Happy Birth- Day RUTHIE!!!!

Teresa at 39 weeks on Tuesday, July 17th before going to the hospital to have Ruthie!!

Welcome to our Family Ruthie Grace Zeller!!! She was born on July 18, 2007 at 4:12 pm and weighed 7 pounds and 15 ounces, and was 20 inches long!!!!!

Now that you know the facts, let me tell you the story!

We were admitted into the hospital on Tuesday, July 17th at 8:30pm for Cervadil. We were put in Labor and Delivery Room 7. And that night they put a medicine on me to "Ripen my cervix". The contractions started about 4:00 in the morning. They weren't very strong and were about 10-15 minutes apart.

At 6:30am the nurse started my Pitocin drip. This was supposed to induce labor. At 7 :00 our new nurse came on duty. Her name was Nicole. She was a God send. We had prayed that the Lord would put the right nurses and doctors on duty the day of Ruthie's delivery (whatever day that was to be). And, God sure did answer our prayers with both our nurse and our doctor. Nicole was awesome. She was understanding, encouraging, supportive, and knowledgeable.

About 9:00am Dr. Hershberger came in to try to break my water. I was only 1 cm dilated. However, he was unsuccessful and did not break my water. We continued to labor (without any pain med as I was trying to go medicine free!) I really liked to labor on the birthing ball. (It's like an exercise ball but used in labor.) It really helped me to work through the labor pain. At about 10:30 the contractions got much stronger and closer together (they had been progressing in that direction all morning, but they were suddenly very noticeably stronger and closer). At about 11:00 my water broke on it's own and after that they put me back in the bed. At this point Dr. Minton was on duty.

They were trying to monitor her heartbeat externally, but after my water broke it was difficult to monitor it. So the doctor put an internal fetal monitor on Ruthie. It was a good thing he did that because after my water broke Ruthie's heartbeat started to do funky things. Of course the contractions were much stronger and closer together (they were coming about every minute).

All of a sudden I had my nurse and her intern coming into the room, along with several other nurses. They were concerned about something, but I didn't know what. They turned me on my side, and then had me go to my other side. Then they put the oxygen mask on me. Apparently, Ruthie's heartbeat went from 140 beats per minute to 40 beats per minute. I was so impressed with how quickly they came storming in the room, and how many nurses above my own nurse came to help.

At this point Dr. Minton came in to check us both out and started talking about what might happen. He told us that I was only 2 cm. At this point it was about 1:30 and I'd been laboring for about 9 hours and should have progressed farther. He said that if Ruthie's heart beat continued to make those drops then we would have to do an emergency c-section. If I didn't get an epidural then they would have to put me under general anesthesia. So, Tony and I prayed about it. I really didn't want an epidural at all. I was a little afraid of them jabbing something in my spine that made me paralyzed. But, we felt that it was the best decision for the situation. Knowing that I didn't want to be completely out of it for the birth, and that it was most important to have a healthy baby, we went ahead got the epidural.

About an hour and a 1/2 later around 3:00 Ruthie had another episode of a drastic heart beat deceleration. Again, about 6 nurses stormed in my room and started working all around. They called the Dr. to come to my room and I knew that this was probably going to be the end of my laboring. Sure enough when he came in to check me and I was still 2 cm. he started talking seriously about c-section. He was really great. He was thoughtful (knowing I really had wanted a no-med natural childbirth) with giving us the choice and the facts. He said that we could turn up the pitocin and hope that with the epidural the pitocin would progress labor further, but then we risk Ruthie's heart beat. Each time they increased my pitocin Ruthie had another episode. He thought that we would probably end up in a c-section at the end of the day, but he said I could choose to labor longer and see or we could just "cut" to the chase.

Again, Tony and I prayed about this decision and felt that going to a c-section sooner was better than later. It would be easier to recover if I didn't spend half the night laboring before the surgery. Also, we were very worried about Ruthie and her heart beat. So we decided to c-section. This was about 3:30. I was in the operating room by 3:45 and Ruthie was born at 4:12 .


This is Dr. Minton with Ruthie directly after she was pulled from my belly. He was walking her to the baby's nurse. (Which happened to be Nicole, my Labor and delivery nurse. She was such a wonderful blessing. They were so wonderful in the operating room. Everyone went out of their way to make this c-section a very personal birth experience. They were very interested in the baby's name and in our family. The nurses took our camera to take pictures of Ruthie as they were cleaning her and getting her ready for me to hold. The Doctor said that Ruthie had the cord wrapped around her neck and that was why her heart beat started to have problems. Once we made the decision to have a c-section, everything went fast and before we knew it we heard this faint little cry (Dr. Minton said she came out crying!). Soon, her cry got much stronger. Tony and I are so blessed to know the miracle of birth and the absolute perfection of God seen in a little baby.



This is Ruthie as she was being weighed!! 7 pounds and 15 ounces!!!



This is Ruthie right after being held by Nicole (our awesome nurse!)



Mommy and Ruthie!



Daddy and Ruthie!



Our First Family Picture!!!