Jade's Birth

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted on here. Last post was Juniper's birth! It's interesting to read Everly's & Juniper's birth stories now and compare them to Jade's birth. (Also, I have no idea how to change my "about me" section on the side anymore, or how to get rid of that pretentious wedding photo so there you go lol)

Jade was born on March 13, 2021 at 3:40pm. 

I woke up that morning feeling sad and annoyed that I wasn't in labor. I was 39.6, and I was sure I would have delivered her already. (My "plan" was to go into labor at 38-39 weeks, a few days after my maternity leave started. Ha.) But alas, I was humbled by the birth gods and realized that even though I'm a midwife, I can't put myself into labor.

Around 8am, contractions started. Right from the start, they were about 5 minutes apart. They weren't strong though. I truly didn't think anything of them since they were so mild. Then I had some bloody show and I started getting more excited that Jade might actually come today. I checked myself and I was 4cm/80, but her head was still very high and my cervix was posterior. This was a change at least from the 3cm I had been for weeks. I texted my friend/midwife/coworker Bethany to give her a heads up, as well as my sister-in-law Brittani, who's also a nurse midwife, to let her know. Around 10am, Brittani and my mother-in-law Cathy showed up and started baking cookies (totally normal thing to do at a homebirth, ha). Everly & Juniper had gymnastics that day, and I kind of wanted them out of the house since I was in early labor and I needed space, so I had Zach take them to gymnastics. Then at 10:30, Bethany and my friend/nurse/coworker Heather showed up. I was still pretty obviously in early labor, just walking around during contractions, still smiling between contractions, not vocalizing yet, and doing my own thing, so they stepped back and gave me space for a while. now.

I was planning a homebirth, and since so much family lives near by, the amount of people planning to be there was pretty big. My mom was also flying in that day, and even though she wasn't planning on being at the birth, we were thinking she might make it in time

By 12:30, my contractions were picking up and getting a lot stronger, about 3 minutes apart. At this point Zach was back home, and my midwife, nurse, sister, mother-in-law, friend Tiffany, and birth photographer were all there. I was walking back and forth with each contraction. I'm a very private labor-er, so with each contraction, I would walk into the dark walk-in closet, away from everyone, with a rebozo around my belly, and someone, usually Zach or Brittani, would hold it tight. (This was exactly what I did during Juniper's birth too, walking and using the rebozo). I was starting to vocalize, usually with low moans during the contractions. As the contractions peaked, Brittani would remind me to keep my voice in low tones, as this helps relax your jaw and throat, which helps relax your cervix and pelvic floor. Labor was progressing normally and I was grateful it wasn't getting too intense too quickly because I never felt like I couldn't handle it. Throughout this whole time I just kept thinking "it's going to get worse, but I can handle this. This isn't so bad yet. I know it will be way more painful than this."

At 1pm, once my mom arrived, I asked Bethany to break my water. It was then that we found that my water had actually already ruptured and I didn't realize it. However, I did have a forebag so she ruptured that for me. Then I got in the pool. The warm water felt sooooo good. It didn't take the pain away, but it relaxed me enough that it made the contractions completely manageable again. I don't know how anyone gives birth naturally without a birth tub.

At this point, I think there were like 10 people in the room. My mom had made it in time! And there was everyone else here, including Everly and Juniper. Everly especially loved to help. She was constantly rubbing my back, fanning me, and just intuitively knew what was happening and wanted to help. It was very sweet.

Sometimes between contractions, I would check myself, and I could feel where her head was in relation to my cervix. I think I was a little disappointed that I hadn't progressed further but I could feel her head down lower, even though my cervix was still posterior. I think at that point I was about 7cm. 

As I started to go through transition, I turned completely inward. Up to this point, I had been moaning during contractions, making noise to release some of the energy/pain, which was helpful. But then I just decided I didn't want to yell anymore. It no longer felt right to make noise. I started being very quiet and stoic during contractions, making much softer sounds. My eyes were closed all the time, and I was no longer aware of things happening around me. I didn't want to be touched. Everyone there was quiet and respectful of the birth space. I wasn't even aware of who was around me or helping me, and it's only looking back on the pictures now that I realize people were taking turns fanning me or holding the cold wash cloth on my head. I remember asking for lots of water, I was so thirsty. Someone would just put the straw to my lips and I would drink but I wasn't aware of who was holding the cup. 

