The Greatest Gift is . . . Sloppy Kisses

Night before we became 4!

After many requests to hear it and my own need to not forget it, here's Audrey's birth story...

At my Dr. appointment on Monday Feb 14, my OB suggested that we go ahead and induce labor. My blood pressure was rising and the baby was getting to be pretty large. (Two weeks before, an ultrasound had her estimated weight at 8 pounds 3 ounces.) Jeff and I didn't want to induce. We wanted to have a spontaneous labor, something that we hadn't experienced previously, but we knew that the baby's and my health were most important. So we scheduled the induction for Thursday Feb. 17th.

Whoa! Was I really that huge?

We got to the hospital at 5:30am. Yes you read that correctly, Jeff and Alissa Borcherding woke up in time to be somewhere at 5:30 IN THE MORNING! I even fixed my hair for the occasion. So we got there at 5:30am, went up to labor and delivery, changed into a gown and started the Pitocin drip around 6:15am. We didn't really have anything else to do, so we tried to get some sleep, but the room kept getting increasingly colder. This was not a side effect of the Pitocin. Jeff was cold, too. So at 7:30am, the nurses moved us to another room. One that we could control the thermostat better...a smaller, not so nice room, too.

By the time (7:45am) we got into the new room, my doctor had arrived to check on me. She came in, examined me, and broke my water...just to get things started. Everything was going splendidly. Nothing eventful. I was slowly dilating and effacing with no pain, yet. There was some gushing water hilarity for awhile after my water was broken, but that is a story for another day. We have video of the story, maybe I'll post it someday...maybe not.

I started feeling my contractions pretty badly around 10am, so we called the anesthesiologist and he inserted my epidural at 10:30am. It started kicking in and caused me to start shivering uncontrollably for a little while. I couldn't talk without my teeth chattering. It was annoying.

We had some fun times during those first 5-6 hours. Some time around 1pm, the hospital volunteers brought us a huge cart of baby gifts, so Jeff and I had a small, impromptu baby shower right there in the delivery room. It was so wonderful to see the love that others had for us!

Our tiny baby shower

There were even a few gifts for Big Sister, Abbie. My parents brought her up to see us after school let out for the day around 4:00pm. They stayed for a bit and then went down to the gift shop to buy something for Abbie. By the time they returned to my room, granted this was only about 30 minutes maybe, I was in major pain. My epidural had "swung to the left" and I was feeling all of the contractions on my right side only. My left leg was still completely numb and "heavy," but I could feel and move my right leg as much as if I hadn't ever receive the medicine. I could also feel it in my back...not fun!

Since I wasn't feeling up to having visitors anymore and since my nurse needed to check my progress and move me into a new position, my parents and Abbie left to go get dinner and await our call that the baby was here. This was around 5:00pm. By 5:20pm, I was pushing.

Pushing was hard.

I couldn't feel anything (I got more relief in the epidural department and I was onto feeling nothing again, thankfully), I couldn't breathe because I was pushing so hard, and the baby was coming out wrong, head looking up and one shoulder was getting hung up on my pelvic bone. Every time I pushed she would come down, but when I stopped, she just went right back up as if nothing had happened. My L&D nurse, Amanda was encouraging, yet annoyingly bossy at the same time. I knew she would be, she told me from the start. "I will do everything I can to give you what you want in this delivery, but in the end a healthy, happy baby and a healthy, happy mommy is what I want. If that means I have to get in your face and get bossy and order you to do this or that, then I will." And that's exactly what she did.

By the time Dr. Jansky, my OB/GYN, came in, I think it was apparent that the baby wasn't going to come on her own. I was pushing and pushing, the Doctor was using forceps to help. Dr. Jansky called in another doctor into the room. Then another nurse came in. Then two nurses came in to attend to the baby when she was born. Then another nurse came in to help with the delivery. In the end there were probably 4 nurses, two doctors, one Daddy and one very concerned and uninformed Mother. As I was pushing, Amanda was coaching me and talking to the doctors in a hushed tone. At a few times, she was pretty much only mouthing words to them. I assume that she didn't want to alarm me with the news that the baby wasn't coming and that they were thinking C-Section, but by not telling me and only whispering around, it was causing me to panic even more.

Around 5:30pm, after using forceps, suction and more pushing than a woman should ever have to do, they informed both Jeff and I that Audrey was turned face up and that her shoulder was catching on my pelvic bone. If they tried to pull her out, her shoulder could get completely lodged under my pelvic bone and then we could have major life-threatening problems.

So I was prepped for a C-Section...

Now, at times I have told this story and said, "I had to have an emergency C-section." Well, that's true, in that, if I hadn't had a c-section, Audrey would not have been born. But in reality, it wasn't a true emergency. While the operating room was being prepped and Jeff was getting on his scrubs, my doctor took her time sewing up my episiotomy before I was wheeled into the OR. Now, if it was a true emergency and the baby was in danger, she wouldn't have taken time to do that.

