This was our first ultrasound, taken at 8 weeks gestation. Despite a huge insurance mess, it was a very exciting appointment!
I enjoyed my pregnancy for the most part. After the first trimester, I noticed that I had less headaches while I was pregnant! As a girl who always has a headache, this was wonderful! I had a great school year and was amazed at how interested the students were in my baby! They asked so many questions and they all had input to give on what I would end up naming this child! I found a gym I really enjoyed while I was pregnant and got into a better habit of exercising. I had two amazing baby showers that some wonderful friends and family hosted for me! I was blown away by the generosity and thoughtfulness of everyone who bought us gifts! I knew early on that this would be one well-loved child!
Our pregnancy announcement!
A few days after finding out we were expecting a girl, we bought this as her going home outfit!
This was what i looked like at 36 weeks pregnant.
The baby's nursery was all ready to go!
So childbirth would be hard. I read and heard the horror stories, but I also told myself that it was something I would need to get through. I am blessed to live in a time of modern medicine and was able to trust that the doctors and nurses would do everything they could to care for both the baby and myself. We never had a birth plan. Our plan was to follow the recommendations of those providing our medical care. I knew I would try to labor as long as I could before getting the epidural, but I was not against it. I had nothing to prove, and knew giving birth to a baby would be a feat in itself, epidural or no epidural. Kudos to all women who have gone without it, but I was going to trust my gut on that one. It actually surprised me that I was so laid back while going into the most painful and life changing event of my life. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a worrier who does my best to plan things and likes to know what to expect. But I asked God to give me peace about this step of my life, and thankfully He did just that.
My due date was set for April 8, 2014. I began having what I thought may be labor pains early in the morning on April 10. I thought I might be in labor, but the contractions did not become very painful until around three in the afternoon. During the day, I finished a quilt I had been sewing throughout the pregnancy, saw a friend, went for a long walk, and called Matt telling him I might be in labor, but I might not, as I did not know for sure and didn't want to be jumping the gun!
The contractions were about 5 minutes apart by 4:00 in the afternoon when I was out on a walk. Matt hurried home from work around 6:00 and we got ready to go to the hospital. I called them around 7:00 to let them know that my contractions had been about 5 minutes apart for two hours, but they told me to take a shower and wait another two hours and to give them a call again. The contractions got closer and closer together and were between 2-5 minutes apart and we called again after two hours had passed. The nurse I spoke with said that I was welcome to come in, but that she would recommend waiting a little longer before coming in. I was in a lot of pain, but did not want to go too early and be sent home. I had to hand the phone to Matt while speaking with the nurse as a contraction got so painful. Finally, around 10:30 p.m, my water broke and the contractions were happening almost right on top of each other. This time Matt called the hospital and told them we were on our way. The car ride there was surreal. I was in a great deal of pain and brought my body pillow to hug through the contractions. We hit road construction on our way to the hospital and started to get nervous, but thankfully it did not hold us up much.
As we walked into the hospital, I had to stop and lean against the wall many times to get through the contractions. Checking in seemed to take forever, and we had pre-registered! I kept having to lean down on the check-in desk and struggle through contractions between questions. They took us into the triage room to check to see how far dilated I was. I remember being asked to go into the bathroom and give them a urine sample and change into a hospital gown and thinking, "are you kidding me?" It took forever as I continued to have these intense contractions and tried to find something to lean against. Finding something to lean on while contracting was a lifesaver. I found this out as I came out of the bathroom and had to lay down while they took my blood pressure (it took forever as my contractions were so frequent) and asked me many, many questions. Lying down during these contractions was awful. They asked if I was considering getting an epidural and I said yes, meaning I wanted it right then and there! They hooked up two monitors on my stomach, one to hear the baby's heartbeat and the other to read my contractions. I was relieved that they said she was doing well. It took forever for them to finally check my dilation. I will never forget Matt's face. He was worried and we still didn't know if they were going to send us home, so he was frustrated that they were taking so long to determine it. Needless to say, the triage room part of the experience was awful.
When they finally checked me, they were surprised to see that I was 7 cm dilated. Our nurse smiled and said, "that explains why your contractions are coming so fast!" They quickly got me into a room and kept taking all of my vitals and getting everything set up. They asked about the epidural again and I remember being like, "yes, right now!" Our nurse during this time was Lexie and she was wonderful and patient and encouraging. I remember being in such pain and getting so frustrated with the experience, but being thankful that she was so kind and clearly knew what she was doing. She asked if I was sure I still wanted the epidural even though I was so far dilated. I had read so many birth stories about how long women labored that I was very scared this was going to last another 12 hours and that I'd have nothing left when it was time to push, so I told her I was sure. By the time the anesthesiologist came in, I was shaking badly. Getting the epidural took a long time because of my constant contractions. Once it was in, they told me it would take about 20 minutes to feel it take effect, but I started to feel better within a few minutes. She checked me again right after the epidural was in and I was at 9 cm dilated! Oops, maybe I shouldn't have had the epidural! But oh well, I was relieved and suddenly was back to my talkative self!
I fondly remember the next hours. I was filled with excitement that the baby was coming and I felt so much better! We talked with the nurse and asked her what seemed like a million questions. I remember telling her, "I think I'm going to live now!" The epidural was such a strange feeling. I was completely numb from my stomach to my toes for the next few hours. I felt very relaxed and comfortable. Our nurse stayed in the room with us the whole time and encouraged us to try to get some sleep. I hardly slept at all. Every time I started to doze off, the blood pressure machine started again and totally woke me up. The machines kept waking Matt up too. The whole time, Lexie did not leave our room except for a short break when another nurse came and took her place. She constantly checked my vitals as well as the baby's, and then sat in the corner of the room typing on her computer. It was very peaceful and I loved listening to the baby's heartbeat the whole time.
