It's a girl!

Birth Story

On Friday September 16th I went in for a check-up and was dilated to a 4.  I was leaving from there to pick up my mom from the airport, so I asked my doctor if she could strip my membranes... she obliged.  Good times.  I felt alright the first few hours; just a little crampy.  We decided to go shopping at the mall for my mom to get Makenna some clothes for her birthday.  At the mall I was having a lot of contractions and they were about 5-6 minutes apart.  I figured it was just because I was walking so much.  After about an hour it was starting to get where I had to stop what I was doing, hold on to something, and breathe through them.  I had never had contractions like that before... so I thought "hmmm."  

*background- my other two children were induced through Pitocin so I have never gone into labor on my own... 

We decided to head home in case we needed to head to the hospital.  On the way home I had some bad ones and they were still about 5-6 minutes apart.  At home I told Scott "I think we're having a baby tonight!" (words I had always wanted to say!)  I laid down on the bed and the contractions kept coming.  I then bossed Scott around in packing our hospital bag that I had yet to pack!  I never thought I would actually go into labor on my own!

This is the point that the contractions started to pick up.  On the way to the hospital the contractions got really intense and were 3-4 minutes apart.  I was glad we had decided to head over because it was at that point I knew it was real!  We got to the hospital at about 7:15 and I somehow walked in and got up to labor and delivery while holding onto Scott's arm as hard as I could!

We got to triage and Scott says "Pretty sure my wife's in labor" as I'm having a horrible contraction bent over in pain!  The nurse laughs and says "I can see!"  The nurse that checked me in was my nurse when I had Jace so that was kind of fun.  She checked me and I was a 5 which I was really happy about so I could get my epidural!  They got me to a room and I kept saying "get me the epidural!"  They had to do my IV, draw my blood, and get the labs back before they could though (dumb!)  By the time I got my epidural it was 8:30.  I was checked then and was 7.5 to 8 centimeters.  After that I could relax a little!  My epidural didn't take completely so I still felt a lot of pressure during the contractions, but no pain, so it was still much better.  My water was broken around 9:15.  At 9:45 I started to feel pressure so the nurse checked me and I was a 9.  About 5-10 minutes later I had an extreme urge to push probably because the epidural still wasn't working all the way.  I kept saying "the baby's coming out!"  I was a 10 (which I already knew!) and the nurse said the baby was right there.  I went through 3-4 contractions as they set up doing everything I could to not let the baby fall out!  Finally the doc gave me the go-ahead to push and out she came in one push.  I first pushed her head and shoulders out and the doc flipped her over and asks "what do you think it is?!"  I said "it looks like a girl!"  Then he pulled the rest of her out and we said "it's a girl!"  It was the experience I had been waiting for the last nine months and it was worth it!  I definitely was very surprised it was a girl since I was convinced it was a boy!  I guess I really don't have intuition!  :)  I was so happy with my labor- it was exactly how I wanted it to go.

We had the best time lovin on her. They gave us a full two hours to have family time before they did anything which was really nice.  Scott made a bunch of really fun phone calls to family to announce that we had a girl!  It was really fun to hear him do that.  

grandma!  So glad my mom has been here for each of my deliveries.

She weighed in at 7 lbs. 14 oz. and was 19.5 inches long.  She is so perfect and I can't even imagine not having a little girl now!  We named her Camryn Annette Lee (Annette after Scott's mom.)