Finley is now 3 months old and like I did with my other two kids I like to share their birth stories, especially while it is fresh on my mind. I feel like you either love to read birth stories or you don't. So if it isn't your thing that is okay. But if you love to read and share the experience of child birth, I hope you enjoy!
{The last picture of my pregnant belly, the day before I gave birth.}
I woke up early on a rainy Sunday morning, 5 am to be exact, to use the bathroom. I stood up and heard a weird sound in my belly followed by a gush of water. My water had broken. If you have never have had your water break I am here to tell you it is probably the weirdest and most uncomfortable feeling ever. I yelled for Tyson to wake up and ran to the bathroom, he shot out of bed as nervous as I was because I was only 36 weeks along. He kept asking "are you sure it broke??" Which only made me mad because YES IT DEFINITELY BROKE I AM GUSHING WATER EVERYWHERE. So as he called for a babysitter I wrapped up in a towel and went into our boys rooms and sat there and sobbed while they slept. I don't know why, but I did. I was scared for her health, nervous that the boys had no idea what was going on and terrified for labor and delivery. We loaded up and headed to the hospital. We entered Labor and Delivery and even though I apologized to everyone we passed by about my gushing water situation, Tyson still kept asking me if I was sure my water broke. I got changed into my gown, IV's were started {even though it took 5 tries to get a vein. FIVE.} and I was given a steroid shot to help Finley's lungs develop since she wasn't full term. At this time I was also told that since my water had broken that I would have to use a bed pan to use the restroom for the remainder of my labor. Hours of labor plus being pumped full of fluids made for a very long labor and I'll just say that it was probably the most embarrassing thing that I've ever had to do in my entire life and leave it at that. I was put on Pitocin at 7 AM after two hours of slow labor. This wasn't my first rodeo and I knew how my body is. I knew once I hit 5 cm dilated, I would progress super fast like always. So I tried to time my epidural just right so I would be very comfortable pushing. At 4cm Dilated I called for the anesthesiologist. While waiting for the anesthesiologist I FaceTimed Ryder and Gage since I knew they were probably awake by this time. I was so full of emotion and cried so hard when I saw their little faces. Gage was happy to see me and said he was excited to meet his baby sister but when it was Ryder's turn to talk to me he just cried and cried, which in turn made me bawl like a baby. He said he didn't know why he was crying but I think he was scared to see me in the hospital and I think he could tell I was in pain. It broke my heart but I knew he was in good hands. Shortly after that the anesthesiologist came into the room with a student who I assumed would just be watching. It wasn't until I was mid epidural and my right leg got a shooting pain that I realized the STUDENT was doing the epidural and the anesthesiologist was instructing her how to fix what she had done. You guys, I freaked. I had a full blown panic attack. My heart rate sky rocketed, my blood pressure dropped and I was trying my best to breath and sit still while a
student had a huge needle in my spine. The Nurse and the anesthesiologist tried to calm me down so I wouldn't pass out and after a few minutes the pain subsided in my leg and the student was done. When she started to finish I could feel the right side of my body go numb but not the left side, so they rolled me on my left side and told me to give it a few minutes. After a few minutes not only did my left side not get numb but my right side was no longer numb either. I felt every contraction. They came fast and I could feel my hips being spread apart, I knew I was in active labor and would deliver very quickly. I told the nurse to page the anesthesiologist and I was told he just went into a surgery and would come as soon as he could. Even though I was in so much pain I was actually very calm. I cried quietly with every contraction which actually seemed to help and Tyson calmly stood next me and held my hand, but you could tell by the look on his face that he was very nervous. Finally the anesthesiologist came in the room and said they could either try to adjust the epidural or re do it. I knew I didn't have much time left and agreed to try to adjust it. They sat me up which was so so SO painful since I was in active labor and I continued to quietly sob during the whole thing. They adjusted the epidural, laid me down and said to wait a few minutes. But nothing happened and I felt a lot of pressure so I told the nurse to check me. I was in so much pain, but surprisingly calm. All I can say is I am woman, here me roar. I went from being dilated to 5cm to 10cm in 15 minutes. She paged the doctor and I looked at Tyson and said "This is what I was afraid would happen, no epidural for the pushing part." The doctor came in the room and asked if I was comfortable and with tears in my eyes I said "No, but I'm ready." The adrenaline kicked in and I was now more nervous for Finley's safe arrival over my own pain. Before I started pushing the Anesthesiologist ran into the room and asked if I wanted a big dose of medicine into my epidural to try to help ease the pain during pushing and I agreed. I felt my body go a little numb which gave me a lot more energy to push. Tyson was very nervous and he sat down on the couch next to me, looking a little pale a nurse sat next to him ready to help in any way she could. I pushed once and her head was out, I pushed once more to get her shoulders out and at 4:16 pm on Sunday August 7th, Finley June was born at 36 weeks gestation after 10 hours of labor. She only weighed 6lbs 3.8oz {we rounded it up to 4 oz} and 19 1/2 inches long. And that very sweet nurse sitting next to my very nervous husband's side made sure he watched every second of her birth. After cleaning her off, checking and double checking her stats, she was laid on my chest. We did 2 hours of skin to skin and breastfeeding and other than having low blood sugar and not passing her hearing test {which she later passed} Finley was completely healthy despite being 4 weeks early.
In just a few short minutes our little family was changed forever. My heart grew a million sizes and my husband's got softened by his first and only daughter all while her brother's were so proud.
"All of the sudden, oh it seemed so strange to me, how we went from something's missing.. to a family"
