Zim Family: Piper Leigh Zimmerman

I like to interrupt my own catch up on the blog to introduce you to Piper Leigh Zimmerman!

She has been here just a month (a month today actually- 1/11/14) and I have to tell you we are all just SMITTEN with her. Actually everyone who meets her just loves her. She’s sweet, easy and just adorable! LOVE!

She arrived on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 and very quickly! 9 days early!

The night before Piper’s arrival I had gone to the hospital because of the stomach bug. It came on quick and really bad. I was having contractions and it took 2 bags of fluid to stop them. I showed no progression from the day before or while there so it was decided it was best if I went home to my own bed to get completely better. Plus, poor Tom was sick (and they didn’t give him any fluids) so it was best to head home. I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I was ready to meet my sweet girl. But I also didn’t want to be stuck at the hospital with my sick husband for no reason. No progression = no reason to stay.

So home we went. We got home around 1 am. I quickly went to sleep. Around 4 am I started having contractions again. They were different and I was pretty sure they were “real” and not anything to do with the stomach bug. However, I wanted to be sure and didn't want to wake my sick husband up yet or even worse go back to the hospital to be sent home. So some quick backstory- when I went in for Tucker I was 10cm dilated and had him 20 mins after they checked me. Very quick. The joke was that I would have a home birth with this one.

Sooooooo, Summer work up around 5:45 to make sure I was home from the hospital. I let he know that I thought I was having contractions. I started keeping track and they were about 5 minutes apart. Tucker woke up soon after that and I started their breakfast and making Summer’s lunch. Soon the contractions got really painful and it was hard for me to do those things in the kitchen. I asked Summer to go tell Daddy that Mommy was having contractions.

He quickly came down and apparently I told him they were 5-10 minutes apart but really they had to have been 2-3 at this point. Who knows what I was thinking? We called my mom to come back over and called the dr who said to come on in.

We had already packed everything in the truck (which we had just bought the day before-Toyota Sequoia) from our trip the night before to the hospital.

Off we left around 6:45 in the midst of rush hour traffic. The contractions were at this point 2 mins apart with a 1 min contraction. I was in a lot of pain and making Tom breathe through them with me. I was gripping the handle on the car like my life depended on it. I told Tom that I would be getting an epidural because it was so painful (he looked at me like I was crazy bc he knew there was no time for an epidural). I then had the urge to push and I knew it would feel better. I informed Tom of this and he then passed the 3 cars in front of us in the center lane. It took all I had NOT to push.

We arrived at 7:18 and went into the lobby. I walked in telling the ladies I wanted to push and was ready to have a baby. I have never said my social security number so fast. Then my water broke. 7:20am. I had never broken my water on my own so my face showed complete shock. They then realized they needed to move fast and instead of a wheel chair they got a stretcher. They put me on the stretcher and took me straight to a delivery room. My dr walked right in. They moved to a bed and told me I could push. So at 7:25 am Piper arrived!

6lbs 11 oz. and 19inches long

Once again I think I was in shock! Tom was just amazing! For someone who was fighting the stomach bug he really pulled it together. She was adorable and amazing and I just couldn’t believe she was here! Our nurse actually missed the birth because it was so fast. She went to give another patient ibuprofen. She heard I was in the lobby and when she came back and the baby was here!

Our hospital has a new policy where the baby never leaves the room with the mom. It was great. I got over an hour of skin to skin with Piper before they came in to do her bath. She never left us!! Then we got moved to our Mother/Baby room.

It took us about an hour to decide for sure her name was Piper. She was just the tiniest sweetest thing ever. We were and still are so in love!

So that was kind of a long story considering how fast Piper came!

Piper’s Birth Announcement