We're Team PINK! (Birth Story edited)

GeekFantasy · June 2012

Aubrey Lynn arrived a week late, but gorgeous at 7 lbs., 11.1 oz and 20 in. long at 6:01am on June 17th, Father's Day. She is amazing and we are so in love! She was without a doubt worth the wait!

I had gone in on Friday night with contractions 3-4 minutes apart, lasting over a minute, for over 6 hours. They weren't that strong, so I wasn't very hopeful. Sure enough, when I got there, I was still only dilated to 1 and 70% effaced. I was disappointed, but not surprised. We were given some benedryl and sent home, though the nurse was sure we'd be back the next night.

Sure enough, after contracting irregularly all day on Saturday, after dinner they really started in. I knew from U/S that baby was posterior, so I wasn't surprised when suddenly all the pain was in my back. It was manageable at first, but as my husband ran to the store to get tennis balls for my back and blowing up the exercise ball, the pain became pretty excruciating. I could breathe through it, but had to be on my hands and knees. Definitely knew the difference now! We headed to the hospital when they were about 6-7 minutes apart, but they had been going on for about 5 hours and I was in a lot of pain. When we got there I was dilated to 3cm and 90% effaced, so since I was overdue and was making change they decided to keep me. Which was a good thing; by the time I was admitted and in my bed, I was already 5-6! I was trying to go med free but I just couldn't take it. I was breathing through the contractions but having a hard time relaxing between them because I was tensing in my back. I wasn't inherently against an epi, but I just didn't want it to stall my labor. So I was given some Nubain to take the edge off. It did the trick, and for the next hour and a half I was able to function. By the time it had worn off, I was dilated to 7 and I asked for an epi. I had ended up getting sick, and that was my personal cue that I needed the meds. I was so glad I did; the rest of my labor was almost bliss.

After the epi, I felt great. I was able to relax, and dilated a bit further and they decided to break my water. I was fine with it since I was moving so smoothly; it was about 3:30am and I had gotten there at 10:30. I thought that was pretty good! They broke my water and then everything just flew. She went from -1 station to +1, and I went from 8cm to complete in about a half hour. By the time they checked me, we were ready to go! At 4:30 I started pushing, and was doing so well that they actually had me stop; the doc was in another delivery! Since I had the epi it wasn't too hard to stop, I wasn't feeling overwhelming pressure but it made my mom and my nurse pretty mad!

Finally, at about 5:30 they let me start pushing again. I hadn't wanted the mirror; had no real desire to see what was going on, but I found it actually helped a lot since I had a hard time feeling the contractions and seeing how my pushing was doing. Much to everyone's surprise, LO had a mop of dark brown hair! (DH was blonde at birth and I'm a redhead). I pushed for another half hour, and at 6:01am on Father's Day, Aubrey Lynn arrived! We were team green, so my husband got to announce that it was a girl! I was convinced it was a boy; she showed me alright! There was light meconium when they broke my water, so the team from my NICU unit came down to check her out, so it was really neat in that sense. One of my best friends got to be at my delivery! She was beautiful and perfect right from the start. Everyone kept commenting on how gorgeous her skin was and how nice and round her head was.

She's been a joy since then, though a bit spoiled in that she doesn't like to be st down Thankfully, we haven't wanted to put her down! I couldn't believe how well my delivery went, and we feel so blessed that it went so smoothly, and that we have the most beautiful baby girl to show for it!

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