Indie's Birth Story

On Monday, July 21 I had my weekly doctors appointment and I had just hit 37 weeks. At my last appointment I hadn't dilated at all but was 80% effaced. Being fairly uncomfortable at this point I was hoping for any kind of progress.

My doctor was talking to us before he checked, telling me that typically if you haven't started dilating this close to your due date most people tend to go over their due date. With that being said he checked me and guess what? No dilating. Oh man I could have burst into tears right there. I left my appointment now expecting to go over my due date - with my luck probably by a week.

Wednesday, July 23 I was at home being anything but productive. You would think this close to my due date I would be working on something to make sure I was completely ready - nope. Instead I was outside playing with the dogs and the hose - their favorite. (This post may contain some tmi but it's a birth story so what did you expect?) While I was outside with the dogs all the sudden it felt like I peed myself a little, but I just ignored it because, seriously, when you are pregnant this isn't a rare occurrence. A few minutes later I felt it again, ignored it again. A few minutes later it happened again....

I called Adam and told him I thought my water had broken. I had a "scare" like this last week but it ended up not being anything so I think he was a little skeptical. After I hung up with him I went inside... and that was when I knew my water had broke. I couldn't stop it! It was so much I couldn't believe it. At this point it was 1:30 pm and I panic called Adam and he came home right away. As soon as he got home I was freaking out a little bit - I was not ready! I kept thinking the house isn't clean, my bag isn't packed, I don't know how to put the car seat in the car, I need to take care of the dogs etc...With reassurance from Adam we were able to get a few things done before we took off to the hospital.

We ended up getting to the hospital around 3 pm. We checked in with the girls at the front desk and they had us wait in the lobby. Up until now I really hadn't had any contractions but now that they were making us wait I could definitely feel them and they were picking up big time. We waited and waited for what I felt like was forever. Turns out all the rooms were full and they didn't have a room ready for me until 4 pm. Sorry to everyone who witnessed me in the lobby!

Once I was in the room I was calming down because now someone was taking care of me but also panicking  more (is that possible?) because this was actually happening! I got checked and was only dilated to a 1 so they wanted to start me on some pitocin. I had the best nurses and one asked if I wanted my epidural before they gave me the pitocin - yes, yes I really do. Turns out the anesthesiologist was in an emergency c-section and would be another hour... 6 pm rolls around and they checked me again and I hadn't dilated any further. Finally the anesthesiologist showed up to give me the epidural and I panicked. I think I was much more nervous for the epidural than the actual delivery.  I was so so scared for the epidural but Adam is the best and helped me through it. I think I had psyched myself out so much that when he actually gave it to me it was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Plus once that thing started working it was soooooo much better. At one point I asked Adam if I had had any contractions since I got it - they were coming like every 1-2 minutes.  

At around 8 pm my doctor came in to check me and see how I was doing. I had made some progress, I was now at a 2.5. When he was about to leave he told me the goal was to have this baby before sunrise. I know labor can be really long so I don't know why this surprised me so much but that seemed FOREVER away! Plus I really didn't want to have the baby on July 24th - stupid I know, but I didn't want her birthday to be a holiday.

Around 9 or 9:30 pm my nurse came in to check me again. I wasn't even really paying attention, I was talking to Adam when she said "Oh it looks like you are ready to have this baby." What?! I hadn't prepared myself mentally for this, I had hours still according to my doctor. She told me she was going to call him and when he got there we would start pushing. Holy crap, this was like really, really happening now.

We called family and our photographer. We hired Meg Turley to do birth story pictures, who is amaaazing! Luckily she was able to get there on time since everything had suddenly come so fast. I think people might think it's weird to have someone in there taking pictures and to be honest I was kind of nervous for obvious reasons, and because I am a fairly shy person. That being said, I am so glad we did it! Meg took the best pictures and I didn't even know she was there.

Once the doctor got there I started pushing. Thank goodness for the epidural! I could still move my legs around and I could feel when I needed to push but no pain at all. In between pushing I kept saying things to Adam like - "can you even believe this is happening right now?" It all felt so surreal.

At 10:26 pm the doctor put the most beautiful and perfect baby on my chest, and it was like no other feeling in the world! It's the happiest moment and I wish I could have that feeling all the time. Adam and I both just cried, it was the most incredible experience!

Our little girl weighed 6 lbs 6 oz and was 19.5" long. Adam told me what she weighed while I was still with the doctor and I just remember saying "Oh that's so good." Up until now I had been so paranoid that I was going to have some gigantic baby so I was pretty relieved that she was so small.

After they had finished with her I saw Adam hold her for the first time and I don't think I have ever felt so much love or happiness.Then I finally got to hold her and she seemed even smaller than I could have imagined. It's funny how once you have the baby everything just starts to kick in, like I had always had her. I just started talking to her and kissing her, and I felt like I knew how to hold her just right.

Looking back at all the pictures I can't believe how much she has changed already. It almost breaks my heart to see how fast time goes and how much she can change in such a short time. I'm sure this blog will now be dedicated to all things Indie - at least I'm warning you now.

And now that this is the longest post ever, I'm going to make it longer by adding pictures, a lot of pictures, so you can stop now if you want. ( Don't worry there aren't any R rated pictures)