Then, Jade's heart rate dipped low for a short bit. I remember hearing her heart rate out loud on the doppler, hearing how slow it was (it was in the 100s), and my midwife told me to change positions. I couldn't even comprehend what was happening, I felt like I was asleep or in a dream at this point. But then my midwife checked my cervix and found that I was actually 9cm, and so that dip in her heart rate was just an early deceleration, something normal that can happen towards the end of labor when the head gets squeezed as it comes down the birth canal. Her heart rate stayed up for the rest of labor. 

After Bethany told me I was 9cm, I remember thinking, "I'm a multip, I bet I could just start pushing at this point." So at the next contraction, I tried pushing just a little bit at the peak of the contraction. It felt so good, I felt her head moving right away with each little push. After this, every time a contraction would come, I thought "Now I can keep pushing with contractions, so they won't hurt any more. I can do this!" It was so incredibly satisfying to feel her head move with each push. I would describe it as an intense, but euphoric feeling. At one point I thought to myself, "Is this what it's like to have an orgasmic birth, that those women talk about? Is that what this is?" I wouldn't necessarily call it that, but the fact that I was thinking that during the birth made this so much different than my previous deliveries.

Just then I felt her head come under my pubic bone, and I said out loud "She's coming." I could hear people start to gather around the tub, but everyone was still silent. I reached down and was actually surprised to feel her crowning on my perineum, I could feel about a tennis ball-sized amount of her head sitting there. I thought "Ok, I could just push her out right now and it'll be over!" But then Bethany reminded me to go slow. I really wanted to let Jade's head stretch my perineum to prevent tearing. I pushed a tiny bit more, and then she was completely crowning. The burn was reeeeeeal and any thoughts I had about an orgasmic birth before were definitely gone! The ring of fire was SO intense and painful. I thought my clitoris was ripping. It wasn't. But it sure felt like it was. I thought I sat there for 5 minutes just waiting for the next contraction, but watching the birth video, it was only about 5 seconds. Then I pushed one more time, her head delivered then her shoulders came easily after that. Once I felt the release of her anterior shoulder, I reached down and pulled her up out of the water onto my chest :)

I felt so relieved. I was in shock, I couldn't believe that it was over and I did it! She cried immediately and had great tone, she was absolutely perfect, with APGARS of 9/10. I laid by head back and sobbed a little, I felt so emotional and happy that she was finally here and healthy. Then I opened my eyes and looked around and saw everybody in the room. It was like I just woke up from sleeping and realized a ton of people were watching me. I felt a little shy at first. Then I got out of the tub and onto the bed to deliver the placenta. I just kept saying "You guys, that hurt so bad!" and also "I'm so happy I never have to do that again!" 

I was so eager to push out the placenta, the feeling of an empty belly once the placenta comes out is soooo nice. 9 months of feeling huge and uncomfortable, is just over. The placenta came out and it was HUGE, one the biggest I've seen in my little midwife career so far. And it was heart-shaped!  Her cord was incredibly thick, too. No wonder my belly was so big. She had a strong start!

Despite my best efforts, I did tear and have to get a repair. It just happens. As a midwife I always tell myself to 'get my ego out of the perineum' (don't take it personally when a mom tears, because despite our best efforts, it just happens). I tore with both of my other kids, so I guess I'm not surprised. I got repaired while Jade nursed and everyone cleaned up around me. Everly and Juniper were sitting right with me on the bed, just admiring their new baby sister. 

She was 8lbs, 4oz, 20inches long. 

Overall, I am so happy with this birth experience. Jade is absolutely perfect and I am grateful she is part of our family. Of my 3 labors, this one was actually surprisingly my longest, but I'm not mad about it. I'm grateful things progressed steadily and I never felt out of control. I think the biggest difference in this birth is I wasn't afraid at all. I knew it would be so painful, since I had experienced that during Juniper's birth. And it definitely was painful. But the pain didn't scare me this time. I was able to tell what was happening, I could feel where her head was and could feel my body working exactly as it should to bring her here. I was able to let go and intuitively give birth. 

And I'm so happy Everly and Juniper could be there for Jade's birth, they handled it so well and were excited to be a part of it. 

all photos by www.MeghanFordPhoto.com

Juniper's Birth

Juniper's birth was beautiful and intense & everything I had ever hoped for but nothing I had expected.

Friday morning, I woke up having mild contractions, about every 10 minutes. They weren't anything to write home about, but I was really excited that things were getting started as today would be the perfect day to deliver a baby since Zach had finished his boards exam yesterday and it was still 2 days away from Everly's birthday so I was sure this baby wouldn't have the same birthday as Everly!

