*Inside every little girl is the wise and gentle spirit
of a woman of God*

This is a picture of our baby Zoe!
She was one week old here.

Zoe's Birth Story

Zoe's birth wasn't "exciting" in
the way of wondering when the big day would happen...
my labor was a planned induction.
This was because my doctor wanted to avoid
anything that could result in a c-section because the baby
was big. I was induced 2 weeks early.
On May 13, 1998, I was to be at the hospital at 9:00 am.
We were anxious, so we got there about 8:20 am.
I got to my room almost immediatly, and the nurse
gave me a prostaglandin suppository to soften my cervix.
We waited 1 hour and no contractions. My doctor
then told the nurse to give me a double dose of the suppository,
we waited 2 more hours, and no contractions, just cramping.
During this time I was speed walking around the maternity
ward trying to bring on labor! Next, doctor
said to give me one more double dose of the suppository,
if that didn't work, she wanted to go to a pitocin drip
(something my husband and I *did not* want to have to do).
Praise the Lord, my contractions started right around 2:00 pm!
The first couple of hours weren't bad, contractions were
every 3 minutes apart. Then I began to have back labor.
Oh my! I've heard back labor was bad, but I didn't know it was *BAD*!
I seriously thought someone was grinding a knife
into my back while holding me over a fire pit.
Seriously!
I delt with this for 2 more hours, then began to wimp out,
I got an epidural. Before the epidural, my nurse gave me some stadol
to relax me, hate that stuff, makes you feel drunk.
Okay, here's the kicker, right after the anesthesiologist
finished putting the epidural catheter into my back(ah, what a relief!),
I laid down and my water broke. I then went from
4 cm to 10 cm within 40 minutes. I immediatley
felt the urge to push. The nurse called the doctor
and told me not to push. "Okay, whatever"!
Get real, the urge was *bad*. Anyway, my doctor got there
within 5 minutes, I pushed three times, and Zoe was out!
My husband video taped the whole thing while my mom took
pictures with her camera.
The first words from my
doctor's mouth were "Oh my gosh, it's a GIRL"!
(She was certain I was having another boy)
Then my mom said "Thank you Jesus"! (was it *that*
obvious she wanted a granddaughter?? *giggle*)
She was born at 6:50 pm, and weighed
in at 9 pounds and 1 oz (remember,
she was 2 weeks early!).
She was 21 1/2 inches long.My husband
was the one who named Zoe, I'm glad he picked that name,
I've always loved it!
I nursed Zoe about 20 minutes after she was born,
and she loved it. As a matter of fact,
she's stayed at my breast most of her life so far! :O)
I never gave her a pacifier, much to the nurse's dismay. She only needs mamma!