Audrey's arrival

It's Mother's Day Mania with Mama M over at My Little Life.  Today is birth stories!  I have already shared the 'fun' around Leah's birth (I'll link at the bottom if you want to read about my emergency C-section), so now I want to share my youngest's birth.

I was so ready, oh my goodness so ready for her to come!  I had an appointment on my due date, but I wasn't dilated enough to go into the hospital.  The doctor gave me these orders:  "Next week, let's work on going into labor."  Really?

So the next night I started having contractions.  Well ... I'd been having a few for a while, but I started counting them then.  Most moms know the drill ... they are coming every twenty minutes...then for an hour they come every 8 minutes ... and all of a sudden you don't get a contraction for twenty minutes again.  It was so frustrating.  To cap it off, my sweet husband kept asking, "Have you had one yet?  Are they closer?  Is it time?"  We played Trivial Purist into the wee hours of the morning and finally just went to sleep.  Ok, let me change that ... Andrew went to sleep, lol!  I tossed and turned and starting timing contractions again around 7am.  When I was convinced they were coming about every 5-7 minutes I woke up Andrew.  I was going to call in a talk to a nurse, and then head in when she told me to.  Andrew ... no my sweet husband was up, grabbing the bag, waking his mom up (who was staying with us to watch Leah) and telling her we were heading to the hospital!

I called the nurse on the way in, and she completely phsyced me out.  I asked her if I should come in.  She was all like, well you know what it feels like just come in when you feel ready.  I was all like, but I don't know what it feels like (I was sick, sick, sick when I went into labor with Leah), and I asked if  I could just come in now.  Um yeah...we were sitting in the parking deck of the hospital, lol!

I got checked in, settled in the delivery suite and found out I was 5cm dilated!  I got an epidural.  They insert drugs into your iv to kinda calm you down before they insert the epidural.  Oh, that is good stuff...Andrew said it was the first time I smiled all day, lol!  The epidural slowed down labor a bit, so they broke my water and dude ... that did the trick!

Soon after I started shivering.  I told Andrew I was so cold...could he please get a blanket.  But one blanket didn't do the trick, I was still shivering like a crazy person.  Before you know it, I'm feeling this pressure.  Andrew gets the nurse, she takes one look and tells me ... this baby is ready to come out.  Apparently shivering is a sign of labor ... hmmm ... who knew :-)

The doc rushed in and told me not to push until she was ready.  And then I started pushing.  My husband held my leg, this was all so new to us!  He coached me on breathing ... I watched through the mirror and an hour later Audrey was born!  I was amazed at the whole process!

Oh yeah, did I mention she was a vbac? It can be done ladies, if that's what you want!

Here are some fun pictures of Audrey's birth - day:

Audrey Anne was born at 3:40 PM on 11/20/2009 at Vanderbilt University Hospital. She is 8 lbs 13 ounces and 20 inches long!

I'm so excited about today!  I love birth stories!!!!!

If you want to read Leah's birth-story click here!

A hot day in August

This is the story of the day my sweet Leah entered into this world. Before I start the story, I would just like to add a bit of advice to anyone living in the south and thinking of having a baby. Think about your due date before you decide what month to start, because being 7 - 8 - 9 months pregnant in Alabama in June - July - August sucks big time! And if you don't think about this in advance (like me) buy your hubby lots of sweaters and blankets because I kept our apartment like a fridge! It wasn't uncommon to see me in a tank top and shorts sitting next to him wrapped up in a blanket! But now...back to Leah's dramatic entrance story

It was August 18, 2007 and I was sick! Sick of having fat feet, sick of not sleeping at night, sick of back pain, sick of being pregnant, and just plain sick. Rewind about a week. My due date was August 22nd. My doctor told me that the week before his due date, the hospital was requiring him to take vacation time. I didn't go to a big OBGYN, he was the only doctor in the practice. Sure, there were more at the hosptial, but I had never met any of them. We had a very close one on one relationship (I would even say I was his favorite patient). He told me to wait until the week of the 20th to go into that labor. That would be good for him. Well, Leah didn't really care what was good for him. So, back to the 18th. Here I am pregnant with my first child, sick as a dog (I think it was the flu) and my doctor's cell phone is turned off. Well, I sucked it up and we went over to out best friend's house to watch some football game...I don't remember, I was sick and most likely in labor. We got home around 11pm that night, and ended up in the hospital around 1am, August 19th.

I was not a calm cookie. I wanted my doctor, and I wanted him now! Oh yeah, and I really wanted some drugs. Andrew called the doc and left this message on his voicemail: "Just in case you wanted to know, we are at the hospital and Christy is in labor." The stupid hospital doc (that I didn't know) wouldn't come in until the morning to tell me that I could get an epidural. Finally he came, but Leah just was not happy. My fever was over 104, I was on oxygen, and my doc was still MIA. The nurses declared that this baby had to come out because her heart rate was rocketing and unsafe. And then who should make an entrance but my doc in his tennis playing clothes. Apparently he decieded to skip his tennis match that afternoon to come deliver my baby, and I am forever grateful to him for that! I pushed early (only 9.5 cm) but Leah didn't come. We then rushed into an emergency C-section. I don't remember much except a nurse holding my hand telling me that once the baby's out, they will give me the good drugs. Leah arrived, blue and icky. They got her breathing and handed her to Andrew, telling him to rush her to the NICU. Pointed him in the way and said go (did I mention this was a small hospital) because they needed all the nurses on staff for me.

Leah was a healthy 8lb baby girl. She stayed in the NICU in an oxygen box for about a day which sucked for me because preemie twins came in right after me. I didn't get to see her until she was over a day old!

Of course, I was on a pain pump and still had a fever. I kept that stupid fever for 5 days! Ugh, we got so tired of living in this space. My poor husband did not want to leave his newborn girl and still sick wife, so he slept on the couch/bed all five days! People often say that they would prefer a C-section as opposed to natural labor, but not me. I hated recovering from that darn C-section. I have also heard recover isn't that bad when you plan for it. Well, I didn't plan for it and I hated it. I have never hated peeing more in my life! But I finally walked down the hall, and broke that nasty fever, and took my sweet baby home!

Baby's first peace sign!

and baby's first bird...hmmm...may explain some of her actions now.

and just because we all know how much we love looking at adorable baby pictures, here's some to finish up this story!

Thanks for reading my story! And just as a side note, I was able to deliver my second baby through natural labor (with an epidural of course...I'm a wimp about pain), so don't fret if you had a C-section first. V-bac's can be done!

This story is linked-up with Mama M's birth story Blog Hop.