And, yes...my doctor cut an episiotomy before coming to the conclusion that she needed to cut my abdomen open as well. yay...

Once I was in the OR, the anesthesiologist was making sure that I had enough juice in my epidural so that I didn't feel any cutting or pain. The doctors asked, "Can you feel this?" I said, "Yes." They asked again, "Can you feel this?" I, once again, said, "Yes." So the decision was made to increase the sleepy drugs and decrease the amount of time that my husband, the baby's father, my only link to sanity at this point, was in the operating room. His time spent when from 100% to 0%.

I don't know what Jeff was going through in the hallway outside the OR. I do know that they told him I was having trouble with my anesthesia, therefore he was not going to be able to attend the birth of his second child. I know that I was scared. My arms were strapped down to the table out to my sides like I was a child pretending to fly like an airplane. Only I was on my back and there were doctors pulling and tugging at my insides.

I don't remember everything about the surgery, but what I do remember, I cherish. I remember someone holding my hand. I don't know who it was, maybe the anesthesiologist, maybe just another nurse, but who ever was on the other end of that hand brought me so much peace and comfort. That hand helped me to breathe. It helped me to focus on the only thing that I knew to focus on.

Jesus.

I knew that, as I was laying there listening to pumps and beeps and chatter, not knowing what was going on on the other side of that sheet stretched up at my chin, I had the capability of a total freakout. But I just kept saying the name of Jesus over and over. I called on the LORD to bring me peace, to give me strength. I asked Him to protect Audrey, to protect me, to bring comfort to Jeff waiting in the hallway. I don't know how else to put it, but I felt Jesus, my Savior, my comforter, my healer, holding my hand in that operating room. There is no other way that I can explain the calm that came over me. It wasn't the drugs. It wasn't exhaustion. It was the Almighty.

I then heard the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. I had heard it only once before. It was the pure, full, beautiful cry of my newborn baby. Such a wave of joy filled my soul! Audrey Johnna was healthy and vibrant and beautiful. At least I think she was beautiful...

The doctor held her down so I could see her, but Jeff had my glasses in his pocket! He was going to put them on my when he got in the operating room before the doctors started cutting! All I saw for my first beautiful look at my second born daughter, was a fuzzy red, squiggly thing.

Jeff was ushered in quickly after and he gave me my glasses and we had the nurse show her to me again, but it wasn't the same. Oh well.

On Thursday February 17, 2011 at 5:56pm, Audrey Johnna Borcherding came into this world, weighing 8 pounds 10 oz. and measuring 20 inches long.

First kiss

Notice the bruising on the side of her face from the forceps.

Due to the extensive bruising from such a rough delivery, Audrey had to be under a bilirubin light for 24 hours to help combat the affects of Jaundice.

You can see her head really well here. I was pushing her so hard and for so long into the birth canal, that she had a huge bulge on the top-side of her head for about two weeks.

After the delivery, we pretty much had an uneventful recovery at the hospital. Audrey had a pretty high biliruben level in her blood for about 4 days and she had to stay in the hospital a day after I was discharged. I was able to stay my hospital room, though. Thank you Jesus! But all in all, we were fine.

We came home on February 21, 2011 and the rest is history!

Here are a few more pictures from our first few days together as a family of 4!


The Borcherdings--Alissa, Jeff, Abbie, and Audrey

As I sit here at my computer on this frozen Friday morning awaiting another weekly OB appointment, I can't help but wonder about this new life growing inside of me. What will she look like? Will she be skinny and long like her sister? or short and pudgy like her parents? Will she look more like Jeff than me? or unlike any of us all together? When will her birthday be? With 14 days until her due date, it could be any day now or it could be much longer...

I don't know the answers to these questions, but I do know one thing. I already love this little girl with all of my heart and all of my being. I worried about that at the beginning of this pregnancy. How in the world would I be able to love anyone as much as I love Abbie, my first-born? Where is this new love going to come from? What if it doesn't come and I have to go find it somewhere? somehow? But through these 9 long months, through all of the complaining about my back and hips hurting. Even though, every time I stand up, I have to rush to the bathroom. Even though I can't walk more than 50 yds, without getting sore and tired. Even through all of that, I have found so much love for this new little girl in my life that it has amazed me! God is amazing! He creates love and allows it to grow and multiply to such great amounts that you think you will burst...and then He gives you more!

I've always wondered about God's love for his children. How He really can love me and Jeff and Abbie and the guy down the street and the lady in Ohio all with a full, rich love that doesn't diminish with personality or lack of reciprocation. But I'm getting it now. I have talked to Abbie about her sister and about how I will love her just as much as I love Abbie, but I think it will be different. My love for Abbie will not diminish, only the love that God has created inside of me will grow and multiply and change to meet this new little girl's needs. God's love and mercies are new every morning. And so my love will be new every morning, every year, and with every new life that is placed in my care by the only Father who knows the greatest love of all.