Sophia's Birth

Sophia was due to arrive on July 29th, 2002. 2002 was an EXTREMELY hot summer, especially because I was enormously pregnant. I craved gummy candy when I was pregnant with Sophia...then it made me sick. I also craved pop tarts, oh so healthy. I remember my feet being so swollen that summer that they were purple. I had only one pair of sandals that fit, they had lots of elastic.



Sophia's pregnancy was the one in which I gained the most weight, even though she was my smallest baby! Almost 60 pounds, believe it or not. I don't have any pictures on my computer, and I am too lazy to scan one, so suffice it to say, I was large. I used to cry when I left the Dr.'s office because I was gaining too much weight. I've never gained less than 40 pounds whilst pregnant, so now I think my tears were kind of funny. The Dr.'s told me I would be obese for life, blah, blah, blah, but I'm not...yet. :)



Four days before my due date I had a Dr.'s appointment and to my surprise, my blood pressure was high. The Dr. ordered me to bed rest and sent me home with a jug for the 24 hour urine-protein test (sorry, not trying to be gross), but it really was gross. It was a Thursday or Friday, and I had an appt. at the hospital on Sunday at 7am to check my blood pressure and decide whether or not to induce labor.



Saturday night rolled around and I could not sleep. In hindsight, I think I had bad acid reflux, but I was a newbie and didn't know why I was so uncomfortable. That night at around 2 am, a group of coal miners who had been trapped in a mine were rescued, slowly, one by one. I had the unique opportunity of watching Geraldo Rivera commentate as all 9 miners were pulled to safety, slowly, one by one in the middle of the night. It was a long night.



Sunday we were off to the hospital at 7 am. My blood pressure was still high so they decided to induce. I cried because I was terrified of induction and the dreaded "P" - pitocin. I was already 3 cm so they gave me cytotec and at noon they broke my water. That was all it took and labor had officially begun at about noonish. I remember my Dad saying Hi after church and trying to smile and be pleasant, but it was really starting to hurt!



Our hospital has a jacuzzi tub and I remember spending a lot of time there. It really helped. It was my favorite labor-aid! At 7:30-7:45pm. I started to feel ready to push, but I wasn't quite complete so I had to wait a few minutes. I never felt that urge to push with either of the boys, ironically.



Finally at around 8 I got to push, which I thought and still think to be the most dreadful part of labor, and at 8:43 p.m. on July, 28th, our little princess was born! She weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces, was 21 1/2 inches and she looked just.like.Graeme. She still does. I love that girl.



I remember remembering giving birth on each Sunday following Sophia's birth and thinking each week how I never, ever wanted to do that again. I changed my mind, but as I write this on the eve of the due date of our 4th babe, I am again wondering why I wanted to do this again. :)