Announcing

Quincy Jennifer Richens

Born: Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Time: 12:52 pm

Weight: 7 lbs. 5 oz.

Length: 19 inches

Location: Summerville Medical Center, Summerville, South Carolina. Dorchester County

One week after arriving in South Carolina began my weekly OB check-ups and a new doctor. Although everything was overseen by an OBGYN I never met Dr. Orr, but rather worked with Penny, a midwife. Penny was a hoot and lots of fun to work with however I had to stop believing her.  She kept saying that this baby was coming and that she didn’t think I would make it to the next appointment, but had me make an appointment just in case. Every week I surprised her by showing up at the office just the same as the previous week. 

Penny had Scott and I convinced our little girl was coming and we were anxious, excited and ready for little Quincy to come. The time spent in anticipation plus interacting with couples from our ward with small baby’s made Scott more and more excited for Quincy. It was really cute. Although I was could hardly wait myself- I had been carrying this little girl for the past 9 months, Scott’s excitement made me even more excited too. I could hardly wait to see Scott hold our baby for the first time and see him interact with her. I was ready to be a Mommy. 

I was grateful for the extra time and was glad Quincy didn’t come before week 39. I had all of our boxes to unpack, a house to organize, and a car seat and a pack n’ play/bassinet combo to order…just a few things required to be ready for a baby to come home. They were good projects for me while Scott began a new job and long hours, but once I had the majority of everything done I was anxious for those contractions. Funny how people get so excited about an immense amount of pain, but we do. All I have to say is that the reward must be pretty good (which I now have to say most definitely is.)

My sister, Natalie, had a ticket to come help me for August 28^th- my due date, by ultrasound was August 29^th, so after being told for a month that I was going to have a baby any day and wanting my sister to be able to help rather than coming for nothing by my doctor’s appointment on the Monday, 27^th we decided to schedule an induction. The induction was scheduled for Wednesday, the 29^th, my due date.

How the day went: Wednesday morning we arrived at the hospital just after 6 am. At 7, I was on IV and at 8 Penny arrived to start the Pitocin and break my water.  To kill time before the contractions really started Scott, Natalie, and I played Phase 10.  Contractions hit hard around 9 and by 10:30 I was grateful to have the epidural starting to kick in (much to my midwife’s dismay.) Penny arrived and I started to push a little before 12:00 noon about an hour later Quincy was born and welcomed to the world by teary eyed parents.

Short labor for being induced? Yeah, and I’m grateful and feel lucky, but I was progressed far enough before I even entered the hospital that all I needed was a few contractions to get started. (After all Penny had been saying that this baby was coming any day for a month and there was some medical reasoning behind her words.)

We left the hospital the next day with our health happy baby. I felt bonded to her from the first second, however putting her in the carseat and bringing her home made it really feel like this baby was ours for good. I am so grateful for modern day medicine to make child labor and healing easier and to have more assurance that everything is okay.

 I am also glad that Scott knows the Heimlich, which he had to perform on me just minutes before leaving the hospital. Getting ready to leave was a lot of work for me so I was sitting back on the bed to regain a little energy and sipping water. Yes, I choked on water. How? It’s water. But couldn’t breathe and needed Scott to give me the Heimlich.

I think that about sums up the hospital excitement and begins a world of parenthood excitement. Although I’m still healing and the pain is so fresh on my mind the joy and love Scott and I have for little Quincy makes us both excited to have more kids and add to our family in the future.