Birth Story

My sweet baby boy made his way into this world 3.5 months ago.

My mind has been blown by the amount of love that I have for this little guy. He is growing up way too fast and I do not want to forget the little details that make being his mom so wonderful. With that being said.. it is time to officially come back to the blogging world and to write everything down. 

The first place I would like to start is with the birth story.

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My contractions started at 4:00 am on May 1, 2014 ((exactly one week after my due date!)). I timed them for about 30 minutes before waking up Ben because I wanted to be sure that they were actual contractions. I then woke him up and told him that this could be it! The contractions kept coming for several hours. We decided to take walks around the neighborhood to try and speed things up. It was an unusually hot day in San Diego ((in the 90's!)) so between the heat and the contractions we had to stop often. I'm sure we were quite the site to our neighbors who most certainly knew what we were doing! ;)

The contractions consistently kept coming within 10 minutes of each other and were about 30 seconds long. After 5 hours of contractions we decided that what I was experiencing was definitely true labor pains and we let the rest of the family know what was happening. At this point my mom came over to our house and my MIL started to make her way to California! 

At around 2:30 pm my contractions were coming every 2-5 minutes but were only lasting for about 30 seconds. I had been told to come into the hospital when my contractions were coming every 5 minutes and lasting a minute in length, so I was unsure on whether or not I should head to the hospital.  Thankfully my mom convinced me that it was time for us to head in.

The car ride was so surreal. Ben and I kept looking at each other and saying, "We are having a baby!"

When we got to the hospital my contractions were 5:1 and they confirmed that I was indeed in labor and was 4 cm. They then officially checked me in and sent us up to a room. Of course once we got into the room I decided that I was starving. Thankfully there was an unlimited supply of popsicles.  After about an hour the pain was getting pretty intense and it felt best when I was walking around. I could handle it at this moment but knew they were just going to continue to get stronger so I decided it was time for an epidural. ((I knew before I went in that I wanted an epidural but was nervous about timing.))

I was given the epidural very quickly (( in between a contraction.. I was amazed!)) and once it kicked in it made things a lot easier to handle. I was able to relax for a bit and take in all that was about to happen.  

They checked me an hour later and I was 9 cm. It was time for them to break my water and get things started. When they broke my water they noticed that there was meconium so we had NICU personnel in our room just in case. It made me feel better that they were in there but in the back of my mind I started to panic a little. Ben was amazing during the entire process. He remained calm, held my hand and kept count. ((It wasnt until weeks alter that he talked about how nervous he was about the meconium)) While I was in labor he just kept encouraging me and telling me that everything was going to be okay!

After two hours of pushing and still no signs of my little man coming out the Doctor told me that I either needed to use the vacuum or we were going to have to have a c-section.  

We decided that the vacuum was the best option for us and one push later.. our baby boy came into the world! ((at 10:13 pm))

He weighed 7.09 lb and was 19.5 inches long.

I will never forget the moment that they put him on my chest. It was so surreal. I just couldn't believe that he was finally here and that he was ours.

 xo

anna lizbeth