A Letter to Meredith...

The Story of your Birthday

Dear Meredith,

The day you were born (or at least the day I went to the hospital to have you) it was beautiful outside. The weather was perfect, and for the first time that year it smelled like Spring. I even commented to your daddy as we walked into the hospital that it was the perfect day to have a baby. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and the air was sweet with the scent of spring flowers.

But let's start at the beginning...
As per our Wednesday tradition, I was out to lunch at China Bear with my co-workers. I had just gotten my 2nd plate of egg rolls and sesame balls when my water broke!
There was no doubt in my mind when it happened, but I didn't want to sound any alarms, so I finished eating lunch and then calmly told the guys that I needed to go home. The guys (Wayne mostly) of course, panicked and refused to let me drive myself home. My car is still in the parking lot of SLPD as I'm writing this! hahaha They (Craig, Wayne, Ronnie, and everyone else in the office) were so attentive. When your daddy arrived to pick me up, they all walked me out to his truck.
Your dad was at work, so he had to leave to come pick me up. We headed straight to the hospital from there. We already had our hospital bag packed for just such an occasion.

We arrived at Methodist Willowbrook around 2pm and got triaged. We had the best nurses! Dr. Rizzutto was going to get off of her shift at 7pm, so she asked the nurses to hold off on the Pitocin as long as possible because she really wanted to deliver you. But since my water broke around noon, they didn't want me to sit around for too long, since I wasn't in labor.

At 5:15pm on February 23rd, they started the Pitocin drip. I was having regular contractions (according to the monitor) and your heart rate was awesome. You were like a Viking! I really couldn't feel anything other than some minor tightening (like Braxton Hicks) in my belly.
By 6:15pm, I finally started feeling some contractions, but none of them hurt. The nurse and Dr. Rizzutto kept asking me if I was alright because they were apparently "really strong", but I wasn't feeling any pain.
Finally around 7:45pm I started to feel some pain but it was far from unbearable.

I wanted to wait for the epidural until I was in some real pain...well that real pain came quickly. Finally at 9:45pm I asked for the epidural. I probably could have held out a while longer, but I knew that I had to sit super still for the epidural and I didn't want to be squirming while the Dr. put a needle in my spine. Dr. Huffman came around 10pm and got me hooked up. In that moment, Dr. Huffman was my favorite person. At 10pm, I was at 4 cm.

By the time 11pm rolled around, I was at 6cm, but you did not like the contractions because your heart rate kept dipping with each one. They turned off the pitocin, had me lay on my side and gave me oxygen because they thought you were lying on your cord. You bounced right back, so they started the pitocin again around 11:30pm.

After that, things went pretty quick. By 12:50am on February 24th, I was ready to push. I started pushing at 1:30am and you were born at 2:55am, February 24th. You were (and still are) perfect. You gave one or two little cries (just to let us know you were ok), and then you were calm and peaceful. In fact, after you were born, you didn’t cry again until at least the next day. You are so calm and content.

Looking at you now (6 days later), I can’t imagine life without you. Your daddy and I were just saying last night that we don’t know what we did or talked about before you. You’re a great sleeper. You hardly cry. You love to be swaddled and you love to pee on daddy! Hahaha We had our first “explosion” today at 4am. We’ve learned to change your diapers fast because you’re not such a fan of having your legs held. You do bicycle kicks every time we try to change your diaper.

I’ll tell you more later, but you’re about to wake up for a feeding, so I better attend to that first.

We love you Meredith Catherine Stockholm!

Here is me (Tuesday night)...you were born that Thursday.


Your daddy loves you SOOOO Much


Big Yawn!


You really like to look around...