Birth Story

We are sitting in the hospital right now waiting to be discharged and so I thought I would take some time to tell the story of how baby Asher was born. Sunday morning I woke up around 6 am with contractions around 15 to 20 minutes apart, but I was not alarmed because I had been having contractions just about every night for a week. It was my last day being on call for the month and I had a few calls to take care of in the morning and continued to notice contractions but was not hopeful that it was the real thing. At 1:00 we were off to church, during sacrament meeting my contractions were coming about every 6-8 minutes and I told Andrew we should probably leave after sacrament and not stay for the other meetings. I then remembered that Parker had the scripture and prayer in Primary and knew he would be sad if he missed it so we decided to stay for that. After sacrament my contractions slowed down again so we decided to stay for the rest of the meetings. I was really feeling quite strong contractions during the last hour of church and about 10 minutes before church was out I was really ready to leave. We rushed to get the kids after class and tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. I sure do hope that I didn't offend anyone during church who tried talking to me, I really wasn't myself during those three hours!
We ran home and finished packing our hospital bag and called the doctor, then we said goodbye to the boys. Luckily Andrew's mom had flown in that Wednesday before and was there to stay with them while we were gone. My contractions were so strong and frequent during the ride to the hospital I thought we would be having this baby sooner rather than later. Little did I know what a "strong" contraction felt like....but I would soon find out. When I checked into the hospital around 5:30pm I was dilated to a 5. Oh, how I thought it would be more. My friend and doula, Bridget arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes after us and was very helpful all throughout my labor, both Andrew and I were very glad to have her there. Thanks Bridget!! The doctor came in around 8:00pm and at that point my contractions were very strong but still manageable, he checked me and I was very disappointed to hear that I was only a 6. All that time and pain and I had only dilated 1 cm! The doctor then broke my water and my contractions got to where I felt I could no longer calmly manage them and I was feeling discouraged that the baby would not come for hours yet. At that point I told Andrew that I wanted an epidural and that I didn't want him to argue with me about it.....at all. He told me that they were going to get me an epidural and I think that the thought that I would not be in pain much longer helped me to calm down. Shortly after that I started feeling a lot of pressure and the urge to push. When I felt the pressure I knew the baby was coming soon and that I could deliver this baby without an epidural. They checked me and I was at a 9 and fully effaced. They had the doctor come in and they were getting ready for the baby to come. Shortly after they came in I told them I needed to push and that I was pushing. The doctor asked my not to push because he was still gowning up. I guess I didn't care because I was pushing anyway! The baby's head came out with one push just as the doctor was slipping on his gloves and then one more push and he was born at 8:51pm! I have to say there is nothing like holding your newborn baby in your arms. They are so precious.

So although I was asking for an epidural I still delivered the baby all natural as planned!! Shortly after delivery I was asked if I would do it naturally again and I was doubtful, but the longer it has been since the delivery the more I think I would probably do it again. My recovery seems to be so much better than with any of my other births which I don't know if I can credit to a natural birth but it has still been nice. :)
We are so happy to welcome baby Asher into our family!