Deliah Winnifred Fox

Deliah Winnifred Fox

June 28, 2013
7:41 AM
8 pounds 11 ounces
20 inches long
PERFECTION

My due date was June 27, but I was so confident that I would be having my baby girl early. I had a Doctor’s appointment two days before my due date where my Doctor actually asked me, “Why are you still pregnant?” After being dilated to a 3.5 for a week she was also confident that this appointment would be unnecessary. I was now dilated to a 4 and still at 80%. She told me that I had a ‘favorable cervix’, interesting compliment, and that I was a good candidate to have my membranes stripped. I had my membranes stripped, which will put 80% of women into labor within two to three days, and honestly thought it was going to happen that day. I was so eager to meet my baby and was very impatient at this point. Upon arriving in California I had done everything I could to motivate my baby to come. I was taking long walks daily. Every night I had Glenn massage magical voodoo oils into my back and feet that are supposed to stimulate labor. I was tracking the barometric pressure of an incoming rain storm. There was a rare super moon in my favor. And perhaps the most ridiculous, I started unbalanced walking. I would walk with one foot on the curb and one in the gutter. I wanted my baby to come and didn’t care how ridiculous I looked.

I woke up the morning of my due date, still pregnant and optimistic that today could be the day, although showing zero signs of labor. I know you are supposed to try and distract yourself so you don’t think about baby constantly, but seriously that’s impossible. All I wanted was my baby and right now! It was now 8:00 the night of my due date. We were swimming and when I went inside to the bathroom I saw I started bleeding a little. We went home and I started having contractions while I was in the shower. I was positive that this was my early labor. It was important to me that my hair looked good for hospital pictures and my contractions needed to be more consistent so I had Rebekah curl my hair to help pass the time. I’m bouncing on my balance ball, contractions are getting increasingly stronger, and I was really upset it took 45 minutes finish my hair. I thought I would be able to sleep a little, but that was not going to happen. Glenn started timing my contractions and they were gradually getting stronger and closer together. When I had a contraction that was painful enough to make me cry, Glenn said we were leaving for the hospital. We had been timing for an hour and a half and were about 4 minutes apart. We have a dinner bell that Glenn said he was going to ring to wake up people should I go into labor in the middle of the night, and he was so happy he got to ring it! My Mom and Rebekah come running downstairs and everyone was so excited that this was finally real. We pull out of the driveway at 11:59 PM. In the car I was still nervous that maybe I was wrong and they were going to turn me away. Glenn was so reassuring that they wouldn’t and was very calming in the car. He had me doing Zen exercises and was trying to get me to relax my body little by little.

When we arrived at the ER, I remember sitting in a chair having a contraction while Glenn is working on all the admittance questions, and hearing the other guy who was sitting in the waiting area say that I was more important. I was taken by wheelchair to my room and when they checked me I was dilated to a 5. Halfway there and the time between my contractions was closing in. The nurse started strapping monitors onto my stomach and I was so upset that no one told me I would have to wear these uncomfortable monitors all the way until I delivered. I didn’t want anything touching my stomach at all. Plus every time I had an intense contraction I had the urge to pee and then would have to take them off and put them back on. I thought I had the most unsympathetic nurse in the whole world and honestly am not sure how nice I was. She was strictly business and more concerned with my answering family history questions and getting my signatures on paperwork than the fact I’m in tears with pain. What is the point of pre-registration paperwork if I’m going to be asked the same questions again anyway, when I’m much more distracted?!

