Saturday was just like every day before, in fact, I had not one contraction all day. I was sure we were still a few days from delivery. (Although, I did joke that if it happened that night it would be funny because Nathan came home worn out and physically exhausted that evening from an all day Junior High/High School Slip and Slide Party and Judah and I wore ourselves out at a kids birthday party earlier in the day as well as having Nathan's parents over that evening.)
That night, Nathan and I went to bed around 11pm. At 11:30pm, I wasn't quite asleep yet, and I had my first strong contraction. 15 minutes later I had another one. It continued on like that for the next couple of hours. I was having strong/painful contractions about every 10-15 minutes. Around 2pm, I finally gave up trying to sleep and thought, "Well if this is it, I may as well get up and walk around and see if we can get this moving!" I started to get the final things around I needed for the hospital. I got some things done downstairs, all the while breaking to deal with each contraction.
Around 3:30pm, I knew this was happening, and I better have Nathan's mom come over. I called her and told her I wasn't sure when we'd be leaving for the hospital, but if she could come and sleep in the guest room, it'd be a good idea. She showed up about a half hour later. At this time, I was having very painful contractions about every 3-5 minutes. By 5am, we were on our way to the hospital. When I got there, I was 5cm dilated and was having horrible back labor, just like I did with Judah. And, just like Judah, Audrey was coming out the wrong way...facing up. (Honestly, I can deal with the contractions fine, it was the feeling that the back of my hips were being ripped apart and my tailbone was breaking that I can't handle!) Because of this, by 6:30am, I gave in and got an epidural. It was a blessing to finally have some relief after 7 hours of labor. Nathan is an awesome coach and was there with me the whole way through, so once I got an epidural it was nice for us both to get some rest!
The Lord blessed us mightily when we learned that the same nurse who had helped me deliver Judah was on that day and I got to have her as my nurse again. She is a believer and an amazing labor nurse. The doctor broke my water a couple of hours later because the epidural had made my contractions space out. My nurse, Ashley, worked to keep positioning me and moving me to try and get Audrey to turn and come out the right way. Sure enough, by the time it was time to push, Audrey had turned! Praise Jesus! At 1pm, Ashley checked me and I was 10 cm. She had me do a trial push, and immediately told me to stop because she wanted to get the doctor. A few minutes later she had the doctor in there and I was set up for delivery. I literally ended up pushing for two sets of pushes...a total of 3 minutes of pushing! Definitely different from the 40 minutes of pushing I did with Judah! So, 13 1/2 hours after I had my first contraction, Audrey was born.
Audrey really wanted to be like her brother though, and they had some funny similarities. I delivered Judah on a Saturday and Audrey on Sunday. Judah was born at 1:09pm and Audrey at 1:08pm. She was 19 1/2 inches long and Judah was 20 1/2 inches long. Judah weighed 7# 2oz and Audrey weighed 7# 1oz. (Here's the thing though...we actually think she weighed more than this and the scale was not calibrated correctly. The reason we know this, is that when they weighed Audrey at midnight, she had gained 2 oz. This is literally impossible! Babies always lose weight the first day or two, no matter how well they eat! So, our best guess is she may have weighed around 7# 3 or 4 oz. Guess we'll never know!)
Here are some pictures from that precious day...
Seconds old
The errant scale :-(
The scrub tech made this bow on the hat by cutting up another hat. She said the hats needed to be "prettied" up for a girl!
Proud Daddy!
Proud Grammy who was there with us in the hospital as I labored - what a help she was!
Grandpa waited in the waiting room and was the "contact" guy - he kept friends and family updated as to my progress.
Nathan's brother and sister-in-law and my brother came shortly after she was born to meet their new neice.
First Bath
Our good friends the Murphy's came by that evening to meet her
Nana and Papa, who stayed with Judah while we were in the hospital, came to meet her that evening and brought Judah to meet his new sister (pictures further down)
Judah meeting his baby sister for the first time
Judah was excited to open the present he got from baby Audrey (or Audee as he calls her!)
It was a new fire truck, which is his favorite thing right now! He was pretty excited and went over to Audrey and thanked her for his gift.
Getting to hold his baby sister for the first time
Oh yeah...this is my favorite picture!
Our new family of 4!
My children...how fun to be able to say the plural of that word!
Getting dressed to go home
Not a big fan of the carseat at first!
Leaving to head home
Finally home with our new addition!
2 comments:
Congratulations she is so beautiful and cute!
Oh My!!! You have a wonderful family...the four of you, plus. It's been a week since Audrey was born...she's beautiful!! Congratulations to both oh you!!! Oh my, how precious!!!
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