With Everly's delivery, I was admitted to the hospital and she was born only 4 hours later, so I was expecting this delivery to be really fast. So I texted my midwife just to give her a heads up, and she was supposed to come over for an appointment at 1pm that day anyway, so she said just to let her know if anything changed until then.

Zach and I went on a walk to get things moving, and by the end of the walk, my contractions were a lot stronger and just 5 minutes apart. So I called in to work to let them know I wasn't going to be there for my shift tonight because I'm pretty sure I was in labor! Best feeling ever. Then Zach and I came home and I kinda went into crazy mode, cleaning the house and finishing up all our to-do list before the birth.

But I also remember feeling really stressed out. Everly was being really grouchy and stubborn that day, and the dogs were not listening to us on the walk and kept running away and it just really stressed me out. Around noon, I realized my contractions had stopped.

My midwife came at 1pm for our appointment and I was all mopey, "Why is this happening! I thought I was in labor! I swear my contractions were strong, I'm not the type to fake going into labor! I even called off work!" She reassured me that she believed me, and wasn't surprised my labor stopped because Everly is awake. She told me that she has never actually seen a mother who has a toddler at home deliver their baby during the day while the toddler is around. (Hospital births are different, because moms can leave their home responsibilities and go somewhere else to deliver, but home births mean the mom is still at home and dealing with home obligations) She said that all the stress of having Everly awake and me being in 'mom mode' probably stopped my labor, and that once she goes to bed I'll probably start labor again. So I asked her to check me, and I was 5cm dilated. Okay, I thought, I'll just put Everly down at 7 tonight then have the baby by midnight. Perfect. I really wanted a June 16th baby!

My mom got here that afternoon and we basically just waited around all day for me to go back into labor, drawing more birth affirmation cards and going to my friend's pool party that night. Then we put Everly down for bed at 7 and I started to pump to try to start my contractions again. nipple stimulation=oxytocin=contractions=baby ;)

Zach's parents got here around 9pm. They changed their flights to come early to make it for the delivery. I just felt so guilty, they were supposed to get here Saturday night and now they had moved their flights to Friday night thinking I'd have a baby that night, and here I was just being lazy in my non-laborness....

So we all went to bed.

Around 1am, I woke up with a super bad contraction. There I was, throbbing in pain, dealing with my contraction, and Zach is snoring soundly next to me. I threw a pillow at his head, "How can you just SLEEP when I'm having a contraction like THIS!" He hurry and sat up, mumbled something, then fell back asleep. Okay, I thought, he's useless to me right now. I'm on my own.

For the rest of the night, I kept waking up about every 30 minutes with strong contractions. I would get up, walk around our room (turns out walking is my FAVORITE way to deal with contractions), then fall back asleep. At 5 am, I decided to see if I could feel how dilated I was, and then I realized I could feel baby's head a lot lower & I could feel my bag of water too (I wasn't crowning or anything, but I definitely knew I had changed)

So we woke up Zach's dad (For those of you who don't know, Zach's dad is an OBGYN, a convenient member of your family to have at a home birth). Before he would check me, he listened to baby's heart rate during a contraction to make sure she was doing great. She was like textbook perfect, strong heartbeat, no decels during contractions and had moderate variability (perfect findings). Then he checked me and told me I was 6cm, station 0, and that my bag of water was bulging. He asked if I wanted him to break my water and literally as I was telling him no, he said "Oops..." and a big gush of fluid came out. (He really didn't mean to break my water, it was actually an accident, he barely touched it. But it all turned out okay because my fluid was clear & baby was ready to come!)

It was 6am. I called my midwife and told her what happened and she jumped in the car and came right over. She knew that now things were going to go fast. I also called my amazing birth photographer, Brindisi (who was actually a friend from high school & church before all of this) and she came right over too.

"Let's start filling up the pool!" Zach said, and then I knew things were actually happening, I was going to have my baby soon!

Everly was awake now and almost having an anxiety attack and was being really clingy to me because I think she knew something big was happening and while I thought she'd be okay on the couch upstairs watching Trolls with my mom during the delivery, she wasn't. So I called my awesome neighbor Ambria to come get her and she left.

My midwife started bringing in all her equipment, the birthing pool was being filled, and Zach was walking around with me, with a wide scarf (called a Rebozo) wrapped around my belly and twisted tightly, to provide counter-pressure as I had my contractions. These contractions were no stronger than the ones I was having last night, the only difference was that they were 2 minutes apart instead of 20.

I was GBS+ so my midwife started an IV on me to give me antibiotics. She pushed in 2g of Ampicillin and I asked her to just take out the IV once she was done since I knew I wouldn't be in labor for another 4 hours to get my second dose anyway. She laughed and made fun of me a little bit, me being a nurse and asking for my IV to be taken out, but she agreed.

Zach and I were pacing around and with every contraction he would make the scarf tighter around my belly because it felt soooo good. (If you haven't heard of these, I highly recommend you look it up. I had no idea how much that counter pressure on the front of my belly would help!) The room I gave birth in was really small, but I seriously think Zach and I walked like 2 miles in that room, just back and forth. My midwife would have me stop to listen to baby's heartbeat with the doppler during every few contractions, and Juniper was doing great.

Then my midwife suggested I get in the pool, and at first I was hesitant to because I liked walking around so much. But as soon as I did, I was in heaven. The warm water felt soooo good, and the water was high enough that I was kind of just floating and bouncing around in there, it was amazing.

Zach came and kneeled by the edge of the pool and rubbed my back as I leaned into his chest with each contraction. I could tell my contractions were getting more intense now, and I could start feeling baby's head descending into my pelvis. My midwife suggested I do some nipple stimulation to make my contractions stronger and I wanted to rip her head off! I was like nooooo wayyyy, these are strong enough thank you! And just then I had a really strong contraction that I had to sit up and grab Zach's shirt and I started to yell a little bit.

What surprised me the most about my delivery was 1: How much it hurt (Seriously? Why did this surprise me?!) and 2: How much I yelled! At first I was doing low, moaney-type yells, but towards the end I was just yelling as loud as I could, sometimes just screaming, biting my washcloth, and holding onto Zach. I didn't know I had it in me.


Contractions were insane now, almost every 30 seconds, and baby's head was so far down into my pelvis I could feel exactly how big it was. I had a mini panic attack. I remember thinking, "okay, so I obviously can't push that out because that's way too freaking big, and my pelvis is probably going to break in half if I do that, but if I go to the hospital now they probably won't let me have an epidural, and there's no way she can go back in..." I had this out-of-body moment when I realized there was no way out, I had to push this baby out of me. My mindset changed a little bit, and my mom whispered to me "you're doing it, Madeline". Just then my midwife told me, "you can push with this next contraction if you want to"

I was so scared. My mom said she could literally see my body start to quiver when a contraction would come, and I was just yelling so loud with each one. Then I started to push. It felt good in a way, but the ring of fire was exactly how it sounds. It hurt so badly, but I felt powerful and in charge. It was surreal.

Then my midwife reached down and felt her head crowning and put a little pressure on me to prevent me from tearing and she told me to lean back into the pool to catch my baby. I leaned back, felt her head, gave her one more big push, and out came my Juniper.

I lifted her up out of the water, sobbing, and brought her right to my chest. All I could think was "I did it! This is real! She's here! I DID IT!!!!"

Juniper cried right away, I was so relieved. She was absolutely perfect. Even her color pinked up in a matter of seconds, and she was just laying there, against my chest, crying, as I leaned back into Zach. I was just sobbing, saying "Oh, I love you! I love you!" over and over as Zach and I held her.

(There's actually a video my mother-in-law took of me after Juniper came out, and it's about minute long, but it's so emotional that I actually haven't been able to watch it all because I cry too much)

Then with one more push, my placenta came out, and it felt soooooooooo good! And I just got to sit there and embrace one of the happiest moments of my entire life.

She was born at 8:12am, just 2 hours after my water broke. She was 7lbs 14oz, 22 inches long. And I love her so much. Whenever I look at her and Everly, I think my heart will explode. And....she looks just like me AND she's blonde!

Juniper's birth was so incredible. I was surrounded by so many people I love:  Zach, my mom, Zach's parents, my photographer and my midwife. I could feel their energy as I screamed and pushed, and even though not much was said in the room, I could see them crying with me as I cried and I could feel their love. And while the room wasn't big enough to fit everybody I love, I could feel so much support and love from people everywhere. Zach was the best labor couch I could have asked for and he never once doubted me this whole process. My midwife was so supportive, and she has really furthered my desire to become a midwife myself.

And above all, we now have a perfect, beautiful baby girl added to our family, and for that I couldn't be more grateful.

Everly's Birth

This is Everly's birth story. If you had asked me two months ago how I thought my delivery would go, I would not have guessed that it would be the way it was. But looking back, and going through these pictures, everything was perfect. The amount of joy and happiness that takes place during the birth of a child is so indescribable, it truly was the hardest, best experience of my life.

It all started on June 17, 2015. My due date. I had been sick with the flu the day before, and was throwing up all night, so I woke up that day feeling pretty awful. Not only did I feel awful because I was sick & dehydrated, but I was also disappointed that I wasn't in labor yet! (See previous post) And getting a million texts from friends and family asking if I was in labor yet really didn't help....sooo I eventually just shut off my phone and ignored everyone (sorry, family! I really do love you!)

That night, Zach and I decided to go on a "Due Date date", and we went to Zupa's & went to see Jurassic World. At Zupa's, that's when I started having contractions. Right when my contractions started, they were already 5 minutes apart, lasting about 1 minute, and regular. However, I was just getting over the flu and was probably very dehydrated, and I knew dehydration had caused me to have contractions in the past, so I didn't think anything of it. All throughout Jurassic World, I was contracting 3-4 minutes apart (still regularily & lasting for a minute), and I would just squeeze Zach's hand during the painful ones. It crossed my mind that maybe we should go to the hospital to get checked, but I also REALLY didn't want to go just to get sent home from Labor & Delivery because I wasn't in labor...aaaand we had already paid for this movie so we had to finish it!

After the movie, my contractions were VERY strong, and about 3 minutes apart. So naturally we decided to go out to frozen yogurt. Haha. At the frozen yogurt shop, we were tasting samples, and every time I'd have a contraction I would have to stop and lean against the wall and just breathe. I was trying to not make them a big scene, but they were so much stronger than I had ever had. And people were starting to give me really freaked out looks, seeing a very, very pregnant lady grabbing her belly in pain. So then we finally decided to leave. Haha.

Once we got home, we were both just running around the house like crazy, grabbing our camera and hospital bag and phone chargers...and my sister Krysti was helping us get everything together. It was just like a movie scene! The whole time, I was just trying to breathe through my contractions and focus on anything else but the pain. Then, right before we walked out the door, I realized, my toenails weren't painted! Working on Mom/Baby, I saw sooo many moms who looked like models right after their delivery. They would always have perfect hair, makeup, and their toenails were ALWAYS done. So My sister hurry and painted my toes while I straightened my hair. Hahaha.

When we got to the hospital, we told the secretary that I was a first time mom, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, and today was my due date. She said, "Oh, the last girl that came in was a first time mom and today was her due date, too!" And I said, "And did you admit her or send her home?"And the secretary told me that she was sent home. I was so scared! I didn't want to get sent home, I wanted to have this baby!! So that was discouraging. And I got even more discouraged when the nurse checked my dilation and I was only 2 cm dilated! (I was 2cm dilated the day before at the doctor's office, too). She basically told me that since I had been throwing up the past 24 hours, I was most likely very dehydrated, and they would just give me a bolus of IV fluids, my contractions would probably stop, and they'd send me home. So that's what we prepared ourselves for. We decided not to text or tell anyone in our family that we were at the hospital, because I would probably be sent home. And I didn't want to get anyone excited over nothing....

What sucked the most about this was that I had to stay in bed. The nurse wanted to monitor my contractions and the baby's heart rate to see if I was in active labor, and she would recheck my dilation in an hour to see if I had changed. So for the next hour, Zach distracted me from the pain I was in by showing me funny vines and youtube videos on his phone, and every time I had a contraction, I would just stop, close my eyes, and try to visualize my baby descending into my pelvis further.

An hour later, the nurse came back in to check my dilation. I was now 2.5cm. But at this point, the baby's baseline heart rate had gone from 140 to 170, and after talking to my doctor, she decided she wanted to monitor me longer to make sure my baby wasn't in distress. So she put some oxygen on me, rolled me to my left side, and left me alone.

This is when things got really bad for me.

My contractions were no longer 2 minutes apart. They were constant, and VERY strong. They had started to pile on top of each other, giving me NO time in between them to recover. I can't really describe the pain, but I remember thinking that someone was trying to rip out my spine and pull out my insides at the same time. I kind of went into this hopeless emotional state, because I had no rest or recovery from the pain. At one point, I was walking to the bathroom, and I just started peeing all over myself and the floor on the way there (or so I thought). I felt so gross and in pain and completely out of control. It was exactly the opposite of what I had imagined for my labor.  I just started sobbing on the toilet and the nurse and Zach were outside the bathroom door saying, "Are you okay? Do you need help??"

