Gwenevere's Birthstory

A birthing story

We were scheduled to check into the hospital at 5:30am Friday January 16th. Thursday night, James and I had a BBQ with friends. After dinner, I took a shower, shaved my legs, painted my toes, and cleaned the bed room. James cleaned the rest of the house. After the house was clean James and I packed our bags, said our goodnight prayers, and laid in bed. I can sleep through almost anything so I got a pretty good nights rest. Poor James on the other hand was so excited/nervous that he watched movies most of the night.

At 3:38 in the morning we got a call from the hospital telling us not to come in until 9:30 the hospital was too busy and they weren't sure there would be a room for us. I fell asleep again and finally James was able to get some sleep too.

At 7:30 in the morning I woke up all excited to go. I made breakfast and James packed the car. Thanks to the Christly family, we were able to drive their car to the hospital. At 8:30am we left our little apartment one last time as just the two of us.

We arrived at the birthing center at 9:30 am Dr. Chapman just finished surgery and was getting ready to go to her clinic. Still, there were no rooms available for us, so we walked around the neighborhoods waiting for a phone call. We found ourselves at a Seven Eleven store buying doughnuts to pass the time. After an hour of walking, we walked back to the birthing center to see if they had any news.

They were cleaning our bedroom as we entered the birthing center. At 11:00am a nurse checked me into a small waiting room as we waited to be admitted. It was while we where waiting that I recieved my IV thingy. A nurse named Jill was super nice and told a really funny story about her daughters dog weighing 170 lbs while putting the IV into my hand so that I almost forgot what she was doing. It didn't hurt at all but the funny part was that when she was done putting the IV into my hand I looked down and saw that I had squirted blood all over the blankets; it was quite impressive. After the IV was in I was moved to another room where I would be put on pitocin, labor and deliver our baby. I got a new nurse at this time and her name was Cathy. Cathy was super nice and showed me all the ropes to laboring with pitocin.

Here I'm at 1:30pm after being hooked up to the pitocin.

James and I watched TV, played cards, talked about doing homework and rested while the contractions weren't that bad.

At 3pm Doctor Chapman stopped by to see how I was doing. I was having contractions every two minutes and about a minute each. The contractions weren't that strong and they were very high up on my stomach. They felt like someone squeezing my rib cage and wasn't that pleasant but diffidently not painful. Things where looking good. She checked my cervix and I had progressed from being 2 cm dilated to being a tight 3 cm. It was time to brake my water and get the contractions really get going. It felt so cool having my water brake. I felt like the fountain of youth, ever flowing with warm water. After my water had been broken my contractions dropped from my rib cage down to the insides of my hips. Much better if you ask me. They felt like really strong cramps and cramps I can deal with so labor, so far, was doable.

Every half an hour or so Cathy my nurse would come check in and increase my pitocin and make sure I was doing well. By 6:00pm it was time to focus all of my energy to getting the labor to progress more. I asked the nurse if she would check me to see how dialated I was but she asked me to wait until Doctor Chapman could examine me. With my water being broken they wanted to do as few checks a possible to prevent infection. So without knowing how far along I was and with contractions getting stronger I decided it was time to use the birthing ball.

I would bounce on the ball in between contractions and when I started to have a contraction, I would stop bouncing, James would lean over my back reach under my arms and help support my weight as he whispered the word "breathe". For me hearing him say the word breathe was enough for me to keep my attention focused away from the contraction. James also kindly offered to play quiet music to see if that would help me relax. Surprisingly Music was just noise to my ears and we stopped that right way.

At 7:30pm Doctor Chapman stopped by on her way home from work to see how I had been progressing. I had reached 5 cm dilation by 7:30 and was starting to consider pain medication. At this point most of my energy was focused on resting in between contractions and making sure I was kind to James while he helped me with each contraction. Honestly, James was my hero that day. We were so busy with school, work and church callings that I didn't have time to take a birthing class, so I really appreciated the fact that James read up on the Labor process and was ready to be my coach when I needed him. We even had a joke about saying the chant "Be still like the mountain, flow like the river" a cheesy line we read in some birth book James picked up from the freebie bin. Thankfully James never chanted this saying while I was actually having a contraction.

By 8:45 I was really ready for some kind of pain medicine. Nikki, my nurse for the evening, checked me and I had dilated to 6cm and she explained my options for pain control. My earlier blood test indicated that my platlet count was too low for an epidural; there was a danger of poor clotting abilities. I needed to be tested again to confirm. In the mean time I was given fentanyl. It was amazing. It took the edge off and allowed me to relax between the contractions. The lab results indicated that I would NOT be getting an epidural so my new best narcotic friend (Fentanyl) and I would be having this baby together.

The fentanyl wore off within an hour and when the nurse came back to give me another dose at 10:00pm. She checked my cervix and I had dilated to 9 cm. Not bad progress.

