving, contractions became a bit stronger and were about 3 minutes apart (by this time, I was feeling like we were making the right decision). We parked, walked in and checked in and got right back into triage.

The nurse checked me and I was still at 3 cm dilated but about 90% effaced with a bulging bag. She asked if my water had leaked at all and it hadn't - she was suprised because it was so tight. She said she was going to call the doctor to have him come see what he wanted to do but she guessed that we would be staying. She also confirmed with a monitor that the contractions that I was having were legit (phew!). While we were waiting for the doctor, contractions hit a whole new level and I was starting to not be able to talk through them as well. After about an hour of that, her heart rate dipped down to 43 and next thing we knew 4 nurses rushed in, started throwing everything together, put oxygen on, and rushed me down the hallway on the bed down to a delivery room at 10:30.

Her heart rate went back up and an hour later the doctor arrived to check me. At 10:50 I was at 4 and 90% and he confirmed that we were going to have a baby because he was going to rupture my sack. (This is where things get a little more hazy). He talked with us and told us what to somewhat expect. About 3 or 4 minutes after he walked out of the room, her heart rate dropped again. So he came back in and was able to get her heart rate to come back up by stimulating her head. They then put an internal heart rate monitor on her head to have a more accurate reading.

 

This picture is one of my most favorite - the anticipation and excitement
is all captured in this one picture, and there is nothing more exciting
than seeing this empty, warm bed that will soon hold your sweet baby girl.

 

A very excited and anxious soon-to-be Daddy.

I was trying to wait as long as I could before getting the epidural, but her heart rate went down into the 80's again so at 11:30 the nurse came in and told me I needed to get my epidural sooner than later and that she was calling anesthesia. So they arrived and got that all in place (which was suprisingly not as bad as I thought it would be). At this point, we were starting to think a c-section was inevitable with her heart rate decelerations. The nurses were impressed with how hard and fast my uterus was contracting. Dr. Gibbens had been trying to get back over to his office to see patients but he said he was too nervous to leave and said he would be staying up on the floor to watch things closely.

 

 

After several intense contractions in a row, they decided they needed to stop them to give baby time to breathe between them. So they gave me a shot of terbutaline in the arm to stop them for an hour. Right about an hour later, contractions started again like clockwork.

 

Around 2:50 the nurse came back in and checked me and I was at 6 cm. I could tell she had moved down into the canal farther because my ribs and lungs had more room and I felt the last kick up high. My epidural wasn't working on my right side so anesthesia came back and redosed it, and all the nurses left the room. Just as soon as they had left, Dan said he could tell that something happened by how I was acting and that something felt different, and baby's heart rate dropped again. So he pushed the call button and the nurse came running back in and checked me again and I was at an 8 almost a 9 in the matter of 10 minutes.

 We went from 9 to 10 cm and by that time they started setting up all the delivery instruments. Finally, the nurse had me start pushing to see what would happen. So we pushed through a contraction and it was at that point they told us she had lots of hair. Dan, Anika and I were taking bets on what time Little Miss would make her grand entrance. The doctor arrived, and after pushing through about 7 or 8 contractions he told a nurse to go get the forceps. I cringed when he said that, but at the same time I knew she needed to be out sooner than later with all of the heart rate changes. So after only about 8 contractions and 30-40 minutes later, we pushed after he had the forceps in place and at 4:56 pm out slid the little miracle that I had prayed 9 months for - Landry Ann Matthes.

 

Landry Ann's very first breath - absolutely amazing!

 Daddy cut the cord and they put her on my chest. I could not believe that I was holding this tiny little baby that I had been carrying for the past 9 months. And she was perfect.

Her Apgar scores were 6-8-8 but overall she was doing well. She weighed

6 pounds and was 19 inches long.

 

 

 

She came out sucking!

Sweet Baby Girl with the dimple on her nose from delivery.
It was gone within a day.

Checking her over - when we first noticed that she has a spinal
dimple. Doctor reassured us that there was nothing that we
needed to do about it, it was just something that made her more unique.

 We had a little bit of time together as a family of 3, and pretty soon guests

began arriving. Grandpa and Grandma Matthes and Roo were the first

guests in the room. Not too long after Reed and Alyssa arrived with

Levi and Clara. Shortly after they moved us up to the 6th floor where

we would stay.

Around 11:15 pm that night, Landry got her first bath. She wasn't a fan of the

footprints or the actual bath part, but she did love when they scrubbed her head.

After getting her bath, we went back to the room and shortly after

Grandpa Lennie and Kilah arrived.

Our first night together was a long one as expected. We kept her in our room with us until about 5:00 am when the nurse came in to do vitals on both of us, and we were at our wits end about what to do with her because she wouldn't stop crying. So they took her to the nursery so we were able to get at least a couple hours of sleep.  The second night we asked if they could take her to the nursery so we could get a little sleep before we went home the next day. They brought her in every 2 hours to try to feed...which was a nightmare. She was not a fan of being put in any position to try to nurse and would scream the whole time. We were able to get her to latch a few times but struggled a lot every time. There is nothing more frustrating that a hungry, screaming baby that you just met and absolutely nothing to do about it!