Delivering You

I thought that surely the close score of the Penn State football game would have sent me straight into labor… but the game came and went, and nothing. Especially since I was already so overdue.

Chris and I spent the next day shopping, eating spicy Mad Mex food, watching election coverage and convincing ourselves that every twinge was really “it”. I started to get contractions but sent Chris to bed since we had so many false alarms. At 3am, I woke him up but still thought maybe it was too early to go to the hospital and I could still make my 9am meeting. HA!

I wanted to have a natural childbirth – I felt I wanted to have the full experience of the childbirth process.  Though, it became very clear that I needed to have an open mind, because birth does not always go as planned. When we got to the hospital, the doctor talked about induction since I wasn’t progressing and since she was already quite over-cooked. They broke my water (that hurt). During the day+ of labor, I kept the room dark, played Van Morrison songs, sucked on Jolly Ranchers and used Geranium and Clary Sage essential oils.

When Dr. Smith came in around 11:30pm and said “We need to discuss changing our strategy”, I knew that I had to have a c-section. My body developed a high fever, I was shivering and the baby’s heart rate was increasing. I was pretty dehydrated by this point and what kept me going was thinking, there’s water (and a baby!!) at the end of this.

Capria Annette Savena was born at 11:44pm, a quick 29 hours after I had gone into labor. She weighed 8 pounds, 10 ounces and was 22 inches long. On the day she was born, Penn State was ranked #8, Donald Trump was President-Elect and it was the largest super-moon in 68 years.

We are so thankful and will remember this day for ever.

We had lots of love in the hospital including first visits from Mimi, Poppy, PaPa, Pappy, Nunni, great Uncle Eric, great Aunt Diana, great Uncle Jimmy, cousin Michael, cousin Amanda, Aunt Jenny (also her godmother!), Natalie.

Parent’s Celebration Dinner – gift from cousins Jennifer & Michael

Letter from Aunt Jenny

With Nunni Nancy