First off, a little back story of the week leading up to her birth.
When I went to my doctor's appointment at 39 weeks, my belly measured small. This had been a common occurrence for me throughout my pregnancy, but this time I was measuring smaller than the week before. My doctor told me if I hadn't had a previous C-section and was hoping for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) that he would just induce me the next day and get our baby here. As it stood, there's a higher likelihood of a successful VBAC if you go into labor on your own and my doctor wanted to give me the best chance for that VBAC so we made a plan. My doctor did an ultrasound and baby girl still measured on the small end of normal so he felt comfortable letting me go to my due date of May 9th, and see if she'd come on her own, but induce at that point if needed. That seemed reasonable to me so that is what we went with. Until I walked out of the office and got a call from the nurse who told me that my doctor was actually quite busy that Tuesday, and that I could pick any other day to be induced before then.
So then I was faced with choosing my baby's birthday. This caused me stress! It's not every day that you get to choose the day you have a baby, and I wasn't sure that I liked it! So I went by process of elimination. I figured if I had the choice, I should probably give baby girl her own birthday instead of sharing with me, so we marked off that day, and my photographer wasn't available one of the potential days so we crossed that one off the list, and if we were still hoping for a spontaneous labor, I figured that I should wait as long as possible, so we decided Sunday was our day. My doctor was on all weekend, and Sunday sounded like as good a day as any to have a baby.
Well baby girl seemed very comfortable that week and I had very few contractions and no signs of labor. So Sunday morning came and I called the hospital at 6am to see what time we should come in for the induction. We were told we could come at 7:30am and we proceeded to get everything ready. Jesse's parents arrived at our house at 7am, we gave them instructions on the boys, I kissed those boys of mine one last time before they weren't my only little loves, and we took off for the hospital.
We arrived at 8am and got checked in to Labor and Delivery. We were shown to our room and I changed into my gown. They started an IV, fluids, and Pitocin around 9:30am, my nurse checked me and I was dilated to a meager 1cm, 70% effaced, a -1 station, and we hunkered down for the day.
My brother and sister-in-law came by and hung out with us while we played the waiting game. We visited and played Quiplash, which as my brother said, isn't as fun when there's only four of us and one of us is in labor, but we played none-the-less. While they were there, at 12:05pm I felt a gush of something and wondered if my water had broke. I called the nurse in, and sure enough, my water had broke on its own. I thought for sure once that happened, that I'd start progressing a little quicker. I texted my photographer Jenn with the update and a hopeful heart that we would get to meet our baby girl in a few hours.
At 2:20pm I was checked again, and told this time that I was "1 and a wiggle and 70% effaced." Darn. That was not the progress I had hoped for. Baby had even moved further up so I was closer to a -2 or -3 instead of the -1 I was when I walked in! I started to consider an epidural at this point because the pitocin had been turned up to full strength and my contractions were started to get more intense and consistent, but after a quick trip to the bathroom and repositioning, I felt better enough to hold off for the time being. I had even talked to the nurse about getting the epidural, so she sent the anesthesiologist our way but by the time he came in, I had decided I was OK so we sent Gary on his way until I changed my mind.
By 3:45pm the contractions were getting bad enough that I was feeling quite uncomfortable with each one and decided I might as well get that epidural at this point. Since that was my plan from the beginning, it seemed foolish to hold off much longer. So Gary, bless his soul, came back and administered my epidural. Now I was hoping that with an epidural on board, maybe my body would relax a little and I could start to progress.
At 4:50pm, the nurse checked me again and I was now at 2cm, 80% and the baby was a little lower again. By now I was texting Jenn and asking her how she felt about the middle of the night since it was looking less and less promising that we would be meeting our baby in a timely manner! I guess I got my mom's genes of never ending labor.
5:50pm rolls around and my doctor came to check on me. He said he could stretch me to a 3.5, I was 90% effaced, and the baby was still in that -2 station. He did mention that our baby was being very well behaved and tolerating labor well so everything looked good from that stand point which was very reassuring. It was at this point that he told me I was approaching the next stage of labor which meant if I progressed slowly I had about 7 more hours or if I progressed quickly I'd have about 3-4 more hours and then we would finally be ready to push. It was starting to sink in that at the rate things were moving I still had many many more hours to go. Fortunately it didn't feel like time was dragging by. It was actually moving along quicker than I thought it might and Jesse and I were just basking in the fact that we would be meeting our daughter at the end of all this!
