It's crazy, I am writing this birth story 18 months after the fact, and it still feels like yesterday. I have been wanting to sit down and write out Zoey's birth story for a while, so why not now! I finally have a place to post it!
It's crazy to think that I am 22 weeks pregnant and about to go through this all over again.
In Livermore, California, we get some pretty awesome weather during the summer, Frozen yogurt is a must on warm nights. On Friday, September 21, 2012, my husband, Zack, and I decided to get some frozen yogurt with some friends in our downtown area. At this point, I was 13 days away from my due date, 7 days away from my induction date, and feeling like I could pop any moment. As I sat on a park bench, eating my Vanilla/Chocolate concoction, we watched my belly dace in excitement for the ultimate sugar rush I was giving our little girl (I already knew she was going to take after me and be a lover of all things sweet!). For the next forty minutes I continue to feel my stomach contract, which was nothing out of the ordinary.
As we got up from the bench to say good night, I looked down at my belly and could tell that her position had completely changed. My stomach looked… weird. My girlfriends husband looked at me, touched my belly and said, “you’re going to have this baby this weekend.” Zack and I looked at each other and laughed and simply left it at “maybe!”
The next day was my first official day of maternity leave. With so much to do and only 6 days to do it, I couldn’t waste a minute of this precious time. The only problem was, I had spent the last 6 years working weddings and events and never having a single weekend day off. So with this being my first official Saturday off, with my husband, in a long time, I wasn’t going to be too productive. We spent the day catching up on our DVR, and enjoying each others company before we headed to a wedding that evening in a nearby city.
That evening, we had RSVP’d "yes," to attend one of Zack’s oldest friends wedding. Ironically, I would spend my first night away from work, attending a wedding – go figure! While getting ready we discussed how funny it would be if we went in to labor at the wedding and that we would steal the brides thunder. All jokes aside, we got to thinking… “what if we do go in to labor?” So we decided to play it safe and bring our hospital bags along with us. The wedding was 30 minutes away from the hospital, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The wedding was gorgeous, beautiful weather, wonderful setting, and so nice not be in charge. During dinner, we were able to sit with old friends and catch up on each other’s life and enjoy an amazing meal. Of course I scarfed mine down and was already eyeing the wedding cake and s’mores bar that would later be available. The Bride and Groom made their rounds and when they arrived at our table we greeted them with the biggest hugs! A friend of mine asked if I could take a picture of her with the bride and of course I said yes. I stood up, took the photo, and felt a weird sensation in what I thought was my bladder. The bride and groom had since moved on, and our table was left to hang out. I looked to Zack and excused myself to use the restroom.
The second I started walking to the restroom I started to feel what I thought was pee running down my leg. Now this was a new pregnancy symptom, I hadn’t peed myself (unless I was sneezing) before. Rushing in to the stall, I sat on the toilet and immediately felt a gush of fluid rush out of me. Ugh, yup, my water just broke! I began to feel panic and fear. I am at a wedding, covered in fluid. Thankfully I was wearing a dress and it didn’t get too wet. I exited the stall, luckily the only person in the restroom, and shoved a bunch of paper towels up my dress. That’s what any sane person would do, right?
When I walked back over to Zack he looked at me and knew something was wrong. I yelled to him “we need to leave.” His response, “why?!” I let him know what just had happened and I could see the panic hit his face. It was like watching a movie unfold. I could see his head spinning like he didn’t know what to do. He excused himself from who he was talking to and said his goodbyes to the bride. He let her know we had to leave and of course she was upset at first, but then learned what just happened and was immediately thrilled. Zack ran to the car and my friend helped me walk up a giant hill to get to the parking lot.
Once I reached Zack at the car another gush of fluid exited me… whelp, there go those paper towels! Of course our car comes with GPS, but go figure, we still get lost leaving the wedding and get on the freeway going the WRONG direction. Don’t worry, we figured out what we did wrong and turned around and made it to the hospital in record time. Thank goodness for no traffic!