My parents arrived at the hospital around 5:00 a.m. They had driven all night and were exhausted as well. We all sat and talked and laughed for awhile. I was very hungry by this point and knew I could not eat until I had the baby. Matt was hungry as well, so I encouraged the three of them to go out to breakfast. The nurse said I had been dilated to 10 cm for awhile, but they were going to have me "labor down" for awhile and I wouldn't start pushing for a few hours. At 7:00, our nurse's shift was over and we got a new nurse. I was sad to see Lexie go, but she assured me that she requested the best nurse to help me with the rest of my labor and she said she would be back at work that night and looked forward to checking on us and meeting our baby. Our new nurse, Alena, was very nice, but she wasn't Lexie! Though we were only under her care for about 7-8 hours, it felt like she was a really big part of this and it was hard to let her go!
At about 7:30 a.m, I was given the go-ahead to start pushing. It was pretty exciting at first. I felt strong and was told that they could see the head and that I was having good pushes. At about 8:00, another nurse brought breakfast into our room. I thought to myself, "I must be almost done!" I was so hungry that I was pretty excited at the thought of getting to eat.
After about an hour and a half of pushing, I began to feel discouraged. They would have me give three hard pushes at a time. They explained that by the third push, I was getting somewhere, but as soon as I stopped, the head would slip back into the same place. It was incredibly painful as my hips and thighs had intense spasms. I worried I had made a mistake in getting the epidural as it had slowed things down so much. However, I was glad it was numbing some of the pain.
Finally, after three hours of pushing, the doctor was staying in the room and they all started to get excited. I was so discouraged that I remember thinking they were messing with me. They kept saying, "She's there! Just one more push!" After hearing them say that about five times I thought, "Yeah right." More nurses came into the room and the doctor explained that they were there in case anything went wrong so they could provide immediate care to the baby. I remember praying and praying and praying, asking God to give me the strength to get this baby out of there. I was in so much pain that I just wanted to be done. All of a sudden, the baby made her way out and they held her up and said, "Look what you did!" They put her on my chest for skin-to-skin contact.
Matt was so excited. I'll never forget his face. He had been so encouraging and patient through the whole pregnancy, labor, and delivery. I am so glad I had his support. I was still in so much pain and I was laying flat, so I found it hard to look at our new baby. My hips and thighs were still having those spasms and they took forever to stop. They were still "working on me" down there for a long time and what they were doing hurt! Matt kept telling me to just look at our baby. I felt overwhelmed. While I was getting stitched up, my eyes focused on her ear and I smiled and said, "She has your ears!" That was the point that I finally was able to concentrate on the new baby and forget about the pain. He wanted to run out and tell my parents right away that she was here, but a nurse offered to do that so he could stay with us. My parents and Matt began notifying our family and friends that she had arrived. It was so exciting to share our news!
The doctor and nurses kept saying in amazement, "That is a big baby!" The way they were saying it made me think she was going to be 10 pounds! For over an hour, I was able to just have her lay on me. She had quite a misshapen head. Apparently, the spot at the top of her head on the left side had been stuck in the birth canal for quite awhile. She had a ton of dark hair and the nurse told us she was going to have red hair. We were staring at her dark hair and didn't see any hint of red. We got to try breastfeeding right away and we were told that everything was great! She had gotten a good APGAR score, she said it was an 8 or 9 out of 10. That was it, we were parents. I was a mom.
They worked on getting her cleaned up, she got her first bath and her measurements taken, and then they swaddled her up for us to hold. She weighed 8 lbs 11.6 oz (which the computer rounded up to 12 ounces for her official weight) and measured 22 inches long. They asked what her name was and I asked Matt, "Angela, right?" (We had been discussing names for what had felt like forever throughout the pregnancy! We had narrowed it down to two names, but a few months before our due date, I had finally told Matt that I was sick of thinking about names and was not going to make that decision until she was born!) Matt said something along the lines of, "Whatever you want it to be!" at that point! I think he would have let me name her anything after all I had been through!
So, that was it, we were now parents to Angela Rose, born on April 11 at 10:40 a.m. at 8 pounds 12 ounces and 22 inches long. From the beginning, we could not believe how beautiful she was. She had great skin complexion and was simply beautiful. I just laid there and looked at this amazing baby and tried to process everything that had happened. We had many more visitors while we were at the hospital. Angela got to meet many people who would be very important in her life! I am so thankful for such a smooth delivery that was free of complications and for the excellent care of the nurses, doctors, and staff members at Evergreen Hospital.
Angela and her proud father
As you can see, she found her hands right away!
Our beautiful hospital pictures, taken when Angela was one day old.
The first couple of weeks after Angela's birth were crazy, to put it simply, and we are filled with gratitude for all of the love and support we received. I would love to list names, but would hate to leave anyone out. We were definitely surrounded by love in the form of family and friends visiting, sending flowers and gifts, cooking for us, bringing us food and groceries, calling, texting, and simply sharing their joy and excitement with us. There was no shortage of support and I am thankful for everyone and the role they played during this time! While it was an exhausting and painful time of adjustment and recovery, it was amazing. We were getting to know this little person who we get to call our daughter. What a blessing.
