Kristen Ashleigh's Birth
This is the birth of my 3rd child. She was the easiest so far. My second
was only four hours and I was scared because of the horror stories I had
heard about military hospitals. He was the hardest because I didn't think
it would go so quickly. So I was scared now of this birth too.
The pregnancy went very well. I gained 30 lbs but didn't get very big in
the stomach. She was due on August 8 but got here on the 4th. My
parents came a week before so my dad could watch my 2 boys when I went
into labor.
Friday the morning of the fourth I woke up with Jim (my
hubby) and watched as he got ready for work. I had been having some
contractions as soon as I woke up and told Jim about them. Right before
he was to go to work he called in and said I was contracting so he was
going to stick around a few hours to see if anything was going to happen.
I had been having BH all week but nothing real but this morning they just
felt different so I knew something was happening. They were coming about
15 minutes apart but not hurting. I hadn't had the "nesting" feelings until
now. What a time to get into a cleaning mood huh! But I did so I started
to clean up the house although there was not much to clean cause my mother
was there!
The contractions started to get about 10 minutes apart by
about 12 and getting a little harder but not much. But by 3 they were
getting harder so I called the hospital to see what they thought and said I
should come in to get checked. I took a quick shower and at about 4 PM
we left for the hospital (only about 1 mile away). My mom came with us
mostly to take pictures but as support too. They put the monitors on me
when we got there and checked for dilation. I was at 3cm (on Monday I
was at 2 1/2cm and he had stripped my membranes). Well my doctor got
there about 30 minutes later and checked and I was only at 3 1/2 but he
wanted me to stay anyway.
They got a room ready for me and I was going
to put my things up and take a walk when a contraction hit that hurt very
bad so I decided to get my IV and just wait before I took a walk. I went
through a few more contractions and decided to get the shot of stadol.
Around 6 PM I was at 6 cm and wanted my water broke to speed things up.
I had never had my water break on its own. When I told the nurse before
she could get out the door I felt like the baby had kicked down low and
then this gush of water. I was so excited that it broke on its own I shouted
to her and she came to make sure it was clear and went to get the doctor.
When he got back in there I was at 8cm so he stayed in the room leaning
against the window talking to us. (By the way he was the best doctor I
have ever had.)
At about 7pm I had the urge to push so he checked and I
still had a little rim left so he told me I would have to wait a couple more.
The next one came and it felt like baby was going to fall out! I screamed
it's coming and he ran over and she was crowning. It scared me because I
had never actually felt the baby move down like that before. It also
scared Jim pretty bad to because he jumped down there to see what was
going on. Well doctor told me I could push so I got about 5 seconds
worth of pushing and remembered how much it burned and felt like I was
going to rip in half with my last baby, and I told him I wasn't going to
push any more. This took him by surprise and he looked at me and said why
not you almost have it out just one push. (Jim got kinda mad at me and
said "you better.") So I pushed and out came the head. I was great...it
didn't burn much at all this time. We had had an ultrasound and they said
they were pretty sure it was a girl but I was thinking it would be another
boy. My doctor knew how much we wanted a girl and we had told him that
I wanted Jim to tell me boy or girl. So before the body came out the
doctor told every one not to say anything about it till Jim had told me.
When baby was born they placed her on my stomach (I didn't get to with
my first 2 because I didn't know you had to ASK to before they would do
it). I looked at Jim to see what it was and he couldn't say anything and
just shook his head yes. I knew it was a girl from the tears in his eyes
(this is a man that I have never seen cry). Me and my mother started to
cry and I think my doctor was just as excited for us as anyone! I didn't
tear and I have to say it was the easiest birth I could ever ask for. She
was 7 lbs even and was 20 inches long.
She has beautiful blue eyes and
brown hair. She is the sweetest thing ever and is now spoiled rotten!