The 9pm check showed no changes but the nurse felt an extra sack of fluid. I guess I had some extra padding in there for Little Miss. She said she'd let my doctor know so he could come break that and see if that could maybe get things moving quicker.
At 10:15pm my doctor swung by again, I was up to 4.5cm and he broke my extra water sack and we crossed our fingers that something would happen instead of this pokey progress we had seen so far. I kept texting Jenn because she obviously needed to be in the loop and had told me that she'd plan to come when I was dilated to about a 7. I just kept texting and told her I wasn't sure I'd ever make it to a 7 and this baby did not want to come! I think by this point my whole family had given up on us having the baby that night too and were all heading to bed. I can't blame them. We had Netflix running off and on throughout the day and tried to rest up at this point since we knew we had a long night ahead of us.
Then, just a little bit before midnight I started feeling different. I started feeling a little pressure, like things might actually be happening. My nurse had told me she'd be back to check on me at midnight so I didn't want to bother her when I knew she'd be in soon, but when I hadn't seen her by 10 minutes after midnight, I told Jesse we needed to get her and check on things. My nurse and Jesse walked back in the door, She checked me for all of 3 seconds and told me that I was complete and we were having a baby right now!
My nurse turned around and started rushing around and setting up the table for delivery. I immediately texted Jenn and told her it was baby time. Like right now. And if she could make it in time that would sure be awesome. She's amazing and I got a text back at 12:14am that she was heading out the door (for her 25 minute drive.) We gave her our room number and code and told the front desk we were expecting someone and to send her right back.
The nurse had me do three practice pushes and then told me to stop pushing and hold that baby in while she called the doctor! I gladly held that baby in while we waited for everyone to arrive. Doctor Porter and Jenn walked through the door at the same time (probably about 12:40am) and we were ready for the big moment! I was told to do a set of three pushes and by the second round of three we had the top of her head out.
We couldn't help but smile through all of this. It was such an incredible experience to have a vaginal delivery after our C-Section and NICU experience last time. I felt blessed that everything was going so perfectly. Plus, that epidural is an amazing thing, I seriously felt so great the entire labor process!
I thought I might throw up while I was pushing, but somehow kept my ice chips down, and pushed some more.
After only three more pushes, at 12:56 am we had a sweet baby girl!
Jesse cut the umbilical cord
And I got that brand new babe put on my chest. After they scrubbed off the cheese that was covering her.
I was pretty oblivious to my surroundings after that and just soaked up those first moments with our new baby, until I started hearing talk about a lost needle. My doctor, the nurse, and the tech were all searching the table, the floor, and my bed for this lost needle. Finally after taking my bed apart again, Dr. Porter found the missing needle. I felt pretty lucky to have a doctor who would actually stay and look for a needle instead of passing that task on to someone else.
We snuggled for quite awhile and then I finally gave her up to get checked out more thoroughly. She weighed in at 6lbs 13oz and 19 in long and was absolutely perfect. She smelled like heaven, had a double chin, and was completely alert for about two hours. She nursed right away and was a big fan.
My heart bursts every time I look at this picture. My love for Jesse grows with every child and each passing day with our family. He is a wonderful father, my biggest cheerleader, and the only person I wanted by my side for this moment. I love the way he looks at his new daughter. She is one lucky girl to have him as her daddy!
We hadn't officially decided on a name for her before she was born, but Jesse took one look at her and said, "I think her name is Alba." I thought it was perfect for her too. She came out screaming and the nurses called her feisty and we knew that the middle name of Helen was right for her. Helen was my great-grandmother on my mom's side, and I've heard my mom describe Grandma Helen as feisty so it seemed fitting.
We spent the next several hours in awe of what had just happened and gawked over our newest addition. This perfect, beautiful, baby girl.
We didn't get much sleep that night, but we didn't care.
The next morning we asked Jenn to come back and capture the moment our boys met their new baby sister and I will treasure these pictures forever. The boys were enamored with her and so sweet and loving to their new sister. It brought me to tears seeing my three babies together. I felt this overwhelming sense of love for my kids and for motherhood in general. I am such a lucky mama to call this little family mine.
Ian asked if my belly was little now and had to see it. I was worried about four-year-old honesty not being favorable to a fresh postpartum belly, but sure enough, he thought my belly was smaller and seemed to approve.
They immediately wanted to unwrap her and find her toes. So we did.
