Ruthie Jane Lowry - Birth Story

So once upon a time I was due to have a little girl on August 11, 2015. My mom was going to Utah for a few days at the end of July and she told me multiple times I was NOT allowed to have the baby while she was gone. Talking with my sister Janna, we both said, guaranteed it will come that week just because she's gone. Well lo and behold, the day after my parents left to go to Utah I go into labor.

On Thursday July 23 I went to Barnwell to meet up with both my sisters. Shayla has a friend who has a house on Stafford lake which is just about 15 minutes away from Barnwell. And actually, when I told Scott I was going even he said (jokingly, I think) "Are you sure you should go, what if you go into labor?" I brushed it off and told him well at least it was only 40 minutes away and could make it back in time. So all afternoon we were at the lake and Shayla's friends even took us out on the boat. I kind of felt "different" but I definitely wasn't having any contractions or anything. I got home just after 5 and put a frozen pizza in the oven. Things were pretty uneventful until about 7 or 8 ish. Thats when I started having contractions, and they were fairly painful but definitely manageable. Around 9:30 Scott and I went to bed and I was definitely in a bit of pain at this point but I was still in denial that I was actually in labor. We even did back scratches, since thats what we'd been doing every night for like weeks now. I tried getting comfortable but laying down was getting really painful so around 10 I got out of bed and went to the living room so hopefully Scott could fall asleep. I was STILL in denial about being in labor because with Roczen I didn't have any painful contractions at all until my water broke. So since my water hadn't broken I just assumed it was false labor.

Well by this point contractions were so bad I was crying. I started texting my sisters seeing if they thought I was actually in labor or not. They both told me it was probably just false labor since they both had gone through that too. By 11 I was in so much pain though so my sister told me just to go to the Raymond hospital and have them check me just to see. So I went and got Scott up and we went to the Raymond hospital. As we were checking in the nurse finally just said "Alright, you better just go to Lethbridge. I can tell you're actually in labor but if not the worse that's going to happen is they'll send you home." Sooo we headed straight into Lethbridge. I was having such bad back labor, which is totally different from Roczen's labor too and it was EXCRUCIATING! So the whole way to Lethbridge I sat on my knees facing the back seat hugging the chair haha I told Scott a few times to let me get out of the car! He kept just telling me I couldn't get out (the nerve!) When the contractions came I'd start pounding the headrest in a steady beat haha When we walked into the hospital I was like bawling, the nice volunteer man grabbed me a wheel chair and told me to sit down. It took me a minute or two to sit down because I couldn't decide what hurt worse, standing or sitting. The nurses there too, told us just to go straight up without checking in and they'd take care of it later. Actually, first of all they told the volunteer to take me up and they'd have Scott check me in and come up later but that just set me over the edge and I started crying even harder haha Ya, I realize I was being a bit ridiculous but I couldn't even help it! So up to labor and delivery we go! And when the nurse checks to see how dilated I was...I was a ONE! I was like uhh no way am I just a one and in this much pain! I thought for sure they were going to send us home but then she asked if I wanted to get in the shower. Heck ya I did! This also surprised me because generally with a VBAC you have to be in the bed hooked up to the monitors the whole time. They did have me hooked up for like half hour but then I was able to get in the shower, So I got in the shower and sat in that thing forever. Scott left to get something or do something I can't remember what and the nurse was putting an IV in my hand and it started shooting out blood everywhere. When Scott walked back in the shower floor was covered in blood haha I quickly told him it was just from the IV. They even took my blood while I was in the shower. The only times I got out was to get checked to see how dilated I was. In an hour I dilated from a 1 to a 4. But then the next like 2 hours I was stuck at 4 but then once again within an hour I was fully dilated! An hour before I started pushing I finally got an epidural. I had been begging for one for awhile.

At one point I told my nurse (who was AMAZING by the way) that I just wanted a c section instead. She was great and talked me out of it (because I really did want to do VBAC) She asked me why I wanted a c section, was it just because of the pain? She calmed me down and told me we could get an epidural. She reminded me I had a toddler at home and a VBAC would be much easier to recover from. I seriously loooved her!! Pretty sure her name was Marissa if I remember correctly. So anyways the anesthesiologist comes in and I wanted to punch him in the face! He was talking ridiculously slow!! I know they have to go over the risks etc etc but he could've at least talked a bit faster. After the epidural it was A LOT better but I could still feel a ton of pressure so it was still quite uncomfortable but I guess actually a good thing because I could tell when I needed to push still. Oh and by this point my water STILL hadn't broken. Scott had been sleeping in the chair for the hour while I had my epidural and my nurse told me when I had my next contraction she was going to let me push to see if it would break my water. She told me it most likely would burst quite forcefully. Scott, having been asleep didn't hear any of this though. So at my next contraction he got up to come help hold my legs and I pushed and sure enough my water broke and it literally SHOT out...like 10 or 15 feet across the room, no joke! It scared the crap out of Scott and he jumped back even, it was actually kind of funny. And after that I pushed for about 20 minutes and then we had our baby girl!! Born on Friday July 24, 2015 @ 3:58 am. With Roczen I pushed for almost 2 hours so 20 minutes was quite a bit nicer! I did tear, so I had to be stitched up for a bit after which actually really hurts even though they give you freezing, I just assumed the epidural would cover that too, but nope you definitely feel the whole thing. Also, feeling the baby come out of you is a really weird sensation! And the placenta looks nothing like what I thought it did haha

I absolutely LOVED getting to hold Ruthie right after I had her. Since Roczen was a c section they just briefly showed him to me then took him to the nicu and I didn't even get to see him for a few hours afterwards since I was in recovery. So it was really nice to be able to hold my baby girl immediately after. I MUCH prefer natural over c section. Ya, it really sucks sitting on your stitches the first week or 2. But at 2 weeks, I'm like 97% pain free! Whereas with Roczen, it was literally like 2 months before I wasn't in pain everyday.

Scott doesn't believe me, but from the very beginning of my pregnancy I knew I was having a girl, even before the ultrasound. I just knew. And I also knew her name was going to be Ruthie. I realize it does sound kind of retarded but it's true, I just knew it was going to be a girl named Ruthie. Ruthie was the only name I suggested to Scott my whole pregnancy and I not once even tried finding another name. Scott had suggested Jane at some point and I told him I didn't love it for a first name and we honestly didn't talk names really ever the whole time I was pregnant other than that. So once I had her we were just kind of like, Ruthie Jane?? Sure! and that was that, she had a name. We love our sweet baby girl!! She is such a good baby and I'm so glad she's a part of our family!!

Chicken legs!

Oh I could just eat her up!!

This boy is the best big brother! He's so gentle with her and looooves her so much and is so protective! Cant wait to see them play together one day!

And seriously, how cute is he!