A Post for Audrey

Fair warning this is a birth story post for Audrey. If you get squeamish at childbirth you may not want to read on. I won't include any gory pictures or anything, but some still may not care for this one.

Dear Audrey,

This is the story of how you were born. I hope someday you appreciate having  it written down for you. Thankfully, it is a pretty dull story, just how all birth stories should be!

Your dad and I had a pretty specific plan for how we wanted your birth to go. We wanted to have as natural a childbirth as possible. We had attended classes and hired a doula to help us get the experience we wanted. But really it was all up to you. And you cooperated, thank you!

You were due November 19th and entered the world on November 21st, the day before Thanksgiving. I went to the doctor the day before you were born and was told I was maybe one centimeter dilated. In other words my body had really not started getting ready for you to come yet. The doctor said "we'll see you again in a few days, I doubt you'll have this baby soon." You had other ideas.

I started having contractions here and there in the evening of the 20th but I just thought they were braxton hicks. However, by 2 am I could not sleep through them anymore and was pretty uncomfortable. They were about 3 minutes apart at this point, they were about 3 minutes apart the whole time. No breaks for mom, thanks. Our plan was to stay at home as long as possible to help facilitate as natural a birth as possible, so I got in the bathtub for some relief and we called the doula. By about 6:30 am things were much more intense so Mitzi (our doula) came on over to help out. I continued to labor at home until about 9 am when Mitzi said we should head to the hospital. So we began the process of getting out the door, which was not an easy thing to do.

When we got to the hospital we checked in and found out I was about 6-7 cm dilated. Yup, I went from zero to almost ready to push in less than 12 hours. I know that doesn't seem very fast but it was really intense from me. At this point I may have mentioned that drugs sounded good, but JT and Mitzi helped me find other ways to manage the pain, mostly I sat in the shower. Our nurse, Karen, was amazing. She was so supportive of how we wanted the birth to go. We were so lucky to have such an awesome nurse. We were only at the hospital for a couple of hours before I started pushing. I didn't even have time to get an IV.

It took me a good two hours to push your little body out. It was the hardest things I have ever done, but it was so very worth it! When you were finally did come out your dad announced you were a girl, we didn't find out ahead of time, and cut the cord. You came straight up to my chest to hang out and get warm. After you hung out with me for a couple hours and tried to nurse (this will be a whole different post) they weighed and measured you. You were 6 pounds 13 ounces and 20.2 inches long!

You were such a good doot doot for labor and delivery. Everything went just like your dad and I had hoped, and we are so very thankful for that. You didn't start giving us trouble until it was time to get you nursing.

Thank you for such a magical 12 hours doot doot. It was a wonderful experience for all of us!

Love,
Mom