Janie Hendricks Savoie was born on May 25 at 4:39pm. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 2 oz and was 19.5 inches long. Her arrival was long anticipated but came out of the blue.
After a few weeks on restricted activity, I went in for my 39 week appointment on May 24 and found out that my fluid level was dangerously low. What started as a normal check-up ended with me driving across the street to the hospital to have the baby monitored and be induced.
It was Andrew's last day of his rotation and he had a test that morning. He quickly finished his test, ran home to get the bags together and made his way to the hospital. Laurel was supposed to be going to the beach that weekend but she quickly changed her plans and made her way to Atlanta with Alex. Spud, who could have waited until Saturday to come to Atlanta, drove up with Ms. Bonnie almost as soon as I told her we were being admitted to the hospital. Everyone was ready.
I checked in and was hooked up to the monitors to make sure that Tater Tot was okay. I met my nurse, Patty, who was amazing, saw the on-call doctor and midwife and settled in. Andrew showed up, armed with all the Harry Potter movies to pass the time, and we were ready to go.
Baby was doing well and so they decided to induce with a dose of cervidil that evening. Spud, Ms. Bonnie, Laurel and Alex all showed up and the party started. Eventually, the party had to end and Andrew and I were left to try and get some sleep while anticipating the next steps of labor.
Throughout the night, I was getting regular contractions which they tried to delay since my cervix wasn't ready yet. Another nurse came on duty and we eventually had to take out the cervidil. Not too long after that, my water broke and we were on our way. The support group showed up soon with breakfast for Andrew, beautiful flowers from Alex and all admitting that they hoped they would get a call in the middle of the night saying the baby was ready to come.
Labor seemed to start and stall without a lot of progress. I walked the circuit around the labor and delivery rooms. I didn't walk for too long but it seemed to help.
Because I wasn't progressing a lot, they decided to go forward with the
Y'all, pitocin contractions suck. They really suck. After working through the contractions for a few hours, Andrew and I talked and decided that an epidural was the best thing for everyone. I was really struggling with each contraction and I later found out that everyone else in the room was struggling, too. Tears were flowing from my eyes and Spud's and Laurel's and Alex's and Ms. Bonnie's eyes.
The epidural was the best decision I made throughout the whole process. Patty, who had requested to be on our service again that day because she was anxious to know if we were having a boy or girl, put my legs up in the stirrups in some weird way and instructed me to sleep. Our midwife, Stephanie, came in to encourage us in our decision and let us know what the next steps would be. The rest of the group left to give me and Andrew some privacy and we tried to mentally prepare ourselves Tater Tot's arrival.
I went to sleep dilated to 3 and woke up a couple of hours later dilated to an 8 or 9. A few minutes after that, we were ready to push.
For the delivery, I'm going to let these amazing pictures Laurel took tell the story.
*She has Scooter's (Laurel's) feet. One of the first thing I noticed.
The moment when the midwife asked Andrew what the baby was an he said "she's a girl" is one I will always, always remember. In that moment, I realized that she couldn't have been anything other than a girl. Of course she was a girl...what else could she be?!?! Her Dad knew all along that a little girl would greet us in that delivery room and he was right.
