My Birth Story

Now that my baby is 2 months old, I am finally finding time to update this baby. I have been wanting to share my birth story since the moment I came home from the hospital. I had the most amazing experience. I hope you're all ready for my longest blog post...probably of my entire life. Here we go...

On the morning I knew I was in labor...

As a typical pregnant lady would be, I was up for probably my 4th or 5th trip to the bathroom at 4am and I noticed something was different. I quickly took care of bidness and went back to bed. I woke up again at 5:30 (because of course the few drops of pee I had in me couldn't wait one more second) and this time I KNEW something was going on. I ran back into our room and woke Mike up and told him I might be in labor...or something. I had been through the new parent classes and birth classes and all of that but really, how can you actually be prepared for that moment when you just know you're in labor and it's actually happening. Mike told me to go back to bed and that everything was fine. So I tried. Then I started getting really mild Braxton Hicks contractions. I never got contractions in the morning. I always got them around 10 or 11 at night for an hour or so.  

Even though Mike wanted me to go back to bed and stop worrying, I got out a notepad and stopwatch and started tracking my contractions. I felt a little silly because this was about a week before my due date and everyone told me I would go past my due date with my first pregnancy. Well guess what everyone..I didn't. I sent a text to my cousin and told her what was going on because I needed someone to tell me I wasn't crazy because I think at this point Mike thought I was. 

I would have called my doctor but I had my 39 week appointment that day so I figured I would keep tracking contractions and see what she thought when I got to the office. My appointment was at 11:40 and Mike decided to come with me "just in case". I told my doctor what was going on, she took a look and said, "Sweetie, you're in labor. We need to get you to the hospital. You're going to have a baby by the morning." I KNEW IT! I immediately started crying. I couldn't believe it was actually happening. 

Since Mike came to the appointment he drove me straight to the hospital. I had left the house with my hair wet, right out of the shower, thinking I was just making a quick stop at the doctor's office then I'd be back home to get ready. I left our apartment a complete mess. I was in the middle of at least 43 projects, I had piles of laundry I was planning to get done and dishes piled in the sink. Oh well, those things needed to wait. I was having a BABY! 

I was having contractions all morning but the really uncomfortable contractions started around 3pm. This is when I sent Mike home to grab my hospital bag and, of course, chocolate covered pretzels. He had to stop by his work too to grab his laptop so he could finish up some work while he was at the hospital with me. He was gone for at least an hour and a half and it seemed like the longest hour and a half of my entire life. 

Well, contractions were NOT fun. I'm hoping that was the worst pain I'll ever be in in my life. It better be. I was doing OK without any medication until about 7pm. When the nurse told me I could get an epidural and sleep through contractions I basically would have done anything for that nurse at that moment..seriously anything. I had been up since 4am and had no energy and I could feel my energy draining quickly with every contraction. My contractions were lasting about 1.5 minutes each and I only had 1 minute or 1.5 minutes in between each one. I was exhausted. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing husband. He was there through every miserable contraction, holding my hand, breathing with me, rubbing my back, telling me how amazing I was. I just kept thinking to myself, "how could I do this without him?" I honestly couldn't have. He is the best.

The nurse moved me from the labor room to the delivery room around 8pm. I was alraedy 8cm dialted. This is when I got the epidural. The nurse told me to lay down and said they would be coming in to check on me. She told me I would wake up on my own when I felt the urge to start pushing. This was the best I had ever felt in my life. Seriously. At that moment when I laid my head down on the pillow and let my body do it's thing, I looked over at Mike and told him I thought I was in heaven. I also told him I would want 10 kids if I could just get the epidural right away every time. I kinda take that back now. 

So I laid down. Mike made me turn off my phone because I was texting my family and letting them all know the baby was on his way. I can't even describe how amazing I was feeling at this point. The doctor came in and broke my water around 11:30pm and said everything looked good. A nurse came in around 1:30am and said I was ready to start figuring out how to push so I would be ready when the baby was. Mike was right there, holding my leg, and foot and hand and whatever else I needed him to hold. He was so sweet. Counting for me and telling me how great I was doing. Have I mentioned how sweet my adorable husband is? I love him so much. 

Well I had a great time talking with Mike and the nurse as I pushed and we talked about our lives. At one point the nurse looked at me and said, "Stop pushing, you're going to have this baby. I need to go wake up the doctor and get the room ready." As soon as the doctor walked in I asked her if I could start pushing because I knew I needed to. She told me to and I pushed a few times. She grabbed my hand and made me feel the baby's head coming out. That was enough for me. Holy cow. I have a weak stomach and couldn't really handle that. It was amazing nonetheless. I can't remember exactly how many times I pushed or how long it was. It felt like everything was in fast forward. Before I knew it the nurse was handing me my perfect little boy.

Wes was born on November 29 at 3:14am. (5 days before my due date) He weighed 7 pounds one ounce and was 19 1/4 inches long.

Those three days we spent at the hospital were the best 3 days of my life by far. Every single moment seemed to last forever. I think I shed more happy tears than anyone ever has in their lifetime. Every time I would look over at Mike holding little Wes my little heart would melt and the tears would just flow. (and they are now as I'm typing this remembering all those sweet moments). 

My little Wes is a miracle. We feel so blessed every day. These past 9 weeks that he has been here with us have been heaven. I was sitting in a church meeting recently just thinking about how much my life has changed since he was born. My perspective on life has changed so much. I feel like  my heart is at least a million times bigger and is overfilled with love for my husband, love for my beautiful baby boy and my Heavenly Father. I am so thankful for this amazing blessing that I get to enjoy every day of my life. 

we love his funny little faces

Sometimes when I put him in his car seat he gets so excited he can't control himself. You can tell by the blurriness of his little hands. He moves them a million miles a minute and makes the cutest sounds.

When I run out of the manly bibs I have to use the girly ones. Wes lets me know when he's not happy about something. He was not havin' it.

He's like his momma. We loooove taking baths. 

I wish I knew what this funny little boy was thinking sometimes.

Just a happy little kid.

We love you so much Wes baby.

And we will love you forever!