Well, Roswelle Gray Lashway is 1 month old so it is about time I write about her arrival before I forget all the little details. I started writing this a week ago but I just couldn't get it finished. Time has flown by and I already miss the first few days with her but at the same time I can't wait to start another new day with our daughter.
Her Arrival:
There is so much to tell. I've been trying to decide whether to write all the details out or just summarize. I love going back and reading some of my old posts and I'm sure I will want to read this to her one day so I've decided to list it all out just as it happened.
Paul had booked us a weekend at a bed&breakfast up in Kennebunkport, Maine as a last weekend away together. I was 37 1/2 weeks and it was just an hour and a half away from Boston so we figured if anything happened, we would be able to get back in time. On the Wednesday before our little trip, during my weekly appointment with my midwife, we found out she was in breech position. We were able to confirm that day via ultrasound which was kind of shocking. I immediately started researching natural ways to get her to flip...I started doing inverted exercises on the ironing board (check them out at spinningbabies.com), I had an acupuncture treatment on Thursday and even did some moxibustion (where you burn moxa sticks by your pinky toe!). All while praying. On Friday morning, before leaving for Maine, Paul and I met with the ob-gyn to discuss the manual "version" (flipping of the baby by pushing on my stomach) which we had scheduled for the following week. If none of this worked, we were looking at a c-section. I really wanted an all natural birth - and was willing to do anything to increase my odds of flipping her!
We left the the doctor's office at noon after signing the consent form for the manual version and headed north for our weekend away! We stopped in Ogunquit, ME for lunch. It is a cute little town on the coast about an hour north of Boston and we found a great spot on the water called Jackie's Too in Perkins Cove. We had just finished mussels and clam chowder and were waiting on Paul's lobster roll and my crab sandwich when I felt a 'pop'. It was down at the base of my pelvis and was an odd enough feeling to make me stop and wonder...and then the rush of water came. My water broke. I looked across to Paul and just said "my water broke"! He responded, "do you want to go to bathroom?" He had no idea that water was literally gushing out across from him...all over the floor, a puddle in my chair and soaking my pants. Literally what you see in the movies (I didn't think that actually happened). I stood up and walked straight out of the restaurant, I didn't talk to anyone. Paul wound up paying for our meal (even tho we never got it!) while I was outside standing by the car praying. He rushed out. Well, he first asked them to quickly wrap up that lobster roll (he was hungry...!) and then we headed back to Boston. I called my doctor's office and let them know my water had broken while I had a breech baby and that we would be back to the city in 2 hours with traffic. The OB immediately got on the phone telling me that I needed to find the closest hospital to us and to not come back to Boston. If Roswelle started to come down the birth canal it could be very dangerous for her and me. This really upset me, not only was I definitely having a c-section, it would be at a random hospital! I was on the verge of getting REALLY upset (the tears were already there but it was more of a whimper than a breakdown). Paul stayed very calm considering the situation. Once he heard the urgency of the OB's voice telling us to find a hospital he started looking up hospitals on his phone, while driving, with his wife in labor next to him - bad idea. He looked up from his phone and a blue "H" hospital road sign was there. How often do you notice those? And the chances of it being there exactly when we needed it - almost jumping out at Paul - we don't consider this a coincidence but what we often refer to as a "God thing". It was just too perfect. We were being looked after. We turned left, following the signs and realized we were in a little town called York, Maine. We were headed to York Hospital.
I called the hospital as we were pulling in and was greeted on the phone by a sweet lady's voice. In a panic I asked her if they had a labor and delivery unit which she informed me they did and I then informed her that we were pulling up to the main entrance. I was placed in a wheelchair and whisked up to the 2nd floor (the top floor). The hospital is super small and sweet with only 79 rooms in the entire hospital! The OB walked across the street from his office to check us out. Roswelle and I were both doing fine and I hadn't dilated at all at that point. I had two options - get in an ambulance and be taken back to Boston to have the baby or just have the c-section there in about an hour. Paul and I decided we were going to be having our baby that afternoon in York, Maine. We were going to have a little Maine-iac. :) My water broke at 2:30pm and she was out by 4:50pm! I was 37wks & 4days. She was 7lbs 2oz, 19 1/4 inches long, and was absolutely perfect.
