Gracie’s Birth Story ♥️

In April of 2015, Zack and I found out we were going to be parents. It was a butterflies in your tummy feeling to say the least, but we were SO HAPPY you guys. We cried happy tears, could not stop smiling, and wanted to tell the world that very instant.

For days prior to finding out, I remember throwing up non stop. But, to be totally honest I thought it was just a stomach bug. It was going around at the time, especially with the seasons changing, I didn’t think too much of it. I’m not sure what told me to take a pregnancy test, but I did. The very first test I took came out positive. I took 5 (yes, you totally read that right)… 5 more tests following the first all to confirm I was in fact pregnant. Zack wanted to come to the pregnancy confirmation appointment I had scheduled with my doctor and sure enough our first sonogram appointment was underway to see our little peanut.

I remember friends, family, and even Zack swearing it was a boy. But, I knew from day one it was a baby girl. I had this feeling I couldn’t shake. “Mom instinct” I guess. At our 21 week appointment, it was confirmed – IT’S A GIRL!!!

I felt nausea every single day I was pregnant with her. But that didn’t stop me from wanting to shop for her all of the time. Lol. We decorated her nursery pretty early too. Her “theme” was pink and gray elephants. Passing that room, we’ve been guilty to stop, soak in the surreal feeling of being soon to be parents, and thinking “We are so ready to meet you baby girl” one too many times.

Our baby shower was beautiful, and we couldn’t be more grateful for all of those who showed up that day We felt so much love, and all of the baby blankets, clothes, diapers, and stuffed elephants had us in total awe!

We were 1cm dilated at our 36 week checkup. By week 38 + 4 days, at 2am I got up to go pee. When it seemed like my “pee” was done, I stood up, walked back to bed, only to feel a huge gush run down my leg. I woke Zack up as I was standing in a puddle of my own broken water… lol and we called my doctors office immediately. We didn’t feel any pain at all. So, we were told to walk back and forth in our house at a fast pace until we feel some sort of contractions going on. Well, we never felr any. We had a trail leading from our kitchen to the living room that I don’t think we’ll ever forget… At about 5am, we called our doctors office again and said “we’ve been walking back and forth non stop at a really fast pace. Still no contractions but still leaking amniotic fluids.

We were told to come in…

I remember the nurse saying “you guys are really happy to be having a baby soon”. We came into the room singing and dancing you guys. We were BEYOND excited, and still in no pain at all. They started giving us pitocin right away. I walked around our room, i remember squatting through some minor contractions. But nothing hit me harder until once offered the exercise ball. All of the pain I was long overdue to feel, once I started bouncing on that just a few times, PAIN like I never felt INSTANTLY took place. It was so intense, I screamed as each new contraction begun.

I was terrified of the epidural. Something about a needle going into my spine didn’t sit well with me. So, I really tried to fight it as long as possible. Zack was the best support system. Even during the intense pain I felt, I continued to walk back and forth around my room. As each new contraction begun, I give him so much credit because I probably made his hands black and blue with how hard I squeezed. He reminded me to breath because at that moment I absolutely forgot how too, and he kept me calm. There was a point where the pain became too much, and the nurses, and Zack could tell I needed the epidural. Knowing Zack couldn’t be in the room while the epidural was performed made me all the more scared. But the nurse that was there with me was the sweetest. And I knew Zack was just outside of that room door waiting for the okay to come back in.

Once the epidural set in, I remember being extremely cold. I had AT LEAST 8 hospital blankets on me and I was still shaking like crazy… I also remember being REALLY tired. It was a challenge to keep my eyes open for longer than 5 minutes. When the nurses would wake me up, and tell me to turn, my body felt like a semi truck. It was so heavy. Just the amount of effort it took to move only made me that much more tired.

Then I remember feeling this huge sensation of pain. It felt as if she was going to come that very second I woke up from a DEEP sleep crying. Zack tried to page the nurses and no one responded. So he ran out into the hallway, grabbed the first person he saw, and ran back to me. One of the nurses said “you’re crowning. Get ready mama. It’s time to push”. Those intense contractions I felt prior to the epidural, I felt all over again. But the excitement of meeting our baby girl, plus Zack being my breathing coach (literally) lol, time seemed to fly by. After an hour of pushing and 19 1/2 total hours in labor, Gracie Elizabeth Mikolajczak was born on Wednesday December 16th, 2015 at 8:28pm. She weighed 6lbs 8oz with the biggest blue eyes and not a single strand of hair on her head lol.