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.