When I came out of the bathroom, I looked at Zach straight in the eye and said, "I'm going to get an epidural." Right away, the nurse said "okay!" and ran out the door to get the anesthesiologist. Zach did the whole, "You can do this...." speech that we had rehearsed beforehand, but I just bluntly told him that I appreciated his effort and support, but an epidural was exactly what I wanted, and I didn't feel bad at all about the decision. Zach was more than relieved haha.

Less than a minute later, the anesthesiologist was there putting the catheter in my back. Then everything got soooooooo much better. The nurse checked my dilation again, and I was 5 cm! 5 cm!!!!!!!!! The nurse was shocked, because I was a first time mom and their labors are usually very long. She had been saying earlier that I probably would be in labor for a good 12 hours, and now I would probably be able to deliver on her shift! Zach and I just looked at each other and laughed. No wonder my contractions had been SO bad, I dilated 2-5cm in just 20 minutes! Oh, and my water was already broken. Guess that's what the whole "peeing myself" had been. Haha.

This was the point when my doctor showed up. I was soooo relieved to see him! I love my doctor. When he walked in, he said, "Are you sure you're a first time mom?!" Haha. Then we started to text our family and friends to tell them we were having a baby! Unfortunately, it was about 3AM so everybody was asleep. So we had to keep the excitement to ourselves. My sister came at this point too. I was so glad she was there.

My doctor is very pro "non-intervention", so while my nurse was pushing for Pitocin, my doctor wanted me to just rest & descend. And it's a good thing I didn't do Pit, because just an hour later, I was 8cm dilated.

Unfortunately, this very fast labor wasn't very good for baby. She kept having late decelerations (which means the baby is stressed), so I had to wear oxygen for the rest of the time until I started to push.

Zach was soo sweet & supportive the whole labor. We were both just so excited that everything was going so fast, and we were going to meet our baby in less than a few hours! We were also just so ready to find out if it was a boy or girl!!

At 4am (one hour later), I started to feel a lot of pressure, like I really had to poop, and sure enough, I was 10cm & ready to push!

Pushing was really exhausting (go figure), but it really helped that I had a mirror at the end of my bed so I could see my baby's head! What motivated me the most was when all the doctors and nurses were saying, "Wow, your baby has a LOT of hair!" And I said "Move, move, I wanna see!!" And they told me I'd have to push the baby out further before I could see the hair. So I would push during each contraction, then hurry and reach down & try to feel for the hair!

The whole environment in the room was really relaxed & fun. The doctors were all talking & joking with each other and I told them I had just seen Jurassic World a few hours ago and I now had the Jurassic theme song stuck in my head, so they all starting singing it while I was pushing. I couldn't stop laughing at everything! (This is also very opposite of what I thought my labor would be like, but this time in a good way!) I also kept asking, "I won't have to have a c-section, will I? Right? Right??" And as I was pushing, the sun was rising and brought this beautiful light into the room. It was perfect.

Once her head was crowning, everyone in the room was giving me so much encouragement and telling me to push even harder. I just had this big rush of adrenaline come over me, and after the contraction was already over, I just pushed with everything I had and she flew out!

Everyone in the room knew that we didn't know the gender, but for some reason it took forever for someone to announce it! She came out and I started crying. Her cord was really short, so they couldn't really hold her up, so I started asking "What is it! What is it!!"And Zach turns to me and goes, "It's a girl!!" And I just started sobbing.

She was absolutely perfect.

7 lbs, 6 oz. 20.5 inches long. Born at 5:32AM

Overall, I pushed for an hour and a half.

But she was so completely worth it.

Emma, our nurse. She was awesome.

Dr. Hansen, best doctor ever!

Overall, I loved my birth. It's very weird for me to say that because it was so different from what I had expected. I thought I would be so mad at myself for getting an epidural, and I almost feel guilty that I don't feel bad at all! I love how fast my delivery was, that I dilated so quickly. I love that I had such an awesome nurse and doctor. I love that I didn't get pitocin, that the doctor didn't have to artificially break my water or use forceps or a vacuum extraction to get her out. I love that I was able to deliver vaginally, and that I didn't get an episiotomy. And, of course, there were also a lot of things I didn't love, like having to stay in bed, and only getting ice chips during my delivery.

But this was Everly's delivery. And now that I am holding her in my arms, feeling like the luckiest person in the whole world, I wouldn't change a thing.