My birth story (PIP)

TJ1979

Hi everyone!  DJ and I are so excited to announce that little Everly Margaret J has joined our family!  Here is her birth story; I?m sorry it?s so long.  And there?s a pic at the end ? feel free to skip to that if you don?t care about the story.  J

 

I woke up Saturday morning not feeling quite right.  My back hurt and I was crampy and just didn?t feel well.  Shortly after breakfast, I realized that I was feeling bad kind of in waves around 10 minutes apart.  It took me a while to realize that these were contractions!  We downloaded the contraction counter for the iPhone and started keeping track.  Long story short, I had contractions everywhere from 10 to 3 minutes apart all day long, but I never hit that magic 5-1-1.  MH really wanted to ahead to the hospital, but I was convinced they would stop any minute.  Around 11:30 pm, I gave up and told MH that I needed to go to bed.  He jokingly said ?don?t wake me up at 2 am saying it?s time to go!?  So I didn?t ? I woke him up at 1:48 am when I felt a sharp pop in my belly.  Even though there was no gush, I was pretty sure that was my water breaking.  We called the doctor and headed on the hospital.  I was in my L&D room by 2:30 am, and was 5 cm dilated.  My OB was not on call, so I met the on call OB and let her know that I really wanted to try to do a natural med-free birth.  I had an amazing L&D nurse who worked for a MW for many years, and she did a great job of coaching me through.  After an hour, I started feeling like I wanted to push.  The nurse was surprised, but checked me and sure enough I was already 8-9 cm.  Another half hour and I was ready to go.  After pushing for half an hour with no progress, we discovered that she was in there sideways.  So I laid on my side to do the rest of my pushing and let gravity help us get her straight.  After a total of two hours of pushing (and breaking about a million capillaries in my face ? I look like I have 2 black eyes and took a few punches to the chin!) Everly Margaret was born at 8:38 am crying and doing great.  I am overcome with pride and joy that my birth was everything I could have hoped for, and that my sweet baby girl is finally here in our arms.  

 

I am so excited for each and every one of you to experience this joy.  I can?t believe the amount of love I feel for our little miracle.  And now for the good stuff: