Vale’s Birth Story

To my sweet girl Vale Victoria-

Vale, the week you were born was one full of excitement.  I am writing this to record your birth story and the other ‘happenings’ of that special week.  I know time starts to make these memories foggy so I wanted to get these down on paper while they are still fresh.

Monday, July 10th 2017

I dropped Iver off at daycare before work and took a normal ‘cut through’ road I have taken a million times to get to Ashley, our daycare providers house.  I drove past a ‘For Sale’ sign at the end of a driveway to a county home. 

 Michael and I have had a dream of living outside of town on more land for years but never thought it would happen because of the expense of those properties.  

I remember looking at the house thinking ‘that doesn’t look too bad’….but in my mind I could not imagine going through the process of buying a house at 38 week pregnant.  On top of that I assumed it would be too much $$$.

I ended up pulling up the property on my phone when I got home and was surprised to see the house was within our budget.  Still, I could not imagine starting the process of looking at a house when I was so close to having a baby. Because of that, I decided not to tell Michael about the property and get him excited (I know, so bad).

Tuesday, July 11th

Michael and I went to pick up Iver from daycare together after work.  I had forgotten about the property and when we drove by it, it immediately caught the attention of Michael.  I had to fess up that I had known about the property and didn’t tell him because it felt too overwhelming. 

We both laughed but he told me, ‘You know I HAVE to call the Realtor about this, right?!”  

That night he contacted our Realtor and she had a showing scheduled for us the next day on Wednesday after work.  

Wednesday, July 12th

That afternoon after work we went to look at the house and property.  We figured the house would need a lot of work because of the cost.  

It was over an acre of land that was 50% wooded with a creek at the bottom of the hill….seriously our DREAM.   The house was a simple 3 bedroom ranch and it had beautiful updated paint, brand new kitchen and bathrooms…..I was freaked out a bit because I didn’t hate the house…..I honestly was  hoping to hate the house so we didn’t have to think aboutbuying it………..but we both walked away equally interested and deep down, we loved it.  

Because we were not intending on moving, we took the night to pray it over knowing we would not have a lot of time to think about it because of the hot real estate market.  

The next day we felt God’s prompting to move forward and make an offer on the house. 

Thursday, July 13th

Michael called our Realtor around 2pm and put in our offer.  The family accepted our offer about 15 minutes later…we were in shock.  

Again, remember, we were not actively in the house seeking market AND I was 1.5 weeks away from giving birth.

We made our offer contingent on the sale of our house.  Our Realtor was amazing and literally ‘took the bull by the horns’ knowing this was awkward timing for us with a baby coming at any moment and said she would make this seamless.  

And boy did she ever……

Jen (our Realtor) met us at our house after work that Thursday to officially put our house on the market.  We had a sign in our yard at 5pm….less than 3 hours after our accepted contigent offer……YIKES!

That evening we already had 4-5 showings scheduled for the following day (Friday the 14th).  Again, we were overwhelmed with God’s timing and leading but somehow felt peace deep inside.

Here is where things get really interesting…

At 5:45 am Friday, July 14th:

I woke up and felt ‘wetness’.  

I want to preface that in my previous labors with the boys my water never broke on its own.  It always had to be broken by the doctor after being completely dilated.  I always delivered VERY quickly after my water breaking with the boys so I was a little nervous.  

I had slept pretty well the night before and at this point I didn’t feel contractions.  

I went to the bathroom to make sure I didn’t just pee my pants thinking my water had broken. 

I knew right away that it was not pee and woke Michael up to tell him that I thought my water bag was leaking but not completely ruptured because there was never a ‘gush’.  

Because it was a Friday, we would have normally both been going to work so we had normal daycare for the boys.  We woke up the boys and quickly got them ready for the day.  I took a shower, finished packing my bags and we dropped both of them off at their respective daycares.

7:00a:

We called my mom just after 7am as we were dropping the boys off at daycare to have her start making her way to Ankeny.  She left immediately.  I explained to her that we had the house clean but not completely deep cleaned since we listed our house the evening before. I was not expecting to go into labor since I had not been feeling any contractions.   

Mom came straight to our house from Britt, deep cleaned, and had the house officially ready for all of the scheduled showings that afternoon. (Thank you, Mom!)