After they checked her out, they let me do skin-to-skin with her on the operating table. This was really important to me and I was so happy they basically did everything I asked. Paul reminded me that it was hard to find a hippier place than Cambridge, MA (which is where she was supposed to be born) but I managed to find one in York. She wound up latching in the post-op room. The post-op experience was actually really nice. It was calm and quiet with just the 3 of us in the room while we were periodically checked on by a nurse. We only had a few visitors, which is what I wanted. Rob, Jenny, and Paul's parents were patiently waiting to meet Roswelle once we got back to our room. My mom's flight landed at 10:30pm and she was holding Roswelle by midnight that night.
Everything worked out just as it should have. My prayers had been answered. God had been with Roswelle and me through the entire process.
Random Roswelle Facts:
Roswelle was Paul's paternal great-grandfather's name and Gray was my maternal great-aunt's name. We decided to choose a name from each of our family trees. I heard the name Roswelle over the summer while we were talking about family names with Paul's parents and grandmother. I instantly fell in love with it for a girl's name. Paul took a little convincing but eventually he warmed up to it and now he can't imagine her being named anything else.
Her nicknames right now are #peanut #sniffer (an inside joke) #peanutsniffer and #squishypeanut. She is a very very calm baby. She only fusses when she is hungry or tired, which only lasts for about 4 minutes before her needs are met (first baby probs). The longest she has cried was during her newborn shoot when she was 2 weeks old. I was nervous and Paul was annoyed - and she picked right up on it. I'll be blogging that next!
Pictures from THAT morning - started out just like any other day!
Paul took this 10 minutes before my water broke!
{leaving York Hospital - I already miss it!}
After they checked her out, they let me do skin-to-skin with her on the operating table. This was really important to me and I was so happy they basically did everything I asked. Paul reminded me that it was hard to find a hippier place than Cambridge, MA (which is where she was supposed to be born) but I managed to find one in York. She wound up latching in the post-op room. The post-op experience was actually really nice. It was calm and quiet with just the 3 of us in the room while we were periodically checked on by a nurse. We only had a few visitors, which is what I wanted. Rob, Jenny, and Paul's parents were patiently waiting to meet Roswelle once we got back to our room. My mom's flight landed at 10:30pm and she was holding Roswelle by midnight that night.
Everything worked out just as it should have. My prayers had been answered. God had been with Roswelle and me through the entire process.
Random Roswelle Facts:
Roswelle was Paul's paternal great-grandfather's name and Gray was my maternal great-aunt's name. We decided to choose a name from each of our family trees. I heard the name Roswelle over the summer while we were talking about family names with Paul's parents and grandmother. I instantly fell in love with it for a girl's name. Paul took a little convincing but eventually he warmed up to it and now he can't imagine her being named anything else.
Her nicknames right now are #peanut #sniffer (an inside joke) #peanutsniffer and #squishypeanut. She is a very very calm baby. She only fusses when she is hungry or tired, which only lasts for about 4 minutes before her needs are met (first baby probs). The longest she has cried was during her newborn shoot when she was 2 weeks old. I was nervous and Paul was annoyed - and she picked right up on it. I'll be blogging that next!
Pictures from THAT morning - started out just like any other day!
Paul took this 10 minutes before my water broke!
Below are some personal pictures from the first few days with her.
{in love, in shock, and in awe}
{her feet are clones of Paul's}
{2 days old}
{getting ready to go home}
{her NB sized dress was still a little big on her mini-peanut size}
{leaving York Hospital - I already miss it!}
{snug as a bug for the ride home - she slept the entire 1 1/2 hour drive!}
{she loves it when Paul sings to her...usually a country tune}
{her outfit for her first stoller outing}
{it took us about 20 minutes to get out the door}
{we made it 3 blocks and turned around}
{and she was held on the walk back ;)}
next up is a post on her finished nursery and a post from her 2wk old newborn shoot which I previewed on instagram! be back soon!