Gwyneth Harper Stepp

Miss Gwyneth Harper Stepp was born Saturday, May 7th at 9:52 pm.  She weighed in at 8 lb. 2 oz. and measured 21 inches in length.  She is the most precious baby and Brandon and I are so in love with her.  I can't believe she is already 2 weeks old!

 It wasn't an easy delivery as most of you already know, but it was well worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat. It began Friday night, May 6th around 7:30 pm.  Brandon and I were sitting at home trying to decide what to have for dinner.  I had been having the usual random contractions throughout the day but could tell they were starting to feel different and were coming more frequently.  We began timing the contractions around 8 pm and at that time they were about 9-11 minutes apart.

We decided to get Chinese food so Brandon placed our order with our favorite place here in Rocklin and soon left to pick it up.  In anticipation that this could be the night we would go to the hospital I began looking through our hospital bag to see what we still had left to pack.  When Brandon got back we continued to time the contractions and they slowly were getting closer to one another.  I started to not feel so good so I didn't even eat my food.  Brandon says I committed a crime by letting Chinese go to waste. :)  

I took a shower and continued to pack our hospital bag as the contractions were down to about 5 minutes apart.  Around 11 pm my contractions started to slow down and seemed to stall.  Brandon and I decided we would go to bed and knew I would wake up if things started to progress.  I had been laying down for no more than 10 minutes when the contractions came back and were much stronger.  I laid in bed watching the clock timing the contractions for about 45 minutes before I woke up Brandon and told him that I thought it was time we got ready to go to the hospital.

We timed the contractions for another hour, they got down to 3 minutes apart and were getting stronger with each contraction.  I wasn't able to talk or walk when they came so I knew this was the real deal.  We called labor and delivery at Kaiser Roseville around 2 am, on Saturday, May 7th.  They confirmed that we should head their way so we packed up the Jetta and left.  It was exciting but also a bit scary.  All I could think was, we are leaving this house just the two of us and we will be coming back with a baby!  Our lives were about to change forever, in a good way of course.  

When we got to the hospital they sent me back while Brandon got a pass.  After filling out the paperwork for admissions we sat in a small room waiting to be evaluated before we could officially be admitted.  The nurse evaluated me and said I was 4 cm dilated, this was 1 cm more than I was at my appointment just 2 days ago.  That to me sounded promising and I thought to myself "wow, we are going to have this baby soon."  Little did I know that Gwyneth had no intention to come anytime soon.  We had a long road ahead of us before she would enter this world.

We were admitted at 3 am and taken to our delivery room.  I will spare you all the details and instead will give you the Cliff Notes version of our hospital experience with just the highlights.  I was able to somewhat manage the pain for the first few hours.  As the contractions got more intense I began to rethink my plan to go medication free.  It wasn't until the nurse checked me at 7 am and told me I was still around 4 cm that I realized this was not going to be a fast labor.  It was then that I requested some pain medication to be administered through my IV.  The medicine didn't do much for the pain really just made me feel more relaxed.  

It was around 9 am when I caved and requested the epidural.  My nurse had been so supportive of my birth plan but as soon as I requested the epidural she quickly got the nurse anesthetist to come administer it.  The epidural was only working on one side of my body so the nurse anesthetist had to make an adjustment to it.  This seemed to help although throughout my labor the epidural would wear off and I would feel the contractions just as painful if not more painful than they were before the epidural.  It seemed like every 2 hours I had them in there working on the epidural because of the pain.  Luckily they were able to inject pain medication directly into the epidural line which helped relieve the pain fairly quickly.

The midwife checked me again around 2 pm and at that time I had only dilated to 5 cm.  This was a bit discouraging considering my contractions appeared to be off the chart when watching the monitor.  With such strong contractions we thought I would be progressing much faster.  The midwife then suggested we start Pitocin, another medication that I had hoped to avoid, to see if that would help me progress faster.  At that time they also decided to administer an internal monitor in my uterus to help them get a better reading on the intensity of each contraction.  It wasn't until then that we discussed the possibility of a c-section.  The midwife had high hopes that the Pitocin would help progress my labor and said she would be back at 5 pm to perform another cervical check.  If the Pitocin did not work then the chance of having a c-section would soon become a reality.

Brandon laid down to nap on the couch and I tried to rest myself but my mind was racing and I couldn't stop watching the monitor.  My contractions were about as half the intensity that they were earlier in the day and at times appeared to be getting further apart.  I began to get discouraged and prepared myself for the very real possibility of a c-section. Soon I started to feel my contractions again as I had been every two hours.  This time the nurse anesthetist decided to replace the epidural to see if that would help.  He also upped the dose of medication as my body seemed to not respond to the regular dose.  This seemed to ease the pain for the time being but I didn't get my hopes up based on my experience with the epidural throughout the day. The midwife got held up with another delivery but stopped by our room around 6 pm to perform a cervical check.  I expected to hear that I was still 5 cm but was thrilled when she happily said I was dilated to 9 cm.  I knew then that our little Gwyneth would be here soon!! 

The midwife left and planned to return at 7:30 pm for one last cervical check in hopes I would be 10 cm.  It was around 7 pm that my contractions started to get very intense and I was in severe pain despite having the epidural.  Brandon paged the nurse and soon both the nurse and midwife entered the room.  The midwife performed a cervical check and I was fully dilated.  It was time to have a baby!  My midwife also informed me that my OBGYN was on call and had just arrived at the hospital so we were thrilled that she would be able to deliver Gwyneth.  

I began pushing around 7:30 pm and approximately two and a half hours later Gwyneth Harper Stepp was born at 9:52 pm.  It was such an amazing moment when they laid her on my chest.  Just minutes before we were just Brandon and Tracy, and there we were now a little family of three.  Brandon performed the usual double check that she was a girl and counted all her fingers and toes, she passed with flying colors.  For the first hour of her life she was one unhappy little girl and was unconsolable but after she got all cleaned up and had her measurements and shots she was a perfect little angel.

Thank you to all our friends and family who were checking in on us during our hospital stay.  We are so happy to be home with our precious baby girl and can't wait for all of you to meet her!  Our lives have been forever changed and we look forward to all the wonderful experiences to come.  Much love to all from the Stepp family!

-Brandon, Tracy, and Gwyneth