7:45a:

We arrived at Mercy Hospital Downtown Des Moines where I delivered the boys.  I still was not feeling much of anycontraction at this point, just a little crampy.  

After completing registration they took me right to triage to confirm whether or not it was 
in fact amniotic fluid I was leaking.  They quickly confirmed it was amniotic fluid and got me moved to the Labor and Delivery wing. 

With the boys, my labors went quickly and I came into the hospital at 7-8cms.  I was surprised when they initially checked me I was still only 3cms dilated and 50% effaced which is where I was at my appointment a couple of days before.  

9:45a:

My contractions were still pretty weak.  They were hoping my labor would move a bit faster because of the risk of infection so they started me on the lowest drip of Pitocin.  

10:30a:

They checked me and I was at 4cms.  At this point they ended up breaking my water bag completely.  I had told them that the only birth plan I had was ‘epidural’ and that I would do anything to have one.  

They would not start an epidural right away with the Pitocin so they said I needed to tell them when I felt I needed it.  

That freaked me out a little because I didn’t want to be too late in asking.  

11:30a:

I started to feel pretty intense contractions and asked to get the epidural. I was 7cms at the time and was hoping they would move quickly with getting the Anesthesiologist knowing my history of quick deliveries post water breaking. 

12:00p:

It felt like it took 5 years for the Anesthesiologist to get there but it was probably only like 20 minutes.  

He placed the epidural initially but it was too low so he went back and put it back in higher.

My epidurals never took on my left side with either of the boys and it didn’t seem to be taking on my left side again.  He left me with this ‘button’ and said I could push it 2 times an hour for some extra medicine if I needed it.  Because I still could feel EVERYTHING on my left side, I went ahead and clicked the button a couple of times because who wants to feel a big ole Stensrud head come out??!!  Not. Me.

12:45p:

Because I had chosen to push the button for additional epidural meds, those meds seemed to hit me all at once because my butt started to go numb…. And not just a little numb…..like crazy numb……..it felt like when your arm falls asleep and you get SUPER tingly and you just want to move to get the bloodflowing to the area.  Well…..that was how my WHOLE butt felt.

I can only describe the feeling as annoying, creepy crawly and frustrating.  

I was so numb and could not move from side to side and I desperately wanted to because the tingling was so bad.  The nurse was kind enough to help ‘roll me over’ every 5 minutes.  She kept asking me if I felt pressure to push and I kept telling her, ‘I feel nothing but a tingly butt!’ and we all laughed.  During this time I felt tired and decided to close my eyes and try to sleep.  Michael and I both fell asleep.  

1:30p:

Somewhere around this time the nurse came and woke me up and said she was super surprised that I was not mentioning feeling pressure since my other deliveries were quick.  I told her again, all I can feel is a tingly butt.  

She decided to check me to see what was going on.  At that time I was laying on my right side.  She lifted my leg and immediately gasped because she could see the baby’s head justby lifting my leg.   The baby was literally coming out and I had no clue LOL!  

Michael and I were both still a little groggy from our quick naps and laughed because we knew it was time and the birth would happen soon……talk about an adrenaline rush.

I had that overwhelming feeling come over me that it was ‘time’.  I really enjoy the delivery part of labor oddly enough so I was ready to go.

1:45p:

A lot of people started coming into the room and getting things set up including getting me literally set up in the bed and into position in the stir ups.  

2:00p

The doctor, team and I were ready to start pushing.  

I pushed through the first contraction and I remember them telling me that the baby had a decent amount of dark hair.  

This highly motivated me to get baby out so I could see the sweet little one.

2:06p

On the 2nd contraction I pushed and a beautiful baby arrived safely into the doctor’s arms.  They asked Michael if he wanted to announce whether you were a boy or a girl.  

Your umbilical cord fell between your legs so when dad and the doctor looked they weren’t able to tell immediately.  The doctor moved the umbilical cord aside and everyone yelled, ‘IT’S A GIRL!’  

You were 9lbs 3oz and 20.5in long.

Michael and I cried in disbelief because we both were guessing boy when we got to the hospital that day (which we would have been thrilled with as well).  

