A birth story: the day my life changed forever

We had just finished eating dinner. I don't even recall what we ate...tacos maybe?

"Honey, I think my water may be breaking...?" There was no gush, just a little leaking I noticed in my underwear {sorry TMI!}. Or at least that's what I thought. Was I imagining it? I felt so uncertain, yet I had this gut feeling that I should call my doctor. As I was on the phone with a mid wife, Steve was upstairs ironing the curtains for the nursery. I don't think he thought much of my discovery until I ran upstairs and told him they want me to come in to labor and delivery...'just in case'. We scrambled around, grabbed our already packed hospital bags, thinking to ourselves could this be the day? As we were driving to the hospital, we tried our best to hide our excitement and remain calm because surely this was just a false alarm. Right?

We checked into triage and they immediately took me back to get strapped up to monitors to measure contractions and the baby's heart rate. Thankfully, Sydney was not in distress and my contractions were averaging about 7 minutes apart. Nothing that unusual, considering I've been having contractions on and off for almost two months! The mid wife I spoke with on the phone came in and performed a test to determine if it was amniotic fluid that was leaking and to see If my cervix was dilated at all. The test came back inconclusive and I was only about 1 cm dilated. She didn't think my water was breaking due to the inconclusive results, but ordered an ultrasound to measure the fluid around the baby "just to be safe". No biggie! We were right, just a false alarm. I was embarrassed but knew it's better to be safe than sorry. The ultrasound went well...as far as we could tell. Sydney looked great and was moving around a lot. The ultrasound tech did mention that the fluid was measuring low, but made no hint that we should be concerned or how low it was exactly. "I need to take these pictures to a doctor to look at. We will be with you shortly," the ultrasound tech said.

We waited about 15-20 minutes. It seemed like an eternity. Finally, the mid wife returned and said very matter-of-factly, "So, are you ready to meet your daughter tonight?"

!!!

Steve and I grabbed each others hand. I remember repeating "oh my gosh! oh my gosh!" I also remember Steve grinning ear to ear.

The next two hours were a blur. But, apparently my water was breaking and the level of fluid around the baby was way too low. They would need to take her out NOW by c-section in order to avoid full blown labor because she was breech.

By the time the mid wife told us we would be meeting our daughter that night, to the time I was being prepped in the operating room was about an hour or so. It was all happening so quickly, but I was so excited to meet her and see what she looked like! Since she was only 35 weeks along, I of course was also worried about her health.

At 10:55 pm on Monday, August 4, 2014, our beautiful and perfect baby girl made her grand entrance into the world.

As, the doctor was operating I heard him say "I see a little butt!" and then she was out. I then heard the most beautiful sound. The sweet cries of my daughter. As she was being carried from my belly to the pediatrician for examination, the first thing I noticed was lots of dark hair. Steve instantly went over to see her and take pictures and cut the cord. I could overhear the doctor and nurse as they looked her over and by seeing the huge smile on Steve's face, I knew she was healthy and I knew it was going to be okay.

5 lbs 7 oz. 18.75 inches long. Our miracle was finally here.

^^^about to go back to the operating room

 

^^^last picture of me pregnant at 35 weeks.

^^^first picture of our baby girl <3

^^^first time meeting mommy

^^^first family photo :)

^^^our future gymnast ;)

^^^first visitors. steer clear! Nana's on a mission!

^^^Nana, Aunt Erin, & PopPop

Holly xoxo