Literally the longest 38 weeks of my life. For whatever reason, Anistons pregnancy was so hard on me. Maybe it was because I was chasing around a toddler the whole time. The last few weeks though, maybe since Thanksgiving have just been absolutely miserable. I can’t think of any other word other than miserable. It was so bad it had gotten to the point where going pee put me so badly out of breath it took 30 minutes to catch it. I was 0/0 when I went in to have Brooke, so I figured A) Same thing would happen this time, or B) Id have to be induced for sure. At my 36 week appointment I was checked and I was pleasantly surprised to find out I was at a 1. Another miserable little week went by and another appointment but this time I was at a 2 and 100%. So I was proud of my body for progressing on its own. Lord I was ready. I knew I was ready, I knew she was ready too. I could feel it. Looking back with Brooke I know she wasn’t ready. Aniston was so ready. She was still facing ROT, meaning her little butt and head lay on my right side while facing my left. When they are ROT it can be harder for them to descend or start labor on their own. The optimal position is them facing the back (Brooke was sunny side up). So on the 27th I decided I was going to do some exercises to try to encourage missy to turn. I did a bunch of these things-mainly balancing work to help align my pelvis and give her room to descend. Brooke and I had a good morning together, we ate some bread and we went and got some sonic for lunch. I put her down for a nap and did some more of the exercises. Had to pee (nothing new) and freaked out because I definitely 100% lost my show or “plug.” I never did that with Brooke so I was so anxious to see what would happen. I started just bouncing on my yoga ball, again trying to help her with descent. I then started getting incredibly uncomfortable. Very crampy, my back was starting to really really hurt. This happened around 3-4 pm. I powered through the uncomfortableness and did some laundry, played with Brooke and waited for Shayne to come home so we could go get some last minute Christmas gifts. We left the house still being uncomfortable which was fine, I’ve been uncomfortable lately so I didn’t really think anything of it. We went to a little boutique so I could pick out some things for people, and then we left to go eat at El Chico’s in the mall. I was walking through what I know now were contractions, eating fajitas, chips and salsa, just breathing through them. I was timing them sort of but really just enjoying the time with Shayne and Brooke. We got back into the truck and things were getting a little more intense-so we decided we’d go hang out closer to the hospital. We started heading towards my dads house since it’s way closer than our house is to the hospital. The plan was to go there and see if things progressed at all. Well we get about halfway there and I can no longer breath through them. So we decided to go straight to the hospital instead and have someone meet us in the parking lot of a Walmart on the way to the hospital. We get about two minutes from the Walmart and I started to feel something super warm-my water started to just hush out of me. This was around 8:30. All over the truck, I couldn’t believe it. My pants were soaked, it was crazy. I think some adrenaline hit then because the contractions sort of subsided for a while. We got to the hospital and I walked in, got into a little room and they confirmed my water had definitely broke and I was at a 3. This was at around 9:10. I went ahead and opted to get my epidural as soon as I could, and I’m glad I did. Once the adrenaline of everything wore off I was definitely feeling some pain. I got my epidural at around 11 pm. With Brooke I was in so much pain, it was so bad, I didn’t even notice the pressure or anything with her. This time I think because my body was doing everything on its own I wasn’t in as much pain yet and so I felt every little bit of the process of the epidural. Which was really scary. I actually have a bit of a tilt to the left in my spine come fo find out so she had to work around that. I felt all the pressure it was crazy. My amazing nurse wanted to wait until I was totally numb to do anything else and so she checked me around 11:20, I was at a 5ish. I couldn’t feel anything at this point so we shut our eyes and decided to take a bit of a rest. At 2 she came to check me again and I was at a 5/6. The plan was if nothing has significantly happened in the next hour we’d start low pitocin to help thing get along. However I wanted to help her descend on her own if I could so the nurse sat my bed up that way gravity would maybe do it’s thing. So I laid that way until about 3:15. I was sitting there and I was sorta feeling some pressure. Not really an urge to push pressure-but just a little pressure with contractions. So I called the nurse, and she came in to check me at 3:35 and she looks at me and says “your complete.”

So once again I had a super quick dilation, she was still at a 0 station (thank you ROT position), so she had a little while to descend so my nurse explained she’d call the dr at 4 exactly. We did a couple practice pushes and I was told to stop. Just let her descend more on her own. I texted our photographer and she was on her way. At 4 my nurse called the doctor, we did a few more practice pushes to try to encourage her descending. My photographer got there, nurses were coming in-we did some really good practice pushes at like 4:45. My nurse was like OKAY STOP no more. So we waited on the dr and my nurse say there and went to look at the door to se if she had walked in and looked back. I heard Shayne, the photographer, and the other two nurses go “Oh! There she is!” Her head had just come out on its own, and the dr walked in and just told the nurse to catch her. Miss Aniston was born at 4:55 AM on December 28, 2019. She is so incredibly sweet, she looks so much like her sister to us. She’s doing so good nursing which just makes me so very happy. I was so incredibly ready to meet her and it was everything I thought it would be. I was so very nervous about loving another little one but the second I saw her pure happiness just took over my entire body. I love her so much it’s unreal.

She fed after birth for almost an hour and a half just going back and forth, it was an amazing experience. They didn’t come and take her for any tests or anything. They did everything while she was on me.

Our little family is complete, we are just so happy. So blessed. Recovery has already been easy. I had no tearing or complications (so far). We can’t wait for this little girl to meet sweet Bee and for them to just become the best of friends.

💕