Our Birth Story

Crazy to think it is now my turn to write my birth story. I have always LOVED reading others birth stories...even way before I got pregnant. I literally could sit and read about birth and babies all day long. And now the time is here for me to be able to share! ❤️ One thing I learned while pregnant is that everyone loves to tell you their horror stories. This is not one of them! I had to finally decide that if someone wanted to tell me their birth story, or their friends, etc that wasnt positive I wasn’t going to listen. These days women are made to fear birth, all you see in movies and tv are ladies screaming, all you hear about is how awfully painful it is and all the things that can go wrong. It does not have to be like that...its not like that! My main goal was to try to go into this with no fear...our bodies are made to do this, they know what to do. Trust your body, treat it right and it will not fail you. I truly believe the more fear you have going in the harder it will be. When I was trying to figure out the best way to go about this hypnobirth really spoke to me. They teach a calm, relaxed environment and everything I was reading really made sense and excited me. Fast forward a few months and I never got to finish the classes since little miss came early. So, word of advice, don’t wait until the last minute to finish 🤪. Now, on to the actual birth story. ❤️

11/25 - Monday morning - I wake up as normal and get ready for work. I go to the bathroom and have a little bloody show but nothing major. I know that bloody show can mean labor is soon but can also mean nothing. I still had 11 days until my due date so I didn’t get too excited. It continued all morning and got a little heavier. I still was trying to not get excited. I go to lunch and while I’m in the speedway gas station and have a contraction...unlike any I had before! I still don't think too much of it because it's too early for me to be having a baby! Well, I had a few more in the next 30-45 minutes so I decided to wrap things up at work and go home. Once I got home I went for a walk at the park and started timing contractions. I think at this point they were about 10-20 minutes apart and nothing I couldn't breathe through. Vince was home but since was working nights he was asleep and had no clue what was going on lol! I walked two miles at the park , working through contractions and decided to take a shower when I got home. I figured that would be the test, if the contractions slowed down or stopped I knew it wasn't the real thing. The contractions were definitely easier to work though in the shower but they did not stop. Vince woke up while I was in the shower and knew something was up because I was home early from work and showering mid day haha. I continued to time my contractions, tried to nap (didn't work) decided to make dinner and around 4:30-4:45 my app told me I was in established labor....eeek!!! Meaning my contractions were less than 5 minutes apart and lasting anywhere from 40 seconds to over a minute long. I knew this could go on for a while so I tried to keep myself busy. I didn't want the dinner I made and wanted cereal instead so Vince ran to the store to get me some milk :) I should have eaten that dinner I made because cereal was the last thing I got to eat for quite a while!

I continued to work through the contractions at home, took another shower, wash, dried and curled my hair (the important things haha) and I finally gave in around 8 I think and called the doctor. I had been in "established labor" for 3 hours and Vince and my sister were telling me I needed to call. Vince was determined NOT to have a baby at home! I was still working through the contractions pretty good and did not want to get to the hospital too soon!

The doctor called us back and she said I should go ahead and go in to the hospital. Before we left I made the bed and honestly was trying to delay...I couldn't believe it was actually happening.

We got to the hospital around 9pm. I was SO NERVOUS that they would send me home. I had been laboring pretty good on my own and was really hoping for some progress. (i was 2cm at my last doctors appointment the Thursday before). We get checked in and the nurse comes to check me and says i'm at 2-3 cm dilated....ugh!! I was so disappointed! She said they'd come back and check in 2 hours and if I had made progress they would admit me. At this point I was wishing we would have stayed home longer. I walked the halls of the hospital and continued to work through contractions until she came to check me. Thankfully I had made progress and was 4-5 I think and she could feel my waters bulging. THANK GOODNESS! We were admitted around 11:15.

I was still doing pretty good on my own but contractions were definitely hard and I was getting tired. I knew the deciding factor on an epidural would be how far I was at the next check. Unfortunately when she checked me around 1:15-1:30am wish I was just at 5-6cm dilated. I felt defeated. I was making progress but not as fast as I wanted. Shortly after that I decided to get an epidural. Looking back I wish I had tried the tub and the gas and air before the epidural....but I was tired. I remember telling Vince "i don't need to be super woman" Going into this I wanted to do it without an epidural but wasn't 100% against it. I was proud of my body for laboring so long on it's own and it was time for me to rest.

Things continued to not move very quickly so around 6 or 6:30 I believe they broke my water. At this point I was comfortable and not feeling contractions but could still fully move my legs which was great! Of course they wouldn't let me get up but I feel like I could have stood up just fine. I was so happy that I could feel and move my legs, I could move side to side on my own with no issues.

