A Third Messmer Blessing: Your Birth Story

Since we had scheduled to have you induced on Monday, September 7th (your due date), I figured you wouldn't want to be told what to do and would come out on your own...I was right. We arrived at the hospital Saturday, September 5th at about 10:30am. It was a perfect day you chose, too, because my OBGYN, Amy Jackson, was on-call; so she was there to deliver you! Daddy was waiting at the door with a wheel chair for me and we headed up the elevator to Labor and Delivery with our hospital bags in tow.

After being checked in, we started out in a triage room (normal protocol at Mount Carmel St. Ann's) where they checked monitors to confirm (as I already knew) that you were, in fact, definitely on your way out.

Things moved pretty quickly after that. I went to the bathroom and as soon as I returned, they put us in a labor and delivery room. My contractions were getting much stronger, and because of the way you were positioned in there, I was experiencing some incredibly painful back contractions. Your daddy was able to capture one last picture of you inside my belly...obviously between contractions because I'm smiling. :)

I was really hoping to try to deliver you naturally, without any pain meds, but those back contractions were worse than any contractions I had ever experienced. So as soon as I had a liter of fluids in me, the nurse anesthetist came in and (thankfully) took the pain away.

Unlike your sisters (I love that you're showing your independence and uniqueness already!), you never broke my water. When Dr. Jackson came in to check on me, she broke my water. You gave us a little scare because there was meconium in the amniotic fluid which means that you had already had a bowel movement while in my belly. This doesn't sound too bad, but there was a possibility that it had made its way into your lungs, so we had to have a neonatal nurse on staff in the room when you were delivering, just in case you had problems breathing (spoiler alert: you didn't!).

Once my water was broken things progressed pretty quickly. In fact, we hardly had time to take any pictures! The nurse had me start pushing before the doctor came in. As I pushed through the contraction, your heart rate decelerated enough for her to ask me to stop pushing and call the doctor in for the next round.

Dr. Jackson came in and had me start pushing through the next contraction. After one push, though, her eyes went wide and she said, "Okay! I think we're going to try to breath through the rest of this one." I was scared that something was wrong at first, but Daddy started to laugh and said that your head was already right there ready to come out and the doctor didn't even have her gown or gloves on yet.

On the next contraction, I pushed once and saw your head. On the second push, you were out! Five total pushes and you came into the world. Your daddy, Dr. Jackson and I all held our breath as we waited to see whether you'd take your first breath. It didn't take long! You took a big breath in and let out a wail that would make your daddy's very loud Italian family proud. :)

She put you on my chest and I was immediately in love. Daddy cut your umbilical cord and leaned down to meet his newest, beautiful daughter. He looked at me and asked, "What do you think she looks like?" We had a couple of names picked out, but as soon as we saw you, we both agreed, you were Gabrielle Therese.