Leya's Birth Story

Monday morning I had my 37 week doctor appointment and was told I had dilated another centimeter, putting me at 3cm. Doctor told us the usual..."Anytime now." I came home and did what any other 9 months pregnant woman would do; hosted a play date at our house! Okay, maybe not every 9 months pregnant woman would do this but this is me we are talking about. I haven't let myself sit down very much this entire pregnancy. It's just not in my nature.

Anyways, that afternoon I had a feeling I was coming down with a cold and my braxton hicks contractions were becoming much more uncomfortable. Neil and I called it an early night and headed to bed. I woke up at 1ish with some usual braxton hicks. The usual I had been experiencing for the past few weeks. At 2AM I woke up to a strong contraction in my lower back. This one got my attention. It hurt and was *different.* They kept coming every 5 minutes or so which made me wake Neil up at 2:30. I said, "Honey the baby is coming." His sleepy response was "Are you sure?" True to form Neil did not want to wake up if I was just kidding. I also did not want to call over our friend Jenn to watch the kids in the middle of the night if it was just a false alarm so I told him that we should wait until the next contraction before calling her and then I proceeded to clean....clean everything. Now see that is in my nature. After another 30 minutes of contractions we called over our friend to stay with the kids and headed to the hospital at 3:30AM.

At the hospital I was hooked up to all the monitors and my contractions had narrowed to 4 1/2 minutes apart and I had dialted to 4cm so I was admitted. Soon after my contractions, though still very painful, had widened to 6 minutes apart, unless I was standing. If I stood they were 3 minutes apart. So I stood and swayed to painful contractions with Neil at my side until the anesthesiologist came and gave me my epidural at 7AM. Sweet warm numb feeling. The downside...my contractions slowed once again yet I was still dilating.



At 8:30AM my OB came in to break my water and check my progress. Now at 5-6cm. An hour later, my contractions were anywhere from 4 to 6 minutes apart, and I was still at 6cm so a small amount of Pitocin was started. That seemed to do the trick and moved my contractions to 2-3 minutes apart again. At 10:20 I started to be able to feel the pain and pressure of my contractions and called for my nurse. I asked her to check me to see if I was close. She did and I was at a full 10cm. My doctor, knowing how my labors go was already walking into the room to deliver our baby. Everything was prepped and I was told to give a big push with my contraction, which I did, and Leya Marilyn was born at 10:30AM. Hearing "It's a GIRL!" was one of the most exciting moments of my life and I am so glad we waited to find out what we were having (Thanks Molly for the encouragement). Sidenote: Tooting my own horn here...the nurses later referred to me as the "One Push Wonder." :)




Back to Leya: Ar 37.3 weeks pregnant, after 8 hours of "labor"...February 16th, 10:30AM...6lbs 2 oz, 18 inches long, full head of dark hair, good set of lungs which she used to protest loudly, cute little dimples in her cheeks, and all kinds of new baby sweetness. She went straight to the breast and knew exactly what she was doing...that's our girl! She resembles Landen but in a girly way.








Leya is one week old today. One week that has flown by in a sleep deprived, love filled haze that has already left me searching for a pause button on her life. She is this little tiny sweet bundle of joy in the house and having her home has completed our family in the most blissful way.

"I know this love of mine will never die; and I love her" The Beatles