I won’t write a long intro. We’ll just jump back into the story ☺️

(You can find Part 1 here.)

We decided to go with the vacuum delivery to force M out of her cozy home.

At this point I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep for days. In between contractions/pushes I was given oxygen and K was wiping my forehead with a cold washcloth. Most of the nurses in the room were holding my legs/feet for me.

This last part of delivery lasted 30 minutes & I had my eyes closed the entire time. All my efforts were being put into staying awake and pushing. K witnessed two pop-offs and he could see the doctors getting concerned. He knew we only had one more attempt left.

I could hear a change in his voice. I knew some of my pushes were revealing M’s head for a brief moment. As he was encouraging me, I could hear his excitement when progress was being made.

No one told me it was down to the wire, but the nurses, doctors, and K insisted that we were almost there- one more good one. They put the vacuum to her and told me to push on the next contraction, but K and I both think I lied about the next contraction and I just started to push because I was so. over. it.

Again, my eyes were closed but this is K’s rendition:
As I was pushing the doctor was pulling on the vacuum with all her strength- her feet were pushing against my bed because she was pulling so hard. He watched as M’s head came out and the vacuum popped off…. but instead of letting her contract back into the birth canal two nurses grabbed onto her shoulders and pulled her free.

There was no “ok we have her head, just one more push for the shoulders”… it was no baby and then THE WHOLE BABY. She arrived at 8:36pm.

They put her naked, squaking little body on my stomach for a brief moment and patted her dry, but due to the trauma, method, and length of delivery she was taken by the NICU nurses and examined next to my bed. Just seeing her for a few seconds was so surreal.

I’m learning that parenthood is a continuous cycle of frustration/stress/confusion followed by extreme relief. Over and over. This was the first bout of relief. As soon as she was out K and I took the breath that we’d been holding for 12+ hours.

The nurses invited K over to the corner and he hung out with M while they repaired me. I received stitches & a 24+ hour catheter. The doc and nurses warned me that it was going to be a rough recovery (& they weren’t lying).

It took the doctors an hour to fix me up. During that time I sent out a text to our group message letting them know all was good, baby was here, and K would be out in the lobby to bring them in soon. And then FINALLY M was cleared by the nurses and we were reunited.

The NICU nurses told K that M was ok and healthy, but she was slightly stressed from the long & hard delivery. She recommended that only he and I hold her that night- if she was passed around it might stress her out and she’d have to go to the NICU. We weren’t upset one bit about getting to hog our daughter all night but we felt bad that our parents hung around for 8+ hours and wouldn’t get to hold their granddaughter that night.
(No worries- they all took their turns the following day.)

Some things I’d like to remember about labor & delivery:

I had a great epidural. I felt pressure during delivery but I didn’t feel any pain, even when they attempted the forceps and the vacuum. The contractions got a little ouchie toward the end but they were the green light to push so I didn’t mind. I didn’t noticed the placenta delivery at all.

I was in a great mood immediately after delivery. I was joking around with the doctors while they were stitching me up and making them & the NICU nurses laugh. Either my hormones were going haywire and making me giddy or I was just delirious. Dr. Heartless was a totally different person after M arrived. She was friendly and joking with both K and I. (We wondered where that person was four hours ago… *eyeroll*)

Our poor friends and family were terrified. My labor progressed so quickly and they knew we were ready to push at 3pm. We stopped visiting the lobby and texting shortly after that. They didn’t get the “all good!” text from me until 9:03pm. We didn’t mean to freak them out or go radio silent… we were just busy. They were very very panicked, though. Oops! (Sorry everyone!)

And that’s the basic story. (“Basic”…. lol. It took me two whole posts.) After delivery and at my 6 week postpartum appointment my doctor was a friendly, kind human. I know on delivery day she had 3 emergency c-sections so I will give her the benefit of the doubt as far as bedside manner goes… I guess.

First thoughts about M? She has my nose. I think it’s the first comment K made about her. Other than that, she’s resembled him since day one. Also, for having a vacuum delivery, her head wasn’t terribly misshapen or bruised. By the following morning her head was 100% normal. We also think she might be a strawberry blonde but time will tell. Her hair was blonde/reddish/auburn depending on the lighting and her eyes were super dark- we couldn’t tell what color they were. (They’re now a very dark blue.)

Delivery SUCKED. The first two weeks of her life were SO hard. Motherhood has been the biggest adjustment and hardest stage of my life so far. (Newborn stage wasn’t our favorite, lol.) BUT… I’d go through all of it again 100xs over just to have M. She is our favorite.

If you’ve stuck around through part 1 and 2… wow! I’m impressed. I promise I’m taking a little break from the baby content on the blog for a bit 😉 Thanks for putting up with me this long!