Our very long Pregnancy and Birth Story

A lot of things come really easy to me in life, but getting pregnant wasn’t one of them. “Just relax, it will happen when it’s time” or “Have you tried (enter one of the hundreds of tips and tricks people give)??” We tried it all. Every month ended in tears when we realized it just wasn’t our month, again. Last year we met with an amazing combination of doctors, they put us through tests, procedures, and more blood work than one could imagine. Finally, last November we found ourselves so incredibly happily pregnant. I still have the video of me telling Alex hidden on my phone because unfortunately that happiness wouldn’t be long lived and would be replaced by utter sorrow when we were told by my doctors that my numbers were going down and my pregnancy would soon end. To put it lightly, we were completely and totally devastated.

After weeks of recovery, more doctors appointments and action plans created, the stars aligned with my cycle and the doctors availability. We did everything we could, followed every step given to us, and eleven weeks after our hearts were shattered, it started healing. By the end of January we got the news that we were pregnant again. We were so happy, but so terrified. Anxiety began to creep in. I didn’t want to lose this baby too. “What if’s” filled my mind and kept me up at night.

At our 5 week ultrasound we saw a perfect little sack.

At our seven week ultrasound we saw a tiny, glowworm looking fetus and a heartbeat. I turned to Alex and started crying. Our baby looked great so far. We agreed to keep it quiet and wait to tell anyone. We lost our last pregnancy at 8 weeks so it was still a huge fear lingering in our hearts and minds.

At our 13 week ultrasound we saw our baby, all big headed and curled up in a ball, all snug in my belly.

We decided it was finally time to tell our parents. It was such an amazing weekend full of so much joy and we were so glad to finally be comfortable enough to share the news.

While nausea and food aversions haunted every day of my first trimester, thankfully I cannot brag enough about my second trimester. The nausea left, I was able to exercise and keep running up until about 21/22 weeks when I made the shift to just walking. I just felt good. I had a cute little bump and fear started to recede and joy filled its place.

At our 20 week ultrasound we found out we were having a baby girl. Again our hearts exploded. Just like her momma though, baby girl was stubborn. She was all tucked down by my hip and wouldn’t come out. The tech was able to get most of the pictures she needed but couldn’t get a any good picture of our baby’s spine so we would have to schedule a follow up ultrasound at 24 weeks. We decided to not go public with the news until we knew our little baby was healthy.

Thankfully at her 24 week ultrasound our babe cooperated and showed the tech all she and the doctors needed to give our girl the stamp of a healthy, growing baby.

Third trimester flew by. We put together the nursery, went to all the baby classes and had our baby shower. Alex and I went on dates, spent hours talking about our hopes and fears for once she’s born. We had our maternity pictures taken and packed up our hospital bags.

On Friday, October 4th I started having contractions. They were very irregular, but different from the Braxton Hicks I was feeling in previous weeks. They became a bit more regular, but not very painful so I kept dismissing them. By Saturday I was tracking them and keeping Alex in the loop. I didn’t sleep much Saturday to Sunday and when I did, I was usually woken up by contractions. Sunday morning rolled around and we had a list of things we wanted to do before calling the doctor and giving them an update. We made breakfast and had a nice, relaxing morning until about 9:45am when I stood up from the couch and stretched.

My water had broken.

I called the nurses line and let them know we’d be heading to the hospital shortly. We tidied up a few items at the house, took care of the dogs, grabbed our bags and took off. We called our parents on the drive to the hospital to let them know it was go time!!

We got to the hospital just after 10:30am and we were brought up to triage. They confirmed my water had broke and I was indeed in labor even though my contractions didn’t feel like much, yet. Only downside was I was only at 2.5 cm so we had a very long day ahead of us.

They got us into our huge (seriously, it was ginormous) L&D room and they hooked me up to all the monitors. After about 30 minutes of monitoring, they unhooked me and let me wander, move, do whatever I wanted basically. Every couple hours they’d check me for progress.

By 4:45pm we were still only at 4cm. Our amazing nurse Monica was a huge help and was giving me all sorts of positions and movements to try.

By 6:15 I was up to 6.5 cm and the real pain started. Let me tell you, I WAS NOT PREPARED.

We got up to 8cm around 11pm and that’s when things got rough. My body couldn’t relax and I was getting hit with contractions with less than a minute recovery in between. At one point our baby’s heart rate dropped and within moments we were surrounded by nurses who were moving me and changing my position to try to get her heart rate back up. Thankfully they were successful and her heart rate returned to normal. Because contractions continued to increase in intensity and frequency, I couldn’t relax and my progress stalled. After discussing with the nurses, we agreed on an epidural.

By midnight the epidural was in place and I was sleeping not long after. Our nurse came in to check on me about every 30 minutes and in less than two hours I was ready to push. Two practice pushes and two real pushes later, Reagan Avery Batten made her entrance into the world on Monday, October 7th at 2:31am. Alex got a front row seat to our daughters arrival, got to cut the cord and he couldn’t take his eyes off her, not for an instant.

She was perfectly healthy. A tiny little 6lb 12oz and 19 inches long baby.

Reagan has completely stolen our hearts. Never in a million years would I have believed I could feel this way.

For the last two weeks, our lives have completely revolved around this little snuggle bug. We’re exhausted, suffering from a bit of cabin fever, but are so grateful to have this new little person in our lives. It isn’t easy, but it is so incredibly worth it.