They also were curious what happened to her penis (aka umbilical cord) haha! The conversations you have with little boys is too funny!
I love this picture because it captures how much joy Jesse and I find in our family. These three little people make our lives so much fuller than I ever could have imagined!
Alba, we think you are the most perfect addition to our family!
When I went to my doctor's appointment at 39 weeks, my belly measured small. This had been a common occurrence for me throughout my pregnancy, but this time I was measuring smaller than the week before. My doctor told me if I hadn't had a previous C-section and was hoping for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) that he would just induce me the next day and get our baby here. As it stood, there's a higher likelihood of a successful VBAC if you go into labor on your own and my doctor wanted to give me the best chance for that VBAC so we made a plan. My doctor did an ultrasound and baby girl still measured on the small end of normal so he felt comfortable letting me go to my due date of May 9th, and see if she'd come on her own, but induce at that point if needed. That seemed reasonable to me so that is what we went with. Until I walked out of the office and got a call from the nurse who told me that my doctor was actually quite busy that Tuesday, and that I could pick any other day to be induced before then.
So then I was faced with choosing my baby's birthday. This caused me stress! It's not every day that you get to choose the day you have a baby, and I wasn't sure that I liked it! So I went by process of elimination. I figured if I had the choice, I should probably give baby girl her own birthday instead of sharing with me, so we marked off that day, and my photographer wasn't available one of the potential days so we crossed that one off the list, and if we were still hoping for a spontaneous labor, I figured that I should wait as long as possible, so we decided Sunday was our day. My doctor was on all weekend, and Sunday sounded like as good a day as any to have a baby.
Well baby girl seemed very comfortable that week and I had very few contractions and no signs of labor. So Sunday morning came and I called the hospital at 6am to see what time we should come in for the induction. We were told we could come at 7:30am and we proceeded to get everything ready. Jesse's parents arrived at our house at 7am, we gave them instructions on the boys, I kissed those boys of mine one last time before they weren't my only little loves, and we took off for the hospital.
We arrived at 8am and got checked in to Labor and Delivery. We were shown to our room and I changed into my gown. They started an IV, fluids, and Pitocin around 9:30am, my nurse checked me and I was dilated to a meager 1cm, 70% effaced, a -1 station, and we hunkered down for the day.
My brother and sister-in-law came by and hung out with us while we played the waiting game. We visited and played Quiplash, which as my brother said, isn't as fun when there's only four of us and one of us is in labor, but we played none-the-less. While they were there, at 12:05pm I felt a gush of something and wondered if my water had broke. I called the nurse in, and sure enough, my water had broke on its own. I thought for sure once that happened, that I'd start progressing a little quicker. I texted my photographer Jenn with the update and a hopeful heart that we would get to meet our baby girl in a few hours.
At 2:20pm I was checked again, and told this time that I was "1 and a wiggle and 70% effaced." Darn. That was not the progress I had hoped for. Baby had even moved further up so I was closer to a -2 or -3 instead of the -1 I was when I walked in! I started to consider an epidural at this point because the pitocin had been turned up to full strength and my contractions were started to get more intense and consistent, but after a quick trip to the bathroom and repositioning, I felt better enough to hold off for the time being. I had even talked to the nurse about getting the epidural, so she sent the anesthesiologist our way but by the time he came in, I had decided I was OK so we sent Gary on his way until I changed my mind.
By 3:45pm the contractions were getting bad enough that I was feeling quite uncomfortable with each one and decided I might as well get that epidural at this point. Since that was my plan from the beginning, it seemed foolish to hold off much longer. So Gary, bless his soul, came back and administered my epidural. Now I was hoping that with an epidural on board, maybe my body would relax a little and I could start to progress.
At 4:50pm, the nurse checked me again and I was now at 2cm, 80% and the baby was a little lower again. By now I was texting Jenn and asking her how she felt about the middle of the night since it was looking less and less promising that we would be meeting our baby in a timely manner! I guess I got my mom's genes of never ending labor.
5:50pm rolls around and my doctor came to check on me. He said he could stretch me to a 3.5, I was 90% effaced, and the baby was still in that -2 station. He did mention that our baby was being very well behaved and tolerating labor well so everything looked good from that stand point which was very reassuring. It was at this point that he told me I was approaching the next stage of labor which meant if I progressed slowly I had about 7 more hours or if I progressed quickly I'd have about 3-4 more hours and then we would finally be ready to push. It was starting to sink in that at the rate things were moving I still had many many more hours to go. Fortunately it didn't feel like time was dragging by. It was actually moving along quicker than I thought it might and Jesse and I were just basking in the fact that we would be meeting our daughter at the end of all this!
