Yeah How it began...

In November of 2017, I took a pregnancy test fully believing there was NO way I could be pregnant and that my body was playing tricks on me. I had had the Paragard IUD in place for 5 years and the strings had been checked that August. The words PREGNANT came up before I could even get my pants pulled up. I immediately started to sob while my husband consoled me. We had thought we had completed our family 9 years ago.

My other kids are 14,12 & 9. My husband had just gotten a new promotion and I was on track to finish grad school the following May. When I woke up in the morning, I had a much clearer head and called my doctor. He could not would not believe the news! I was only his 2nd IUD failure in 16 years!! We went in for an ultrasound where I was found to be around 6 weeks with a perfect little bundle and a gorgeous heartbeat. 💗 My IUD was removed immediately with the hope I wouldn’t miscarry. I’m a firm believer in everything happening for a reason and baby girl clearly wanted to be here- she thrived the entire pregnancy! We told our other 3 on Christmas morning and we all became super excited to meet her!

My birth story...

I was set to be induced on July 19th at exactly 39 weeks pregnant. I chose to be induced for a couple different reasons. Most importantly, at my 36 week ultrasound my amniotic fluid levels were getting *close* to borderline. My doctor told me it could stay like that or become borderline so we needed to keep a watchful eye. Also, with my husbands work schedule and the fact that it was very important that I have my doctor there (he delivered all 3 of my previous children & I’m so comfortable with him), we chose to set a date.

On the morning of July 19th, we all get up and ready to meet baby girl!

We checked in at 8am and Pitocin was started. At around 11:15am, the doctor broke my water during a cervical check! When checked, I was 5cm dilated. At this point, I opted for the epidural. MISTAKE NUMBER ONE. It took her 45 minutes to get the epidural in place and I could feel what she was doing! She had to keep numbing me up. After that, I noticed I couldn’t feel my upper body and I was getting a wavy type aura out of my left eye. I was assured everything was fine and normal.

The rest of labor progressed as normal. When I hit 9 centimeters, my doctor said there was just a bit of cervix left & based on my previous 3 labor and deliveries, thought with practice pushes it’d be gone in no time. At 4:30 pm, I started to push and the doctor kept saying they were great pushes.

But, 45 minutes in and she really hadn’t moved! I kept saying that I couldn’t even feel the pressure to push (which I always could with my other children). He called for the anesthesiologist to have it turned down but she wasn’t available. Finally he looked at me and the nurses and said- ‘we have to turn it off completely.’ 😱😭 We all thought I’d have the baby out by the time it fully wore off but NOPE! I know it was essential to get her out, but at the time I thought that was MISTAKE NUMBER TWO.

I continued to push, and watch the clock. The nurse who had been with me all day was scheduled to leave at 5, but she said she was not leaving me until I had this baby! An hour and 45 minutes into pushing, a nurse knocked on the door and asked that my husband come out and talk to my dad. He was so worried for me and the baby and the fact that it was taking so long(compared to my other 3 who were out in minutes!) At that point, I told my doctor ‘PLEASE- no csection, no vacuum and no forceps.’ He told me that if he didn’t think I could get her out naturally, he wouldn’t be putting me through this.

Amazingly enough, the baby was never in distress. But I was! At this point I could feel EVERYTHING! And holy shit- the ring of 🔥 is no joke!! It hurt so bad, and I swore I couldn’t go on. But my husband, the nurses and my doctor told me I could do it. My husband actually got kind of emotional and asked the doctor if he could do something, anything to take my pain away. My doctor told him as sorry as he also felt for me, he couldn’t give me anything at this stage because it would depress the baby. I finally felt her head come out and it was immediate relief. After a couple more small pushes, her shoulders came out and she was here!!

Her cord was around her neck which likely delayed her arrival- so glad she came a week early! Her sweet little cry immediately made me forget about all the pain. ❤️❤️❤️

As unplanned as she was, we already can’t imagine our lives without her!