Welcoming Zoïe Ruth
Zoïe Ruth AuBuchon
Born at 8:20 in the morning on December 27th, 2018
7 lbs. + 9 oz.
22.5 inches long
Zoïe, meaning “abundant life”
Ruth, after her great grandmother, meaning “companion; friend; vision of beauty”
I kept telling Sam all day that something just felt different… “I think today is the day” I kept saying… “I really think we may go into labor tonight” I said as we went on one last walk trying to kick my body into labor.
As we climbed into bed that night all I could think about was how much I was dreading our appointment the next morning. The next day was our sweet girl’s due date and they were going to start the induction process; being induced was something I did not want. I’d been praying all day that we wouldn’t make it to the appointment because we’d magically go into labor before 7am. Just days before, though, my cervix had been completely shut and we were told that it was highly unlikely my body would go into labor on its own before our due date. I prayed one last time that the Lord would let us go into labor naturally and then I shut my eyes.
12:05AM on December 27th (just 5 minutes into our due date)— POP! “Uhhh… babe… I think my water just broke”… “Are you sure?”… we pull back the covers… “Yep!”
sidenote: I was told over & over again that it was very unlikely my water would break before I’d been in labor for several hours & that it definitely wouldn’t all be at once— “that’s only in the movies” we were told again & agian … Not in our case. My water burst all at once just as labor was beginning.
We both jump out of bed and start preparing to head to the hospital… Sam pages both midwives… we both get dressed… and then my contractions started. I remember continually asking Sam if he was cold… I couldn’t stop shaking uncontrollably… “You’re in labor babe. That’s why you’re shaking.”
We make our way inside the hospital, up to the 5th floor, and into Labor & Delivery. They get us settled into a room to be monitored… I look at the clock— 12:20am… I start to really mentally prepare for the next 24 hours… or maybe longer? After all, many of my friends had labored for 30 hours before finally meeting their little ones.
They immediately hook me up to several machines to monitor Zoïe, myself, and my contractions. They doublecheck to make sure my water had actually broken (it definitely had!), and tell me I’m already between 4 & 5 centimeters dilated.
We were still in the triage room where they were doing initial monitoring and I could feel my contractions becoming more & more intense. After about an hour of monitoring, they finally move us into the Natural Birthing Suite down the hall. I was very quickly in the most intense pain I’d ever experienced. Over the next few hours I’d move back & forth from the bed to the shower waiting until I was far enough along to climb into the laboring tub (our midwife wanted me to wait until I was dilated more so that it didn’t knock me out of labor).
She FINALLY lets me move to the tub, which I expected to really help with pain relief… spoiler alert: it didn't.
At this point it was about 6:00 in the morning & I’d been in the tub for a little while. Our midwife stepped out of the room, and I told Sam I couldn’t do it anymore. I remember crying and saying I thought the tub would help so much more, that I couldn’t do it any longer, and I needed him to go find our midwife so I could get an epidural. He walked out of the room to go find her and came back about 10 seconds later saying she wasn’t in her office… I explained (or probably yelled) that I needed him to find her right away! I remember feeling so helpless and so done… I’d been awake for almost 24 hours at this point (with the exception of a 1 hour of sleep before my water broke) and I was so exhausted. Sam finally found Lori and brought her back to the room. I remember her kneeling down next to the tub and trying to encourage me to keep going… she told me I could have an epidural, but it would take a little while before they’d be able to do it, and that she thought I might already be too far along for it to even make a difference. I remember feeling so defeated & afraid as I climbed out of the tub for her to check if I was too far along. I remember laying there as she told me I’d be pushing so soon and that an epidural probably wouldn’t help me. Through my whimpering, I asked how much longer she thought it would be… she told me I probably only had another 30-40 minutes before I could start pushing… I looked at Sam… “you can do this, babe!” he said. “Okay!” I thought… I climbed out of the bed and got in the shower so the hot water could hit my back (back labor is not fun!)… I moaned through the contractions… they moved me back to the bed to prepare me to start pushing. I’d moan/scream through each contraction, then fall asleep for a minute or two before the next one came along… my contractions started to spread out a bit more as my body prepared to push Zoïe into the world. I’d take a 3 minute power nap between each one.
FINALLY! Time to push. It was about 7:30 at this point. I remember pushing so hard and feeling as if we were getting nowhere. After about 30 minutes of pushing, our midwife started explaining to me my muscles were “too strong” and with every push, I was pulling her back in as my muscles contracted. She helped relax my muscles more, and I started pushing again. Sam says this is when I kicked into “mom mode”… I remember feeling her tiny little body finally start to really move down… “She’s got lots of dark hair!” my midwife said… I remember turning to Sam and asking how on earth we ended up with a dark-haired baby (we were both very blonde babies). I kept pushing through… I knew we were so close to meeting our baby girl. I remember watching Sam as we both became parents to the most beautiful child on this side of Heaven.
Then there she was. At 8:20 in the morning on December 27th, 2018… sitting on the OUTSIDE of my stomach exactly 8 hours after arriving at the hospital. My umbilical cord was too short to bring her up to my chest, so I watched and waited as they let her cord pulse. Finally, 7 minutes later, Sam cut the cord and I got to hold her in my arms and on my chest while we were both wrapped up in Sam’s arms. This will forever be one of my favorite moments… just the three of us wrapped up together.
Now, here we are… 9 weeks & 3 days later. She’s the sweetest, most wonderful gift. I’ve fallen more in love with Sam than I could have ever imagined. Motherhood is more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed. We’re just so grateful to be here… in this season as a family of three.