The 9pm check showed no changes but the nurse felt an extra sack of fluid. I guess I had some extra padding in there for Little Miss. She said she'd let my doctor know so he could come break that and see if that could maybe get things moving quicker.
At 10:15pm my doctor swung by again, I was up to 4.5cm and he broke my extra water sack and we crossed our fingers that something would happen instead of this pokey progress we had seen so far. I kept texting Jenn because she obviously needed to be in the loop and had told me that she'd plan to come when I was dilated to about a 7. I just kept texting and told her I wasn't sure I'd ever make it to a 7 and this baby did not want to come! I think by this point my whole family had given up on us having the baby that night too and were all heading to bed. I can't blame them. We had Netflix running off and on throughout the day and tried to rest up at this point since we knew we had a long night ahead of us.
Then, just a little bit before midnight I started feeling different. I started feeling a little pressure, like things might actually be happening. My nurse had told me she'd be back to check on me at midnight so I didn't want to bother her when I knew she'd be in soon, but when I hadn't seen her by 10 minutes after midnight, I told Jesse we needed to get her and check on things. My nurse and Jesse walked back in the door, She checked me for all of 3 seconds and told me that I was complete and we were having a baby right now!
My nurse turned around and started rushing around and setting up the table for delivery. I immediately texted Jenn and told her it was baby time. Like right now. And if she could make it in time that would sure be awesome. She's amazing and I got a text back at 12:14am that she was heading out the door (for her 25 minute drive.) We gave her our room number and code and told the front desk we were expecting someone and to send her right back.
The nurse had me do three practice pushes and then told me to stop pushing and hold that baby in while she called the doctor! I gladly held that baby in while we waited for everyone to arrive. Doctor Porter and Jenn walked through the door at the same time (probably about 12:40am) and we were ready for the big moment! I was told to do a set of three pushes and by the second round of three we had the top of her head out.
I thought I might throw up while I was pushing, but somehow kept my ice chips down, and pushed some more.
After only three more pushes, at 12:56 am we had a sweet baby girl!
Jesse cut the umbilical cord
And I got that brand new babe put on my chest. After they scrubbed off the cheese that was covering her.
I was pretty oblivious to my surroundings after that and just soaked up those first moments with our new baby, until I started hearing talk about a lost needle. My doctor, the nurse, and the tech were all searching the table, the floor, and my bed for this lost needle. Finally after taking my bed apart again, Dr. Porter found the missing needle. I felt pretty lucky to have a doctor who would actually stay and look for a needle instead of passing that task on to someone else.
We snuggled for quite awhile and then I finally gave her up to get checked out more thoroughly. She weighed in at 6lbs 13oz and 19 in long and was absolutely perfect. She smelled like heaven, had a double chin, and was completely alert for about two hours. She nursed right away and was a big fan.
My heart bursts every time I look at this picture. My love for Jesse grows with every child and each passing day with our family. He is a wonderful father, my biggest cheerleader, and the only person I wanted by my side for this moment. I love the way he looks at his new daughter. She is one lucky girl to have him as her daddy!
We hadn't officially decided on a name for her before she was born, but Jesse took one look at her and said, "I think her name is Alba." I thought it was perfect for her too. She came out screaming and the nurses called her feisty and we knew that the middle name of Helen was right for her. Helen was my great-grandmother on my mom's side, and I've heard my mom describe Grandma Helen as feisty so it seemed fitting.
We spent the next several hours in awe of what had just happened and gawked over our newest addition. This perfect, beautiful, baby girl.
We didn't get much sleep that night, but we didn't care.
The next morning we asked Jenn to come back and capture the moment our boys met their new baby sister and I will treasure these pictures forever. The boys were enamored with her and so sweet and loving to their new sister. It brought me to tears seeing my three babies together. I felt this overwhelming sense of love for my kids and for motherhood in general. I am such a lucky mama to call this little family mine.
They immediately wanted to unwrap her and find her toes. So we did.
They also were curious what happened to her penis (aka umbilical cord) haha! The conversations you have with little boys is too funny!
I love this picture because it captures how much joy Jesse and I find in our family. These three little people make our lives so much fuller than I ever could have imagined!
Alba, we think you are the most perfect addition to our family!