When we arrived at the hospital, Zack runs around the car to help me out. The minute my feet touched the pavement another gush of fluid bursts out of me, splashing like a water balloon on the concrete. Zack looks up at me, eyes wide as can be and says, “that was awesome!” When we originally scheduled our induction, due to the estimated size of our little one, Zack was truly bummed he would miss the moment my water broke. Well, if you wish for something hard enough, you may just get it, and get it, and get it!
As we waited to be let in at the security doors to labor and delivery my water broke again. We looked at each other, laughed, and thought to ourselves “someone should really put a cone there.” How could this much fluid be exiting my body? We were quickly let in to labor and deliver and as we are waddling past the registration desk we were informed we had to have been the best-dressed couple they had seen in a long time. We were greeted by one of our nurses and taken to our private room.
From there she got me situated, showed us the awesome “designer” gown I’d be sporting (her words), the abundant amount of swag we’d be taking home and began to hook me up to the monitors. The sound of my little girl’s heartbeat, once again, melted my heart.
The next few hours seemed to drag. My mom, dad and sister stopped by to see how I was feeling. They stayed only a short time since they knew it could be a while. At that point, I was only dilated to a 3 and had a long way to go.
The night seemed to drag on. Sleep wasn’t happening and whatever contractions I was feeling were only taking place in my back. My lower back felt like it was going through the hardest boot camp workout imaginable. I knew I wanted an epidural, but knew I was nowhere near needing one that very moment. So I got the next best thing, my nurse gave me something to sleep. Not too sure what she slipped me, but it was enough to close my eyes and get a few hours of shuteye.
6am arrived and I was greeted with the magic of Pitocin and we would soon be on our way. The pain in my back was still present, so it was Zack’s duty to continue rub my lower back to help with the pain… it did, but not enough. By 10am it was time to administer the epidural; after that, I was all smiles!
At 11am it was time to start pushing! I remember the nurse and Zack helping me put my legs in the stirrups and being in shock that I couldn’t feel what was happening. I mean, I saw my leg, but it felt like it was still sitting on the bed. The drugs were working and that’s what I wanted. With Zack, my sister, mom, mother-in-law and best friend/photographer, all in room I knew we were all in for a good show. We are the type of group of make inappropriate jokes to ease the moment. I knew my doctor was off that day and I would be working with the on-call doctor for my delivery. That didn’t bother me, as I had met him before and knew that he would take good care of me, I just hoped he’d understand our humor! What I didn’t know was that my superwoman nurse, Brooke, would be there the whole time coaching me and being an amazing support system.
During the pushing process I had never, in a million years, thought I would want a mirror to watch what was happening; however, Brooke suggested it, and I trusted her. If she told me that I should give birth standing on my head, I probably would have believed her and ran with it. She was that amazing. Seriously, if she said it was good to use a mirror had to be, right? So I used it, and I loved it! The visual it gave me helped to feel my contractions, even though I had the epidural. I was in touch with what was going on and knew what I had to do. I knew when I needed to push and I when to stop.
The next hour was filled with humorous comments given mainly by my husband and best friend to ease any tension in the room. My sister, mom, and mother-in-law had spent that last hour or so learning so much about me and seeing a side of me they had never seen. But after an hour and a half of pushing, we were at the end. The doctor was present, and it was time to give those final pushes. I was given an episiotomy to give our little girls giant head a bit more room. When she started to emerge, my doctor asked if I wanted to grab her. Grab her? Seriously? But again, I was encouraged by these people who do this all the time, so it must be ok. I reached down, felt my daughter’s little body and helped pull her out of me. Immediately I brought her to my chest and was filled with so many emotions. She was here and she was amazing!
I sadly don’t remember my husband cutting her umbilical cord, I was too distracted by this little ball of joy I was holding. After two previous and failed pregnancies, I had a little baby of my own. Zoey Paige Zucker was born on Sunday, September 23
, 2012 at 12:46pm. She weighed an adorable 7lbs 1 oz and was 19 ¼ inches long. The cliché that your whole world changes when you have a baby couldn’t be truer. The immediate connection I felt to her was so strong and so powerful I could never ask for anything more. I was happy.
Thank you to Corinne McCombs photography for being so awesome and shooting this amazing day in my life! You are so special to me and I hope you know that! To see the original post of these photos visit:
