Teagan Ella Johnson
Born 1/23/12 @16:25
7 lbs. 14 oz.
20 1/4 inches
What a week it's been! This will be the first blog post that I write for all to read!! Finally, our baby girl has arrived!
If you read back through the posts from my pregnancy, you'll see that I had to be monitored for blood pressure issues throughout the 9-10 months. All that really means is that I had a few extra fetal scans and doctor appointments to keep an eye on my general health and baby's overall development. Praise the Lord that we both never experienced any complications.... in fact, baby girl usually measured in the 70% percentile of growth at each scan, making us wonder just how big she'd actually be. Because of my blood pressure, my doctor informed me early on that they would not allow me to stay pregnant past 40 weeks. What this meant is that I would be scheduled for an induction if she didn't come early on her own.
Recognizing that most first time babies are late (including in my own family history), I was pretty resigned to the notion that I would most likely be induced. With that knowledge, I found myself hoping to have a birth plan that included as little medical intervention as possible, save any pain relief options that I thought would help manage my general anxiety about medical stuff. What I mean is that if I had to be induced, I really hoped that the first round of synthetic hormones (inserted onto the cervix) would help me go into labor prior to having to have a pitocin drip to start contracting my uterus. I won't go into detail here because it's probably too much information and could spark a debate about natural v. hospital-intervention births, which I am not really interested in doing.
I decided that I wanted to try to bring on labor the week before my scheduled induction, so I began doing some of the things I had heard through Lamaze class and had read about... you know, bouncing on the exercise ball, squatting, etc. I went to the doctor for my last OB appointment on Thursday, January 19 and found out that I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. That could mean anything, she said, as some women stay dilated for weeks before they actually go into labor. I left feeling excited that at least something had started to happen.
On Sunday, January 22, I had a scheduled prenatal massage, just as I did the week earlier. This time though, I let the masseuse know about my scheduled induction and asked her if she wouldn't mind doing some acupressure/reflexology points to help bring on labor. She spent about 30 minutes rubbing and pressing various points on my feet and ankles and then finished out the prenatal massage really relaxing my lower back and hips. It was dreamy! I finished the message around 14:30 and walked over to the hotel where Sean, Summer, Luke, and my dad were hanging out watching football. We had a late lunch and watched the Patriots beat the Ravens. Throughout the game, I started to feel cramping about 30 minutes apart- the pain was equivalent to that of menstrual cramp- sorry men readers. I decided to tell Sean what I was feeling, but didn't think much of it as I had just finished the massage and figured maybe something that the masseuse did actually stimulated something...
I guess I'll never know if the massage had something to do with it, but by 20:30, I had discharged the thing they call a "mucus plug." Again, TMI, sorry. Sean and I were at home by this time and the event spun me into stir-crazy mode. I decided to hop in the shower and pack a last minute snack bag for Sean and Summer- "just in case we go into labor during the night," I thought... For some reason, I didn't believe I was actually in labor. All of the things I had heard about what labor pains feel like were not what I was experiencing. Also, I was not previously aware of my pain tolerance since I have never (thankfully) had any serious injuries- I figured that "real" labor would probably hurt much worse. Throughout the night the cramping continued and Sean began to time them with his handy little iPhone app. By 5:30 I had vomited and the cramping was about 4 minutes apart. We decided to take my BP since the doctor encouraged us to call if it got high over the weekend and it was really up there: 158/105. Yikes! We finally got a hold of the on-call doc and she advised us to come in to the hospital.
We stopped by the hotel to pick up Summer, said hello/goodbye to Dad and Luke, and arrived to the hospital at 9:00. A couple hours later a resident and med student came in to check me out (Georgetown is a teaching hospital, so there are lots of folks in and out)... What they said shocked all of us: I was already at 5 cm and 100% effaced! That's half way there! I couldn't believe it. They inquired whether or not I wanted an epidural for the pain and I had decided that I would- but would like to wait it out as long as I could. An hour or so later, the contractions were getting really close together and I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to sit still for the epidural if I waited much longer. The anesthesiologist came and I was able to breathe through 3 contractions while the epidural was being set up. After that, they checked me again and I was between 7 and 8 cm.
Things were moving very fast. One of the things that I really appreciated about the epidural is that they only administered the minimum for my height and weight and then gave me a push button to increase the medication if I felt I needed it. I'm not sure if this is how it's done in other places, but I hadn't heard this before. As the contractions increased, I was able to leave the medicine at a level where I could still feel cramping, but not intense pain like I had been feeling since we arrived to the hospital that morning. Within another hour or so, the doctors said I was at 10 cm and that it could be time to push. When they went to check if they should break the waters, the waters broke with a simple touch- no crochet hook! It was a strange feeling, almost like a little balloon popped in my belly. Another woman was giving birth in the room next door, so we had to wait it out about an hour before the main doctor could come in to oversee my pushing. Once I was instructed to push, I could tell them when a contraction was coming on and the L&D nurse confirmed it with the monitor. After 30 minutes of pushing through about 7 contractions, little Teagan was born!!! Everyone in the room was so encouraging and helpful... and I am so thankful that Sean and Summer were there to support me.
