Our Birth Story

Well... it's been a while, hasn't it?  Sorry about that.  Internet time is hard to come by these days so I'm just going to jump right into this while I have a spare second.

I always love reading birth stories on the rest of y'all's blogs so I'm going to go ahead and write one myself while it's still fresh in my memory.  However, there's a fairly good chance that I'll include bits of information/pictures that may give off a big TMI vibe so if you think you might have a problem with it, steer clear of this post.  And with that, I'll start off telling you about the day that we welcomed my beautiful little daughter into the world.

In the beginning it started out something like this: 8 month check up- I was at a 3 and 60% effaced.  Sheesh.  The next week I was at a 4 and 80% effaced.  At this point the doctor surprised me by telling me that my water felt like it was about to break and that he wasn't confident that I would make it through the weekend.  Since I had a baby shower, my doctor was leaving town, and we still had weeks until her due date, we decided to take it as easy as possible.  During that entire week I had my feet up as much as possible and did nothing to strain myself.  The next week I was still at a 4 and 80% effaced and the doctor told me I might have to be started around my due date.  It was so frustrating!!

Going from thinking that I wouldn't make it through the weekend to being told I might have to be induced (which I really wanted to avoid) was one of the most frustrating things ever!  So I did what any rational-thinking pregnant woman would; I ate spicy foods, spent a lot of time on a birthing ball, and made Tyler take me on midnight walks every night.

On Tuesday night (October 4th), I had about had it.  I remember telling Tyler that I was done.  I told him I was done being pregnant and that it was time for her to come.  Then I woke up at 4:30 in the morning.

The Doctor told me that he thought I would go fast and that I needed to rush to the hospital as soon as things started.  But when I felt contractions at 4:30 in the morning all I could think was that it was just another bout of Braxton Hicks contractions so I laid there trying to forget about it.  Eventually I got up, showered, and started getting ready for work but it soon became clear that these contractions were different.  They were so strong and were coming every three to five minutes.  Soon I could barely stand up so I woke up Tyler and told him to eat some breakfast because I was pretty sure he was going to need to take me to the hospital.

Tyler got up and was totally calm until he found me in the bathroom on all fours.  Needless to say, we were out the door and on our way to the hospital within minutes of that occurrence.

I was terrified that I would alert everyone at work and then get to the hospital and be sent home and back to work again.  Thankfully this was not the case.  I was at a seven and fully effaced and they told me we were crazy for waiting so long.  Hallelujah!

The unfortunate part about waiting so long was that the baby was ready to come and we weren't ready.  I had tested positive on the strep test which meant that they had to give me 2 bags of antibiotics through an IV so that the baby could come and not be subjected to it through the birth canal.  Dang.  The nurses there had to slow me down and let me basically be a slug in a hospital bed while we waited for the antibiotics to flow through me.

A family friend of ours was kind enough to be on call for me and she was by far the BEST nurse EVER!!!!  I will forever love her for all that she did to help us.  One of the things I'll always remember about her helping us was the coaching she gave me while we waited for the doctor to arrive.  At one point she even asked if we wanted to take a quick peek and see what color of hair our little girl had.  I of course was all over this.  So she called Tyler over and when I asked him what it looked like his response was, "greasy.... and wet."  Haha!  Love it!



The rest of the process came really fast.  The doctor arrived, went right to work, and five pushes later I got to meet my little daughter.  What an incredible experience!  It was nothing like the horrific movie-like scene I had been expecting.  Hearing that baby cry (or scream hysterically in my case) for the first time and watching the doctor hold her up for me to see was one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life.

We chose to do skin to skin so as soon as she was out and Tyler finished cutting the umbilical cord, they laid her on my chest and I was in heaven.  She was just so beautiful and so tiny!  It's crazy because up until she was born, I was aware of the conversations going on around me, I knew people were talking and working, but mentally I wasn't there.  It was just me and my baby.  So the 5th push and subsequent crying brought me back to earth and totally shocked me.  All I could think was, "I still have one more push for this contraction."

We totally lucked out because she pretty much crawled out and started nursing.  I have a good breast feeding baby!  Yay!!!  Since my temperature spiked right before she was born and she was so tiny, the doctors and nurses had me hold her against my chest for one hour before I could be moved or have anyone else in the room.  That was quite possibly the fastest hour of my life.  She is just so precious!

We named her Aleah Esther.  She weighed 5 lbs, 14 oz. and had the darkest hair ever (it is more brown than black now).  She is tiny and perfect and such a joy!

Apparently red heads bleed badly and they were worried about me hemorrhaging so they actually put me on pitossin after she was born.  Now that is some nasty stuff.  I hated it.  But it's over now so all is well.

Oh!  One quick TMI tidbit: I was not expecting to not be able to pee after.  The nurses took me into the bathroom once we were back to our recovery room and man oh man was it rough.  They squirted me with cold water, ran tap water, tried everything.  I couldn't get a drop out.  That was a totally weird/frustrating feeling.

Becoming a mother is so intimidating but seriously... such a natural transition.  It's tough, particularly the recovery process, the sore boobs, and the lack of sleep, but it is heaven.  It has been so awesome to get to know this darling little girl and to watch Tyler be a daddy.

Here are some pictures of the process.  Steer clear if you don't want to see them.

 Here we are waiting around at the hospital

Sorry.  This picture took way too long so there is no way I'm going to rotate it and reload it all over again.

First family picture

Grandma was in the delivery room with us and followed the baby around while they weighed and measured her.

Aleah and Daddy

Here is my pitossin face

Her little lips and face were so swollen when she first came out.  She was still beautiful!

Daddy and Grandma G.

Proud Grandma

Jake was so afraid to hold her at first.  Then he didn't want to put her down.  So cute!