And so it begins...

The story of Taylor Jade Grube. I'll try to give you the condensed version.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 12TH

*Contractions started at 8pm at the Olympia HS vs. Bellarmine HS football game...these were different from the ones I'd experienced leading up to this point and I knew it right away. They were 4 minutes apart right from the beginning and I was getting pretty uncomfortable.

*We left the game (obviously) and went home to labor and try to get some sleep. The minute I layed down in bed, they came harder and faster. Matt called the hospital and they said to come in. Now I wasn't so sure I was ready...but here we go!

*Got checked...only 1cm dilated, 80% thinned. Walked around for 2 hours only to be checked again and still only 1cm. Keep in mind my contractions were getting more and more uncomfortable at this point...this wasn't a fun walk.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 13TH

*At 5am they give me a shot of morphine and the option to stay or go home and try to get some rest during this early labor stage. We got home about 6am and I went right to sleep...morphine is great!

*At about 11am I woke up and threw up (from the morphine). Layed on the couch dozing in/out of sleep until 130pm when I thought I was peeing my pants in my drugged up state. Nope. My water broke!

*Back to the hospital, and this time we got a room! Still only 2cm dilated.

*Over the course of the next several hours my contractions progressively got stronger and more painful, and with each one the baby's heartbeat would decelerate. They attributed this to the umbilical cord probably being pinched somewhere, because as soon as the contraction would stop, she looked great. No signs of any other distress. I wasn't able to get up out of bed at all because of the decels in the baby's heart rate...I had to stay hooked up to the monitors.

*My labor still wasn't progressing...after 4 hours of very strong contractions I was still only dilated to 2 cm. They decided to put a catheter into my uterus to try to float the cord to see if they get it to move. If they were successful they were going to give me some pitocin to try to get my cervix to dilate and the baby to drop. She was still very high.

*So while feeling like I had Niagara Falls between my legs (the saline going in from the catheter was constantly running back out) I was hopeful that this would mean some sort of progress was going to be made. But, the baby's heart rate continued to dip with each contraction, and her head was still really high...she wasn't coming down at all. So to further my discomfort, I was fitted with an internal monitor to measure the strength of the contractions...this was to see whether they were strong enough on their own to bring her down into the birth canal. The doctor was obviously concerned that if the baby's heart rate wasn't able to tolerate the strength of the contractions I was having, she didn't want to give me any medication to make them harder and stronger, thus putting the baby under more stress.

*So after 27 hours, barely dilated to 4cm, exhausted and getting nauseous from no pain medication and not eating for the last 28 hours, they could still barely feel the top of the baby's head. My pelvis was just too narrow, and she wasn't going to be born through it. At 11pm we decided it was in both of our best interest to have a C-section.

*She was born at 11:29pm...with the umbilical cord around her shoulders and loosely around her neck.

We spent the next 3 days in the hospital being poked and prodded, but taken very good care of. The Labor & Delivery nurses at St. Peter's are wonderful Ü

As for me, I have a lot of recovering to do. At this point I am managing with just ibuprofen...haven't used the percocet since the hospital, but I'm still very sore. It's hard to not be able to do everything that I want to do...at home, with Taylor, for myself. I can't tell you how blessed I feel to have Matt. He has been so wonderful, taking care of us. He's doing dishes, laundry, cleaning up after me, helping me get in and out of the car, chair, couch, bed...pretty much doing anything and everything he can to make this easier for me, so I can get better. I love my husband so much Ü My family has also been wonderful. They've been there every step of the way. From the football game, to labor, to our 3 days at the hospital, and home...we couldn't ask for more. Thank you all! We really appreciate everything you've done, and continue to do for us Ü