Indie’s arrival

First things first…her name (since I know you’re all wondering, and half of you are thinking, you named her what?!)

When I was pregnant with Gavin Jared REALLY wanted to name him Indy.  I said no and he kept insisting.  I don’t know why he decided he liked Indy (from the movies, perhaps?) but he was stuck on it.  I wasn’t.  At all.  And I really thought it sounded cuter for a girl than a boy.  So I told him that and that was the end of that.  Or so I thought.

Fast forward 2.5 years when Tessa was born, the name Indy never came up.  Fast forward 2 more years and while trying to come up with a name for baby #4, the name never came up.  Until we had dinner with Jared’s sister Alissa, 2 weeks before she was born.  We were talking about names, looking through her ward directory, and nothing was sticking out to us.  Then Alissa says, “hey Jared, I thought you liked Indy”.  And Jared’s face just lit up and that was basically the end of the discussion.  There was really no convincing him otherwise after that.  So I let him have naming rights…and I got to choose the spelling (with and ie at the end) and her middle name.

Now onto her arrival…which really isn’t that exciting, but I’ve got to get it down before I forget.

I was scheduled to be induced on Tuesday, February 7 (2 days prior to my due date).  I got a call from the hospital saying I was first on the induction list and I would receive a call the next morning between 6:30 & 8:30 am and have 45 mins to get there.  Since I was the first one to be called, I really thought it would be closer to the 6:30 time.  I set my alarm for 6:30 and got up, showered and ready.  And then I basically waited.  And waited.  Jared had gone to the gym that morning at 6 and came home, made the kids pancakes, and got ready.  And we continued to wait.  Needless to say, I was pretty antsy.  I was anxious about this induction to begin with, so the waiting didn’t help!

At 9:00 (felt like noon!) I finally got a phone call and they asked if I could come in right away (so much for 45 mins!).  I got a blessing from Jared and his Dad, we said goodbye to Gavin and Tessa (Mia had already left for school), and we were off and at 9:30 were checked in to the hospital.

By 10:30 they were starting the pitocin.  And then the waiting began.  I knew going into it that it would be a long, slow, boring day.  I was induced with Gavin and Tessa and they were both born between 5 and 6 pm.  I didn’t expect this day to go any faster.  When put on pitocin, I start having contractions, but they don’t really get any stronger, and they come almost one on top of the other.  As a result, they don’t increase the amount of pitocin and things just take a while.

It didn’t help that my doctor didn’t make it around to break my water until 1:15.  That would have probably helped a little to get things going. 

By 2:30 I was ready for my epidural.  Or so I thought.  I decided to go to the bathroom before it was placed, and after I went to the bathroom, the contractions lessened.  Weird.  Apparently contractions will feel stronger with a full bladder (or so the anesthesiologist said).  So when the anesthesiologist arrived I was feeling contractions, but they were tolerable.  Anywho, I was really nervous, but getting the epidural went just fine.

The epidural started to kick in and I could feel less pain, but it wasn’t a complete relief from the pain.

4:00 - I was dilated to a 5 and the epidural (2nd straight dose at this point) had still not kicked in.  I could feel almost everything on the right side of my stomach.  I was kind of starting to worry that it wasn’t going to ever completely work.

4:25 – I was talking to Julie on the phone.  Had a really strong contraction that I couldn’t talk through.  Got off the phone right then and called in the nurse to tell her I was still feeling WAY more than I should!  My nurse came in and decided to check me first and I was at a 10!  She called the doc and the anesthesiologist and started getting everything ready.

Thankfully the anesthesiologist arrived right away, gave me another straight dose and I prayed it would kick in!

Soon after the doctor arrived, and he told me to start pushing.  And after 4 pushes at 4:47 pm she was born.  Perfect as could be.

One thing that was different with Indie’s birth is after she was born, I had her in my room with me for over 2 hours.  After the kids came and left they took her to the nursery and I finally went down to the recovery floor.

Also, most babies soon after birth kind of zonk out.  Not Indie.  She was awake and LOUD for the first hour and a half of her life!

Here’s a few pictures of her big arrival…