And Finally, What I Know You've Been Waiting For.....

The birth story is finally here! Try not to get overly excited. I honestly hope I can even remember the details, because I feel a little bit braindead after the last 3.5 weeks of trying to figure out how to raise a newborn.

At any rate, I had an OB appointment when I was 6 days overdue, and the fabulous midwife who saw me (who later ended up delivering Ally Grace) was basically like, are you ready to have this baby tomorrow? And I said, yes, please. So, she told me Northside Hospital would be calling me later that day, and letting me know what time to come in to be induced. All very different from the mad dash to the hospital that I envisioned. Which is probably a good thing for every driver on the road between my house and Northside.

We ended up getting the call around 5, and were told to be there between 5:30 and 6pm. Good thing I had (mostly) packed my bag. John and I left the house, and I had this crazy moment where I realized that it was the last time I would see my house without a little one in tow. Which of course made me tear up. No surprise there, since anything and everything was making me cry at that point.

We had a quick minute to take a picture:

(in which my belly is totally trying to push John out of the way)


Then, we were on our way to have a baby! I think the whole way there I freaked out, saying OMG, I can't believe we are having a baby RIGHT NOW. Clearly not, but anyway.

We get there, get signed in, and head to our room. It honestly felt like checking into a hotel--a weird hotel, with hospital beds and bedpans, that is. I was hooked up to a fetal heartbeat monitor, and then another monitor to track my contractions. The nurse came in and said that they were going to give me some medicine to "soften my cervix." Mmmmm, sounds great.

(Yes, I am super classy and only read really respectable publications like In Touch. And no, the "I'm Going to Be a Mom" headline wasn't even on purpose. I was just trying to show off my reading choice.)



It turns out, I was far enough along that I didn't even need the "cervix-softening" medicine, so they decided to wait and induce me the next morning by breaking my water and giving me some Pitocin. Which apparently is supposed to really ramp up those contractions. So, yay.

The next morning, they started the Pitocin, and my midwife (who hereafter shall be referred to as Awesome Christine) broke my water. I was ready for contractions that were going to make me want to punch someone in the face, as I have clearly learned how this process works from shows like Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, and the ever popular (at least on this blog) I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant.

Well, I never really had contractions like I expected. I mean, yes, I got to a point where I wasn't super comfortable, but that's when Awesome Christine stepped in and encouraged me to get my epidural. She pointed out very wisely that I could either "labor in comfort" or "labor in pain."

Hmmmm, let me think. I believe I'll take the comfortable option, please.

So, I got my epidural around 11 that morning. And I'm so glad I did, despite the fact that I literally could not feel/move my legs from that point forward. And I may or may not have asked the nurse 96 times if she was absolutely SURE that I hadn't accidentally been paralyzed.

Clearly I was her favorite patient that day.

Here I am "laboring in comfort" with John, awesome Christine, and my cup of ice chips. I think I could've been even more comfortable, had I been able to enjoy some cupcakes with my ice chips. Hallelujah for epidurals, is all I have to say.

And here is where I may potentially make some of you hate me. The rest of the labor and delivery was just not that hard. Seriously. And yes, I was clearly super medicated, and must have had WAY over the top fears of what it would be like. But, after 40 minutes of pushing, AG came out, and I honestly felt like, wow that was it? And please don't virtually slap me down for saying that if your own labor and delivery were difficult. I know that's the case for lots of women, and, thanks to all the really terrible stories I heard beforehand, I had really mentally prepared myself for something truly awful. In fact, the worst part of it all was after my epidural wore off. Yay for Percocet.

All I can say is that I am beyond thankful for the experience that God gave me, not to mention the fabulous nurses and awesome Christine....they were definitely part of His plan as well.

Anyway, Ally Grace was born at 5:03pm on October 8th. She weighed 7lbs and 15oz, and was 22 inches long. In my admittedly biased opinion, she is the most beautiful baby I've ever seen! Immediately after her birth, she had to be taken to the transition nursery for a few hours, as her breathing was faster than they wanted it to be. But, after about 4 hours of monitoring her, they brought her down to our room, where we finally got to spend time with our precious girl.

We had LOTS of visitors during our 2-day stay, and I was going to try to upload photos of each and every one. But, it's taking WAY too long to do that, and I am way too impatient to sit here for that long. Plus, did I mention that I have a new baby to take care of?

We finally did make it back home though. Here we are leaving the hospital with our little bundle of joy:

And most importantly, here's Jackson meeting his new little sister. Funny how they look nothing alike.

So, that's pretty much it for the birth story. Fascinating, wasn't it? In my next post, maybe we can talk about how I may or may not have sent out some pictures from the birth that may or may not have accidentally shown my lady parts. Yeah.......good times.