The only down fall to having the fentanyl was I had to remain in bed. I guess the fentanyl makes you too loopy to sit on a big rubber ball. My back started to hurt when the baby got lower. Finally I turned onto my hands and knees and that made all the difference. I rocked back and forth on my hands and knees in between contractions for about an hour. At 11:00pm I began to feel a desire to poop so the nurse said I should start practice pushing. I turned back onto my back and within fifteen minutes of pushing I finally got the hang of it. James started to see the baby's head and got every excited. He asked Nikki if we could get a mirror so I could see the progress too. It was so cool watching the progress of the delivery. I could see when I could push a little harder or see if I needed to relax and let my perineum slowly stretch. At 11:50 Doctor Chapman arrived the head was crowning nicely and she had to rush to put on her mask to help catch the babies head.

I was so surprised when Dr. Chapman said "stop pushing her head is out". My first thougth was "that was it?" Then I had a big desire to push again. But luckly before I started pushing Chapman said that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck twice. I struggled to resist the desire to push while James watched Chapman clamp and cut the cord within a matter of seconds. As soon as Chapman cut both cords she turned the body and the rest of the baby was out. It went so fast. Chapman gave the baby to a Nurse named Ellen, and before Ellen whisked the baby away she brought the baby up to our faces for a slimy baby kisses. Ellen and Nikki then rubbed her down and removed the mucus from her throat and nose. Then Nikki and Ellen supplied oxygen to the baby and tried to simulate her to cry. She was so pale.

Meanwhile, Dr. Chapman delivered the pacenta and stitched my small tear. After I was taken care of, Nikki raised my bed up so I could watch Ellen and Docter Chapman take care of the baby. I was sitting in bed watching Ellen, Doctor Chapman, and James tend to the baby while my nurse went to get me some water, when I realized that I had no idea what time it was when the baby was born. I asked the nurses and they all looked up at the clock. It was five minutes after midnight and so we all agreed she was born at midnight. They even put exactly 12:00am on the birth certificate information form. I asked if that meant she was born on the 16th or the 17th. Doctor Chapman had to think for a minute and then said that means she was born on the 17th. (Sorry Will.)

The happy new mom

Soon the baby started to breathe on her own, yeah. So Doctor Chapman decided it was okay to leave, but before she left she came over to me and gave me a big hug. It was like having my mom there telling me everything was okay, I almost started to cry.

James took pictures of the baby and brought them back to me so I could she what she looked liked.


Then Ellen weighed and measured the baby. She weighed 6lbs 3.7oz and measured 19.5 inches long.

Then it was my turn to hold the baby. Her tempature was lower then normal so they asked that James and I held her skin to skin for a while. I was so glad to find out our little baby is a natrual at breastfeeding.

After I fed the baby, it was time to feed me. I ate a tunafish sandwhich while James held the baby. After eating some food, Nikki helped me clean up with a nice warm shawer and then I climbed into bed. It was hard to sleep without James in the same bed but somehow exhaustion won and I feel alseep.

The next morning, we took some more pictures of our baby and spent the morning talking on the phone and sending text messages to family members. Our goal for the day was to pick a name for our little angel.

But we soon got distracted when she started chocking. Luckly our morning nurse walked into the room right as she started choking, so emidately the nurse was able to pump the baby's stomach and get the rest of the mucus out of the stomach and lungs.

Her temperature was still on the lower side and because they wanted to make sure she was warm enough to bathe her, we put the baby under a heat lamp to warm up.
after a nice warm nap under the heat lamp we helped bathe her and get ready for a fun afternoon of visitors.

The first set of visitors arrived around 11;30am Uncle Nate and Auntie Camile came first followed by Uncle Micheal and Auntie Sherrilynn. They all signed the baby book and we enjoyed some special beverages as we visited.

Then later on Auntie Ashley, Uncle Josh and Cousin Paisley came to visit. Pailsey and Baby were close friends before they came to earth so they had a lot to catch up on. Pailsey smiled big and chatted to the baby; it was so cute.

After The brown family left I fed the baby again and we took some fun pictures and feel asleep.

After our nap, James changed her diaper and more visitors came.

Uncle Ian, Uncle Dan and Autie Iuliana came to visit. Auntie Iuliana is expecting her baby girl to arrive sometime in April. Yippee. I enjoyed telling the birthing story to Auntie Iuliana while the guys took turns holding the baby. Uncle Ian took some really cool pictures of the baby and when he sends them to me I'll add them to our blog.

Finally it was dinner time, and the day was almost over.
We enjoyed all the visitors, phone calls and text messages.
Thank you everybody.

So now for the part you've all been waiting for.

We would like you to meet little
Gwenevere Isa Roemhildt.

James picked the name Gwenevere because Gwenevere means fair or white. According to one website: Gwenevere is welch for white ghost or phantom.
We figured Gwenevere fit her considering she was born at midnight and was super pale.

I picked the name Isa. Isa means "one" in tagalog: Being the first in our family

So there you have it, Gwenevere Isa Roemhildt, Our little angle.