In an instant we knew that our world surrounded by all things boy was really going to change. Our hearts were full and you were the most beautiful baby girl we could have imagined the Lord creating for us.  You had blue eyes, dark brown hair that was thick especially in the back and you instantly made strong eye contact with mom and dad which completely melted our hearts.  

Your brothers were SO excited to meet you and were SO great with you from the moment you joined our family.  They were such good boys adjusting to bringing you into our family.  You are so lucky to have those sweet big bros!

It is amazing how much can change in about 6 minutes!  Your 6 minute delivery was amazingly smooth and fast.  

​

Your Name-Vale Victoria

Your name, Vale, has no family tie.  It was a name I heard after having Iver 3.5 years prior when Savannah Guthrie, a host on the Today Show, named her new daughter Vale and I just loved it.  I had always kept it in the back of my mind.  Thankfully Michael loved it too so that was the name we picked if we had a girl.

Your middle name, Victoria, is also not a family name.  We just simply loved the way Vale Victoria sounded together.  The name Victoria compliments Vale with a classic and feminine feel to a more unknown first name. 

Saturday, July 15th:

That morning Daddy and I were hanging with you in the hospital.  We knew we had another few showings happening at our house throughout that morning.  Dad was keeping in touch with our Realtor, Jen, on how things were going.  

Dad left to go and have lunch with your brothers.  

When Dad returned from lunch he said…..”Well, I have some news….. I didn’t consult with you on it because I KNEW you would be ok with it, and the decision needed to be made quickly.”

He proceeded to let me know we got an offer on our house $7000 over the asking price….and that he had accepted!

We were SO excited and thankful for God’s timing and amazingly quick sale of our home.  We only had till the end of that day to sell our house before we would lose our offer on the acreage because of the contingency in our offer.  

We bought a house and sold our house unexpectedly in less than 48 hours…..oh and had a baby…..just a couple big life things.  It was so exciting and we were so thankful!

Memorable Moments that First Month:

Dad likes to joke that ‘his girls’ were big expenses and big on drama that month you were born LOL..here is why…

1) At 10 days old you were hospitalized after spiking a random high fever.    We ended up finding out you had a Kidney Infection testing positive for E.coli and spent 3 days in the hospital on antibiotics to get after the infection fast.  It was heartbreaking as they had to give you a spinal tap, blood draws, IV’s catheters ect… plus what felt like amillion pricks to check you for infection or serious viruses.  It broke our hearts!

2) Mommy ended up having a postpartum hemorrhage a few weeks after you were born and had an emergency DnCsurgery to remove some uterine tissue that never released after delivery….that was scary.

3) Mommy swelled terribly at the end of her pregnancy with you….I did not have pre-eclampsia but a lot of swelling.  That swelling did not go down after delivery and my blood pressure went up.  I ended up having to go in for a CT scan to check for blood clots in my heart and lungs which thankfully were not found so after some water pills we were able to get the fluid off Mom’s body and my blood pressure could then come down.  

4) All this happened while prepping to move.  Yikes what a month of blessing with a bit of scary stuff mixed in!  

Pregnancy Notables: 

-Mom gain just over 50lbs-I was unable to do physical exercise or even a large amount of walking for the entirety of my pregnancy with you because of my cervical and pre term labor issues.   

-Never had swelling or stretch marks with the boys but had extensive swelling and stretchmarks with you……thanks love.  Wink wink.

-I had my cerclage placed at 14 weeks to help stabilize my cervix.

-I coughed my ribs out of place 2 times during my pregnancy with you and had to have them ‘put back in place’ twice by the Chiropractor.  Ouch.

-I drove Downtown Des Moines to the Mercy Infusion Center every Wednesday morning for 23ish weeks to have a shot in my butt of labor stopping meds.  We are thankful that like my pregnancy with Iver, the cerclage and shots kept Mom off bedrest.

We love you so much Vale and hope you enjoy reading this account of your birth week as you grow older!  We pray you know how deeply loved you are by us ( Mom and Dad) but more so how much you are loved by our Savior.  Our prayer is that you would grow a heart and life dedicated to showing other’s Christ’s love in whatever you chose to do.

Love You Always, 

Mom