Around 10am probably (times are not 100% but close I think) I could start feeling contractions again. My little button for my epidural wasn't working so I couldn't get more. Boo! I was checked and was at 10cm dilated..yay!! It was about time! But I needed that epidural to be fixed so I couldn't feel anything. Well, that wasn't an option. My nurse said the doctor was on her way and if she wanted me to start pushing I would not be able to get a refill on that epidural. Yikes! So about 20 minutes later Dr. Lund was there and she said it's go time. I was super emotional, a little nervous, Vince and I both were crying and just couldn't believe it was almost time to meet our little girl.

Pushing was not easy at all. I was hoping to only have to push for like 20-30 minutes but nope....I pushed for an hour and fifteen minutes and felt every bit of it. But in reality I got what I wanted, I labored on my own for like 10 hours, got some rest, and then delivered her with out pain meds. It was the hardest workout of my life. I thought my head was going to explode from pushing so hard and I'm pretty sure Vince did too. Vince was AMAZING, counting for me and encouraging me.

All the birth stories I have read say that in-between contractions and pushing you don't feel any pain and a lot of women close their eyes and drift off. This is absolutely true.

I was getting very discouraged while pushing and even though they told me I was doing great I felt like nothing was happening! I was a crazy person that said yes to a mirror and I feel like that made a world of difference! I could see what I was doing and I could see her...and she had hair! I tried my hardest to push the best I could, often going for longer than 10 seconds and 4 pushes per contraction instead of just three. I was ready to meet my baby! I always thought going into this I would be quiet during labor...that was not the case haha. I don't know how many times I said loudly "I want her out now! Get her out!"

Once she was finally not moving back and forth with each push and almost born I was not happy. haha. The ring of fire is real, your body pushing on it's own is very real! There was no way I could not push. Thankfully this didn't last for very long.

I'm sure this was really hard for Vince but he was so amazing. He was right next to me the entire time, counting for me, encouraging me and the best thing I remember was him singing "Run to the father" to me. Two songs that helped me so much were "God I Look To You" and "Run To The Father" and yes, we had music playing during labor and I loved it! If you haven't heard those songs I highly encourage you to look them up!

Thankfully that time went pretty fast I think and the next thing we knew she was born! I could not believe it! I did it! Our girl was here. During the last few minutes I had my eyes closed and wished I would have had them open so I could have seen her be born but maybe next time. :) Funny thing to note also is when I finally opened my eyes to see my baby I also saw other people around me that were not there just before! More nurses came in right before she was born and I had no clue.

And don't worry, I saved the graphic photos to myself. (they are pretty cool though!)

Little miss was SO CHEESY! I loved that she was covered in vernix. Everyone says "the worlds best moisturizer" :) Being that she was 10 days early it made sense that she had so much. The immediately put her on me and I just could not believe that I had done it, and she was here! I couldn't believe how chubby she was and how much hair she had!

Funny thing....immediately after she was born she pooped all over me! Vince was lucky he didn't have to change that diaper. He had joked just a few days before how he did not want to change the first diaper lol. She took care of that for him!

I knew that after birth they would push on my belly to get my uterus to do it's thing and go back to normal but oh. my. goodness. That was dang near worse than the contractions! Pretty sure her fist was all the way to my back. Ouch! But really...none of that mattered because I had our sweet girl laying on me and I was so relieved to have her earth side!

While they got me all fixed up Vince went to tell everyone in the waiting room the news! Vinces mom and Dad were troopers and had been at the hospital for about 12 hours or so! They were excited for their first grand baby!

My sister couldn't be there for the birth since she lives in Georgia so of course we had to FaceTime right away. I love that Meagan was there to capture it :)

After everyone got a quick look at our girl Vince and I had some time to snuggle with her and soak it all in <3

And then during our sweet moment little miss decided to poop all over us again! haha! Oh this girl. Everyone joked that if we would have weighed her before she pooped all over us she probably would have been 9lbs!

At this point I said get this girl a diaper! Haha! So they took her, cleaned her up and put a diaper on her so she couldn't poop all over us again!

Our 10 day early baby was 8 lbs 7oz and 20 3/4 inches long. The Thursday before the doctor thought she would be around 7lbs. I was shocked she was so big!

And now, here we are 3 weeks later and loving our girl more and more each day. She is such a good baby! (more on that at her 1 month post).

Overall I am very happy with how our our birth went. Yes, I would change a couple things like trying the tub and gas and air before the epidural but overall it really was a great experience. I was definitely mad about the epidural wearing off but now I am happy I got to experience that...it's what I wanted all along, Vince kept reminding me of that!

Welcome to the world sweet Louella Marie. We sure are lucky to have you!

Beautiful birth photos thanks to the awesome Meagan Burris Photography <3