Born August 5 2013
8lbs 14oz
20 in
Birth story:
Sunday night I started having contractions around 9pm. We were playing board games and I tried to ignore them and not to get too excited because I had been having contractions for over a week. The week previously I had regular contractions every 2-3 min some were painful others were just uncomfortable. My doctors office was closed until the afternoon, so the doctor on call told me to go and rule out labor at the hospital. So my mom and the girls took me in to the hospital and I was at a one and 25% effaced. That is what I was at my 36 week appointment. So I was discharged. The next day the contractions completely stopped. I also had my 37.5 week appointment the next day and was still at a 1 and 25% effaced. I thought all that pain and no progress...frustrating. 38.5 week appointment(Friday), still at a 1 and 25% effaced. So when the contractions started on Sunday I tried not to time them but knew they were painful enough I wouldn't be able to sleep. Rich went to bed and my sister and I stayed up. Eventually we started timing them around midnight. The contractions were 4-7 min apart but were increasing in intensity. We timed them for over an hour and when I would have a painful contractions I would say okay lets go wake up Rich but still wanted to make sure they would get closer. Around 2am I gave up and said lets go. My sister wanted to be there for the birth so she came along too. By the time we got checked into a room and evaluated by the Doc around 3:30ish I was at a 4 and 70% effaced. Yeah, I wasn't going to be discharged and I was early enough for my epidural. I was moved from the eval room to a delivery room and finally got my epidural. My sister planed on going home at 5am to the 6 kids we left Grandma without her knowing, so before she left I was starting to feel pressure and decided to have the Doc check me again before she left. I was at a 7 and I don't know if she announced the effacement. She broke my water and said the pressure I was feeling was probably the water sac below the head. When she broke my water it didn't gush like it did with my other babies, but slowly leaked over time. I fell asleep for about an hour and was woke up by the new doc on around 8am. She checked me and said I was ready to push. She asked if I remembered how to push. I said not really. So the nurse came over and was giving me some instructions and said on the next contraction push. I thought it was a "practice" push but they said stop pushing and quickly broke down the bed and prepared for the baby. The next time they said push she came out. It seemed too easy. We didn't know what the gender was but I was confident it was a boy, so when she announced its a girl I was shocked. We are in love with her and feel so blessed to have her part of our family. Her name means Happy, joyful and bringer of Joy, which describes her perfectly.