The Long Story

Dave said he was keeping a long story short for Gretchen's first post. I'm going to post the rest of the story, so if you're not interested in what happened Sunday, August 5th and Monday, August 6th, then stop reading now...:)


Dave got back from France Saturday night around 9 pm. He was asleep at 10. See, the entire week he was gone, he thought it would be fun to stay up until 4 and 5 am (France time) almost every night. He has one night that he slept more than 2-3 hours. So basically he was tired, but was awake at 8 am Sunday ready to go. We have been slowly emptying the Easley house (not sold yet...) and unpacking in the Greer house. Peg, Don and I went on Friday and picked up some stuff. Dave wanted to make a load on Sunday, so he and his parents left go make a trip while I stayed in Greer to unpack what we got on Friday. By mid-day my back was hurting so I camped out on the couch for awhile. I was thinking I was overdoing it being two weeks before my due date. They go for a second load around 3:30ish and while they were gone I start having cramps, just regular cramps. Not contractions (I'd had the Braxton-Hicks before), and my back was still hurting, so I lay down in the bed to take a nap. They get back around 6:30 and I'm still in bed. I'm thinking, I'm just tired, blah, blah, blah. They are downstairs having a beer and resting (after all, they are the ones doing the work). Around 7 pm I'm laying in bed and I feel a little pop. And then a bigger pop! It was like what you would feel if you popped some bubble wrap bubbles. I vividly remember thinking, what the hell was that? That can't be my water breaking (remember 2 weeks to go) but I feel something down below so I take myself to the bathroom, sit down, and whoosh! OMG I think my water just broke. So I call down to Dave who comes up. I'm not having contractions (or so I think) so I'm thinking we'll wait until they start before we do anything or go anywhere. Dave on the other hand says, no we're going to the hospital (good thinking Dave!) and proceeds to get his things together. We get to the hospital around 8 and the triage nurse says that we won't be going home tonight and we're admitted around 9. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. I did get an epidural (thank you whoever invented that!) but it took over an hour to kick in. "We" rested, or rather Dave fell fast asleep while I dozed, then woke up, then was just about to fall into a deep sleep when the doctor came in about 5 am and said, ok, it's time to push. He disappeared and we pushed for an hour with the nurse (who was really nice). The doctor came back in around 6 and finally got things moving. She was born of course at 6:14 am on the 6th. The pushing wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but all I could think was man, I'm out of shape! I didn't know it at the time, but Dr. Stamm gave me a small episiotomy when is when things really moved. Dave did so great the whole time! I thought the messiness of birth would make him sick or something but he was so great. He counted while I pushed, held my leg, actually watched Gretchen being born, and cut the cord. He really was amazing, I can't say it enough. She had 9's and 10's on her apgar scores and was/is pretty much perfect. She did have a cone-head which was gone in a couple of days. We were in our regular room by 7:30. I was able to get up and shower by 10ish and could finally eat. I hadn't eaten since lunch on Sunday. Thank you for all the calls, cards, flowers and visits while we were in the hospital and since we have been at home! We are blessed with such a great family and such great friends! We left the hospital Wednesday afternoon (after waiting on the lactation consultant that never came) and Gretchen weighed 5 lbs 14 oz.



On Friday we went to the pediatrician's office. The doctor said she was doing great and that she was impressed with her strength in her neck and her sucking abilities. She has been holding her head up (or just about) since she was 3 days old...and let me tell you about some sucking.....or maybe not....all I can say is ouch! She was back up to 6 lbs, which the doctor said was good. We go back next Friday for another weigh. OK, now it's time for some more pictures. See next post.