She’s Here!!

Grace Michelle Nicholson has arrived! After a long labor and an unexpected delivery, Grace was born at 9:25 p.m. Sunday, July 8. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 12 oz. and she’s 19 ¾ in. long. She is everything we dreamed she would be and more.

For those of you interested in the story…
I went into active labor around 9:30 p.m. Saturday night. Todd and I had actually been up to Labor and Delivery the Thursday night before that because I was having contractions, but they just weren’t strong enough yet (those were the doctor’s words, not mine). So after a few days of contractions, I finally said, “We’ve got to go back. This has to be it.” We went into Labor and Delivery around 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning, but the nurse said I was only 2 cm dilated and that I should go home, take a walk, and come back in a few hours. Since it was about 3:00 a.m., Todd and I decided to walk a few laps in the church sanctuary. After walking and trying to get some rest, we went back to the hospital, hoping that we wouldn’t be turned away again. The nurse checked me again and I was 3 cm, just enough to stay.

The day went pretty quick after that. My nurse was a wonderful, Christian woman, and the doctor on-call was who I was really hoping would deliver me. With the great coaching of Todd and Sara, I endured my contractions till about 11:00 a.m. and then received my epidural. What a relief to not have to feel that pain anymore! It was nice to rest. I was getting worried about Todd though, cause he got a little woozy after my epidural. He didn’t even see the guy putting it in my back. How he was going to get through the delivery was beyond me.

After a few more hours of waiting and some episodes of Spongebob, the nurse checked me and said, “Let’s try to push a little.” After pushing, she said that I needed to dilate a little more, so we waited some more. Then the doctor came in, checked me, and asked me to push. I pushed through a few contractions and then stopped. It was then that we were told that Grace was face up instead of face down. I was also not dilating anymore with my contractions, so I was just staying put at around 9 cm. He told us that a C-section was a big possibility. I was pretty devastated, because I really wanted to have her vaginally. I never even entertained the thought of having a C-section. The doctor gave me another hour to see if I would dilate and if not, then we would have to go with the C-section.

We all prayed and waited. When he came back, I hadn’t done much but he decided to let me push anyway. So I pushed with everything I had in me. I had never been so determined to do anything in all my life. My doctor just kept saying, “Man, you’re an awesome pusher. One of the best I’ve ever seen.” I was so close to getting her out. Her head was right there, but then Grace’s heart rate dropped really low. We all just held our breaths and waited for it to go back up. It finally went back up to normal, but then went right back down again. After going back to normal a second time, my doctor looked at me and said that this was the end of the road. Grace had tolerated labor so well, but she couldn’t do it anymore. A C-section was the only solution.

Once they decided to do a C-section, my room was bombarded with doctors and nurses. It was like a whirlwind after that. They wheeled me into the operating room, transferred me to another bed, and prepped my belly for surgery. Once Todd came in from putting on his scrubs, they were ready to go. Todd wanted to stay right by my head, but I told him to watch her being born. I knew that if he could handle seeing me do all that pushing I had just done, he could handle watching the C-section. I then heard the doctor say, “Here she is! And she has the cord wrapped around her neck twice!” (It was a relief to know that this was the reason I couldn’t have her vaginally). And just like that, she was out. Todd and I just looked at each other and bawled. It was the most amazing feeling to know that she was finally here. They took her over to clean her up and then brought her over to see me. I automatically recognized that she had Todd’s nose. She was beautiful, and I just couldn’t believe that she was ours.

After three days in the hospital, we are home and doing well. Grace loves to sleep and eat. She also has a really high squeal, so we’re thinking she’s a soprano J Todd is a wonderful daddy, and he’s been such a big help. He is an expert at swaddling, and he changes diapers like a champ. Because of the C-section, I haven’t been able to do all the things that I want to do as a new mother, which has been hard. I still have a lot of healing to do, but it was all worth it. I thank the Lord for our healthy, beautiful baby. Thank you for your prayers, and I’m sure we’ll post some more pictures of our girl soon.