Savannah Paige Martitz {Birth Story}

We anticipated this moment for a LONG time! After so much worry from previously miscarrying, it was so crazy to swallow that we were FINALLY going to be bringing our sweet baby HOME! 

Dr. Calvert said I had been measuring quite a bit ahead for the last 2 months of pregnancy, so the chances of me having a large baby were pretty high. We opted for an elective induction at 39 weeks for a few reasons. {ONE} obviously being size. I was SUPER uncomfortable, not sleeping, and carrying VERY VERY low! Baby girl was pushing on my pelvis and sciatic nerve VERY hard! OUCH! {TWO} being that we could plan arrangements with Adalynn and have my mom come up to help after we got out of the hospital.

We were scheduled up at Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital on May 22nd at 6am. We arrived, I got changed into my cute little gown, had my IV put in, and got settled. Coming in, I was at 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. I had lost my mucus plug the night before so I was hopeful things would move along quickly! Boyyyy was I wrong! Dr. Delplanch was on call for the day and my nurse was Ashley. Both were fabulous!

Before I could start the thinning tablets, I had to stay on the fetal monitor consistently for 20 min. Our little girl was always a feisty one, so that was next to impossible. It also didn't help that my placenta is always on the front, so getting a consistent steady heartbeat is a feat. They sent in nurse after nurse to try and get a good trace of her heartbeat. I was turned in all different funky positions that were so uncomfortable! 8:30 rolled around and we were still fighting to get a good trace. As soon as we picked it up, she would kick the monitor really hard and flip over. Quite the stinker! They even came in to do an ultrasound to make sure she was still head down and face down. We finally were able to place the first tablet and start the thinning process.

It worked very well and I was contracting regularly. They couldn't place another tablet after that because I was contracting too frequently. So we had to wait for the contractions to either slow down to place another, speed up to make me dilate/efface more, or for my water to break. It was a long day of waiting. I was super impatient and really frustrated. Hardly any progress all day. 4pm rolled around and I was still only at 2cm dilated. There was talk several times about manually breaking my water, but earlier in the day, my cervix hadn't moved down enough to get the hook up and around where it needed to be.

I opted to schedule the epidural for 7pm and then have my water manually broke right after that. My epidural was a piece of cake. Right when I scooted to the edge of the bed to have it placed, my water broke on its own! Yay! No turning back now :) The night nurse, Holly, had come on shift now and she was absolutely fabulous. I had no idea how grateful I would be for her by the time our baby girl would arrive. Dr. Seekamp was also the new Dr. on call for the evening.

They came in to check me around 8pm and I was 4cm. I was able to even sneak in a nap afterwards. That was heavenly beings that I hadn't slept more than a few hours in a LONG time!

I was 7cm when I was checked at 9pm, and at 11pm, I was 9cm. We didn't know whether she would be born that night or the next day! Progress soon slowed down and was taking longer to be complete. Around 2am they checked me again and I was at 9 3/4cm. A sliver of my cervix wasn't dissolving. Because of this, they had to turn me over and over in different positions.

Up until this point, things had been smooth sailing. It was a long day, but pretty much everything had gone perfect, other than playing the waiting game. Little did we know, we were in for the ride of our lives....

Last pregnancy with Adalynn, I only pushed 3 times and she was out. It was awesome. That is what I was expecting to happen again. I started pushing a little before 3am.

4:40am came around and things had taken a turn for the worst. I had been pushing for almost TWO HOURS and was in an unbearable extreme amount of pain. The anesthesiologist was camped in our room trying to figure out why my epidural wasn't working. Up until I started pushing, I had zero pain. He kept pumping pain meds through my epidural and it still wasn't working. At this point, the Dr. determined that the baby had flipped during contractions and was now face up. Her head was stuck on my tailbone and was literally grinding into it. I was hysterically screaming in pain at this point. The nurses turned me every which way and position, trying to relieve the pressure she was putting on my pelvis and tailbone. We later learned that in the process of turning me over and over to get the last part of my cervix to dissolve, my epidural had come out. Going from zero pain to extreme pushing pain was a special kind of Hell. Nothing I could everrrrr imagine or describe well enough.... Holly, the nurse, had to use her hand to separate the baby's head from my tailbone during EVERY contraction. She was my hero! Her poor hand was cramping like crazy and she didn't budge. Because the pain was so intense, baby's heart rate was dropping in between contractions and I had to put on an oxygen mask in between pushing.

