birth story- part 1

our sweet sadie has been here with us for 5 whole days now.

we've been oohing and awing over every little thing she does and her many cute faces.

we have bonded so much through breastfeeding already and are getting the hang of things.

i want to start typing up the birth story before i forget some of the details.

here we go…

on saturday night (5 days before my due date), my mom, will, and i were playing carcassone.

i started noticing pretty frequent braxton hicks contractions coming on.

they weren't painful, just uncomfortable and coming about 20 min. apart.

my mom said these could be leading up to the real thing and so we got super excited.

when we went to bed, they still weren't hurting much and hadn't really gotten closer together.

i thought they might just go away while i slept and didn't want to get my hopes up.

well… they didn't go away. 

i woke up at 5am with increasingly painful contractions about 10 min. apart.
i went downstairs to tell my mom and to ask my dad to help will give me a blessing.

we knew this was it so i finished packing the diaper bag while my mom made muffins.

my mind was all over the place so it took me a while and will kept trying to rush me out.

he was so anxious and was being diligent timing my contractions for me.

my contractions got to be about 6 minutes apart and hard to breathe through.

after i stuffed down 5 muffins and 2 glasses of milk, we headed out the door around 9am.

my parents had come in town 2 nights before to stay with us for a whole week.

i am so amazed at how perfectly timed things happened,

since we weren't sure they'd still be up in utah by the time i had the baby.

they followed us in their car to the hospital and we called will's mom to let her know.

when we got there the nurses all made the comment that i looked too happy to be in labor.

ha they definitely caught me in between contractions, 

but i got nervous this meant that i wasn't progressed enough to be checked in. 

my doctor must have been on call that sunday because he walked in a minute after we did.

we were relieved he would be there to deliver the baby since we'd grown close to him.

we got checked in and led to our room where they had me change into a gown right away.

will's mom was quick getting to the hospital so it was will, me, my parents, and liz there.

we thought it would be special to invite both of our moms to be in the room for the birth.

the nurse came in to check my cervix and said i was 4 cm dilated yay!

she didn't mention how effaced i was but i had been 70% at my last appt. so i imagine close.

it was nice to hear that the painful contractions were getting us somewhere.

the nurse asked if i'd like an epidural and i didn't hesitate saying yes.

when the anesthesiologist came in a few minutes later, i was more than ready to be numb.

the nurses had taught us a trick to help with the contractions, but it was getting bad.

i tried not to think about the needle going in my spine by humming and squeezing will.

it wasn't really painful, but all of that pressure scared me and i cried a little.

it was SO worth it though when it started kicking in a few minutes later.

we were watching the monitor go up to a peak and back down,

and i literally felt nothing from the contractions, not even pressure. 

at this point, the nurse checked me again and said i was 5 cm dilated.

then the doctor came right in to break my water.

i was waiting for that gush of water but i didn't feel anything.

instead i heard a gurgling noise down there a couple of times… kinda embarrassing.
after that, some priesthood holders came by our room with the sacrament.
that was really neat and perfect timing for us to partake of the sacrament.

the next few hours flew by and we played the card game phase 10 while we waited.

we only made it about halfway through the game when the nurse came in to check me.

it was about 2 pm and i was dilated to a 9 and 100% effaced. YESSS!

we were so very much excited to get to meet our little girl soon!

to be continued….