My contractions were coming right on top of each other and the frequency made it so I never had an opportunity to relax in between them. I was experiencing severe back labor and the only thing that helped me manage the pain was an electric massager we brought with us. While I was having a contraction I didn’t want anyone to touch me. But as soon as my contraction ended my only relief was having Glenn use the massager on my lower back to soothe me. I desperately wanted something to help me with the pain, and the nurse wasn’t letting me have an epidural yet. My Mom had reached the hospital now, somewhere around 1:30ish, and asked if they could give me anything else in the mean time and they finally did, but I don’t remember much difference in my pain level. I was not the type that screamed and swore because of the pain, I just cried a lot. I was so happy when the anesthesiologist finally arrived. Honestly, I was nervous to receive the epidural, I thought it would hurt. He was a little concerned by the scoliosis in my back and had to angle it to make sure that it worked correctly. Other than the tiniest amount of pressure I felt nothing and the relief was almost instant. Arnie was my new best friend! They checked my cervix again right after that and I was dilated between a 7 and 8. I was really proud of myself for laboring that far without it. Now that I wasn’t feeling my contractions anymore I was able to take a short nap. When I woke up I was itching like crazy and they gave me some Benadryl to help with the itchiness. My epidural started to wear off when I was a 9.5. The back labor seemed unbearable and I could always feel my contractions were coming by the shooting pain that would begin. Arnie came back and gave me an even stronger dose of epidural this time. Bless him!! This time I was completely numb and couldn’t move or feel anything. I was able to fall asleep again and when I woke this time I was a 10.

I was able to start pushing at 6:00. My water still hadn’t broke and since there was no Doctor yet to come break it the nurse wanted me to break it by pushing. I will say that my nurse became much nicer when it came to pushing and made me feel I was doing a good job with it. She thought I would have the baby before her shift was over at 7:00. Since I was so numb I wasn’t able to hold my knees up to my chest alone and Glenn and my Mom each had to hold a leg up for me while I pushed. My contractions slowed down, thus slowing the pushing process, and it was 40 minutes of pushing before my water broke. Glenn says that was the most disgusting part of the entire labor. I was pushing right at shift change and about 6:40 my nurse left and it was just me, Glenn, and my Mom for the next thirty minutes. I was feeling very neglected and thought I was deserving of a Doctor since I was so close. The epidural was starting to wear off again but I just had to deal because it makes you more motivated to push. Glenn was massaging a pressure point in my back that was particularly painful to help me withstand the contractions. I was encouraged when her head was visible and I was told about all the dark hair that could be seen. I was crying and just saying over and over that ‘I want my baby, I want my baby.’ A few more strong pushes and her head came out, quickly followed by the rest of her body. I was crying, Glenn was crying, my Mom was crying, lots and lots of happy tears. 

My baby was placed on my chest skin-to-skin and I was completely overwhelmed with emotions and tears of joy. There is no better feeling in this world than that moment meeting my baby for the first time. She was finally here and she was pure perfection! I was instantly in love and immediately felt like a protective Momma. She was perfectly pink, warm, sweet smelling, silky soft, and her head was perfectly round and her facial features weren’t smushed looking at all. She had lots of dark brown hair and deep grey eyes, she was beautiful!! I was so grateful that they didn’t take my baby away from me and just cleaned her up right there on my chest. I held her and nursed her for an hour and a half before anyone else got to hold her. Her Daddy was getting anxious to hold her and I loved seeing him with his little girl.

Her name was much anticipated and we were so excited to finally announce it. When Glenn announced to my mother that it was Deliah Winnifred Fox, my Mom says ‘seriously’!  We were keeping her name top secret and teased that we were naming her Winnifred. The nickname Winnie caught on and that’s what she was known as for months while I was pregnant. We were originally planning on giving her the middle name Elisabeth after me. While driving back to CA Glenn asked what I actually thought about the name Winnifred and we both loved it. After being Winnie for months it just felt right and we decided that it needed to be incorporated in her name. We love it!

I was so pleased with how my labor went and actually struggled more with the post delivery. No one told me that when you pee it was going to burn like hell! The first time I went to the bathroom I passed out and the nurse had to hit the emergency button. Glenn says six more nurses came in and they kicked all the visitors out of my room. Later I collapsed onto the floor and had to be picked up and placed on my bed. Just looking at and snuggling my baby girl makes all the pain and discomfort worthwhile. I know my body will heal and I’m not scared off from doing this again one day. I appreciate all the people who came to visit us in the hospital, but I absolutely loved that first night when it was just the three of us. I loved that first feeling of being a family and how right it felt to have Deliah here. I couldn’t bear to have Deliah in the bassinet next to me and slept with her in my bed all night long. I just couldn’t kiss her and snuggle her enough. We were both healthy enough that we only had to stay the one night and were able to go home the next day. I think I must be a little hormonal still because I find myself starting to well up with tears just by looking at her precious face. I am so in love and happy that this perfect little baby is ours forever!

 

Swimming just hours before.