5:15am came and barely any progress getting her up off my tailbone. At this point I was resting through contractions to tolerate the pain while they tried to turn her head. By now, I was scared that I was headed for a C section. The pressure was pretty much unbearable and at one point I even asked the nurse if she was even going to fit, especially since she was already stuck. No luck turning her head, so we moved on to pushing with the pain, while the nurse continued to separate her head from my tailbone.

As I was in the worst pain I could ever fathom in my entire life, I will never forget the next moment that happened though. I had now been hysterically screaming crying in unbearable pain for 2.5 hours and was totally exhausted. Anyone who knows Jordan knows that he isn't an overly emotional type of person ever. He had been by the side of my bed every moment watching, talking me through it all, and offering his hand to squeeze if I needed it. In that moment, I looked over at him to see a flood of tears streaming down his face as he held my hand. The hurt in his eyes was so tangible as he continued crying buckets of tears while looking at me. I just stared at him as his heart was breaking, wishing he could do something. Anything to take it all away. In that moment, I felt like we connected like never before. 

Shortly after, I began to make progress pushing her up and off my tailbone. The nurse started paging Dr. Seekamp. In one swift moment of intense pain, I pushed like there was no tomorrow. Baby rounded the corner and quickly came bursting out before the Dr. could even get there. Nurse Holly delivered her in the heat of the moment at 6:02am. While I was so relieved to have her out, that was quickly pushed aside as I didn't hear her crying. I completely panicked and starting crying and yelling at Jordan asking why she wasn't crying. He kept telling me he didn't know, he didn't know. A flood of 10 nurses came rushing into the room as they stretched the umbilical cord over to the warming table and quickly cut it. She wasn't breathing and had a true knot in her umbilical cord. It felt like an eternity till I heard her cry. The nurses worked hard to get her to breathing and responsive while Dr. Seekamp made it up to our room and began getting me sewn and cleaned up. After getting her stable, they had Jordan come over and finish cutting what was left of the cord and brought her over to do skin to skin with me. I couldn't stop hugging her close. She was FINALLY here, safe and healthy! She weighed 7lbs 11oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. What a ride!!

She didn't waste any time wanting to eat and was quite the little snuggler. Between only getting a few hours of sleep the night before and over exerting myself pushing for 3 hours, I was severely exhausted. The nurses got me up to get changed and to the bathroom when I almost passed out. I was shaking and couldn't stay awake. Jordan snuggled her for quite some time while I passed out to sleep for a bit.

Totally exhausted......

The look of pure relief.... I love this pic <3

He sat by the window and just stared at her forever... I thought my heart was going to explode!

Once I woke up, I had a little more energy to function, call family, snuggle her, and examine all her beautiful features. For such a rough delivery, she didn't have a single blemish or mark on her face. She was literally perfect. While the nurse gave her a bath, Jordan went and got me a sandwich from Jimmy Johns that I had been dying to have for the 9 months that I couldn't eat lunch meat. It was the BEST sandwich I have ever tasted ha ha!

Not a fan of her hospital bath!

Life is better with her binki :)

We got moved up into our recovery room and Jordan went to pick up Adalynn and came back up so she could meet Savannah for the first time. She was so incredibly excited! She had spent the last 2 days at our friends house while we were at the hospital. They did so many fun things with her and we are so grateful for them!

Big Sister has arrived!!

Jordan then took Adalynn home for a nap, and I snoozed as well!

Totally a snuggler! I was in Heaven soaking it all in <3

Our stay in the hospital was uneventful. She had a fairly high amount of bilirubin, but not enough to keep her, especially with being formula fed, which flushes it out faster. We stayed the night and were discharged the next day, May 24th. My mom came up from Twin Falls later that day and helped us all to get some sleep and adjust to a new baby! Welcome to the world Savannah Paige Martitz!

The nurse that delivered Savannah, Holly Mullins.

Cute little burrito baby!

Those chubby cheeks!!

Such a proud big sister! She was all about holding her and wanting to help!

Ready to be discharged and go home!

Newborn Pictures :)