the story of violet’s birth

October 23, 2014

As you know, It’s a GIRL!

Our sweet little girl, Violet LaMarr Ideus was born on October 9th at 2:45 in the afternoon, which makes her 2 weeks old today!

So here is our birth story… (I know I became OBSESSED with reading birth stories towards the end of my pregnancy, so hopefully this is interesting reading to some of you expectant moms out there)

The weather on her birthday: a beautiful, crisp Autumn day and the leaves were just beginning to turn.

The day before was typical… bible study in the morning, then regular cleaning at SCLP. Deb had me on ‘modified duty’ (aka the boring jobs you give to an old lady like dishes and filling out deposit slips). I got in a 1 hr nap before working on the computer in the afternoon. We took Arrow for a 3 mile walk, ate leftover enchiladas and then I had big plans to take a shower and watch a movie I had recorded the week before. BUT my body had other plans!

Conveniently enough, my water broke in the shower! I know what you’re thinking…. ‘how did you know your water broke if you were all wet?!’ To answer you, it was a different temperature and I knew it wasn’t pee! I won’t go into anymore detail, but it was definitely amniotic fluid. It was 7:30pm and Ryan was helping Glen put up Walk for Paws billboards, so I calmly phoned into my Dr’s office. To my surprise, my sweet teddy bear of a OB/GYN was taking his own calls that evening so I was able to speak directly to him. He said since I wasn’t having any contractions to go for a long walk then come into the hospital in a couple hours. THEN I called Ryan (since I knew he’d be FULL of questions. He always is).

Well…. I knew from my childbirth book that once your water breaks, it’s pretty much a sure thing that’s it’s baby day, so I took full advantage of my no-pain yet situation. I blew dried my hair, edited a couple sessions, did a load of laundry, we took Arrow for another long walk… by this time it was around 10:30 and still nothing. So I packed a bag, we dropped Arrow off at SCLP to board and headed to Methodist Women’s Hospital on 192nd and Dodge, arriving at 11pm.

We checked in, I was checked and admitted and then we started walking the halls to try to get things moving along.

my room had no windows, which kinda drove me nuts. I like to know what time of day it is. It seemed like hours and hours of night. : (

After an hour and a half of wandering the halls listening to Classic Country Radio on Pandora via iPhone, still nothin. #frustrating

So a little disappointed they recommended some Pitocin to begin labor. Then boy did the contractions start.

From 3:30 am to 5:30am the only comfy position for me was my left side in the bed… Ryan tried to sleep on the couch. Until my moaning woke him up (poor baby!). I made him rub my back, but that, of course, did nothing. I arrived to the hospital dilated to 3 cm already and hadn’t been checked since then. So I asked if the nurse could check to see my progress…… all the time thinking to myself ‘if I’m at, like, 8 I could probably handle this pain until the end. Butttttt, if I’m only at 3.5, then bring on the epidural!)

I was at 5cm and 80% effaced at 5:30am and kindly requested an epidural. : )

Best. Invention. Ever. And my anesthesiologist was super friendly and nice. After that, we tried to sleep a bit until I was checked again around 10am.

Yeah! at 8cm!

Then again at noon… 9.5cm and 100% effaced!

Around 12:45pm I started pushing. We had Pandora on and I was cracking jokes… it was a regular party. There were a ton of people in my delivery room:

Ryan

Dr. Weidner

Dr. Weidner’s partner, Jill (who actually delivered Violet because Dr. W had had surgery on his arm recently)

2 baby nurses

my nurse, Sue

a student (it was her last day on rotation and was the ONLY one of her classmates who hadn’t seen a birth yet!)

the student’s instructor every now and then

………….

Then after an hour of pushing, my epidural had begun tapering off and boy… the burning. owwie.

And at 2:45pm, Miss Violet greeted us with a big ol’ cry.

I waited for the shout “IT’S A…….”

But no one was saying anything! I had to ASK! Then I had to look for myself because I didn’t believe them. haha

The only emotion I can tell you that i felt was shock. Complete shock and awe at what my body accomplished.

Then they placed Violet on my chest. Tears were streaming down my face, but I was so speechless. No words.

But from the bottom of my heart I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. My pregnancy was perfect (except for the terrible awful heartburn the last trimester … which now we know why!) and my labor and delivery was all I could have hoped for. The staff was excellent and the care we received was just above and beyond. I think the best advice I can give anyone about to have a baby is to throw your expectations and preconceptions out the window. I had no birth plan and no expectations except to trust in God and take things as they came. I have no disappointments and a healthy baby girl that we love more than anything.

proud Grandpa Jim…

first family photo

first bath

first morning snuggles with Daddy

we’re lucky to have so many friends and family that live in Omaha that were able to pay us a visit in the hospital…

she has so much hair. We call her our little monkey head.

My Aunt Jenni and Grandma Newton (aka LaMarr Newton, where Violet’s middle name comes from)

Violet is her 4th great grand child….

my cousin Eric will be her Godfather!

Can’t wait for Eric and Ashley’s baby girl to be born in February!

They are sure to be best friends. : )

the hospital gives every new parent a ‘celebratory dinner.’ It was actually quite tasty!

first bath at home…

we were home 1 night then had to return to Omaha the next day for a blood draw… darn bilirubin doubled over night, actually, so back to the hospital we went with our little pumpkin baby.