What followed was about an hour or two of Teagan getting checked out, me getting fixed up, and all of us preparing to move to the maternity ward. Sean, Teagan and I spent about 48 hours in the hospital. We were discharged and arrived home on Wednesday, January 25.
I am so thankful that the Lord allowed Teagan to be born early- literally 24 hours prior to my scheduled induction. I am also thankful that I was able to spontaneously experience labor and have a vaginal/normal birth with no needed medical interventions or complications from my BP. I feel secure about my decision to use pain medication as it really helped by allowing me to remain calm and confident in my ability to deliver sweet Tea into the world.
Well, there it is. More to come later on her first week at home. Sean and I are doing great and finding our routine. He is the most amazing husband, friend, and baby carer any girl could ever ask for. I am truly blessed to have him in my life and am excited to grow in love and life with him and our baby girl.
On Sunday, January 22, I had a scheduled prenatal massage, just as I did the week earlier. This time though, I let the masseuse know about my scheduled induction and asked her if she wouldn't mind doing some acupressure/reflexology points to help bring on labor. She spent about 30 minutes rubbing and pressing various points on my feet and ankles and then finished out the prenatal massage really relaxing my lower back and hips. It was dreamy! I finished the message around 14:30 and walked over to the hotel where Sean, Summer, Luke, and my dad were hanging out watching football. We had a late lunch and watched the Patriots beat the Ravens. Throughout the game, I started to feel cramping about 30 minutes apart- the pain was equivalent to that of menstrual cramp- sorry men readers. I decided to tell Sean what I was feeling, but didn't think much of it as I had just finished the massage and figured maybe something that the masseuse did actually stimulated something...
I guess I'll never know if the massage had something to do with it, but by 20:30, I had discharged the thing they call a "mucus plug." Again, TMI, sorry. Sean and I were at home by this time and the event spun me into stir-crazy mode. I decided to hop in the shower and pack a last minute snack bag for Sean and Summer- "just in case we go into labor during the night," I thought... For some reason, I didn't believe I was actually in labor. All of the things I had heard about what labor pains feel like were not what I was experiencing. Also, I was not previously aware of my pain tolerance since I have never (thankfully) had any serious injuries- I figured that "real" labor would probably hurt much worse. Throughout the night the cramping continued and Sean began to time them with his handy little iPhone app. By 5:30 I had vomited and the cramping was about 4 minutes apart. We decided to take my BP since the doctor encouraged us to call if it got high over the weekend and it was really up there: 158/105. Yikes! We finally got a hold of the on-call doc and she advised us to come in to the hospital.
We stopped by the hotel to pick up Summer, said hello/goodbye to Dad and Luke, and arrived to the hospital at 9:00. A couple hours later a resident and med student came in to check me out (Georgetown is a teaching hospital, so there are lots of folks in and out)... What they said shocked all of us: I was already at 5 cm and 100% effaced! That's half way there! I couldn't believe it. They inquired whether or not I wanted an epidural for the pain and I had decided that I would- but would like to wait it out as long as I could. An hour or so later, the contractions were getting really close together and I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to sit still for the epidural if I waited much longer. The anesthesiologist came and I was able to breathe through 3 contractions while the epidural was being set up. After that, they checked me again and I was between 7 and 8 cm.
Things were moving very fast. One of the things that I really appreciated about the epidural is that they only administered the minimum for my height and weight and then gave me a push button to increase the medication if I felt I needed it. I'm not sure if this is how it's done in other places, but I hadn't heard this before. As the contractions increased, I was able to leave the medicine at a level where I could still feel cramping, but not intense pain like I had been feeling since we arrived to the hospital that morning. Within another hour or so, the doctors said I was at 10 cm and that it could be time to push. When they went to check if they should break the waters, the waters broke with a simple touch- no crochet hook! It was a strange feeling, almost like a little balloon popped in my belly. Another woman was giving birth in the room next door, so we had to wait it out about an hour before the main doctor could come in to oversee my pushing. Once I was instructed to push, I could tell them when a contraction was coming on and the L&D nurse confirmed it with the monitor. After 30 minutes of pushing through about 7 contractions, little Teagan was born!!! Everyone in the room was so encouraging and helpful... and I am so thankful that Sean and Summer were there to support me.
What followed was about an hour or two of Teagan getting checked out, me getting fixed up, and all of us preparing to move to the maternity ward. Sean, Teagan and I spent about 48 hours in the hospital. We were discharged and arrived home on Wednesday, January 25.
I am so thankful that the Lord allowed Teagan to be born early- literally 24 hours prior to my scheduled induction. I am also thankful that I was able to spontaneously experience labor and have a vaginal/normal birth with no needed medical interventions or complications from my BP. I feel secure about my decision to use pain medication as it really helped by allowing me to remain calm and confident in my ability to deliver sweet Tea into the world.
Well, there it is. More to come later on her first week at home. Sean and I are doing great and finding our routine. He is the most amazing husband, friend, and baby carer any girl could ever ask for. I am truly blessed to have him in my life and am excited to grow in love and life with him and our baby girl.
