Born March 31, 2014 at 5:48 am. 7 lbs 6 oz, 20 inches with dark brown, fuzzy hair. She's perfect.
Shannon from Sweetly Photography did a hospital shoot for us to document Amelia's birth. I was a little nervous, but by the time I was pushing, I didn't care who was in that room. Anyone could have walked in off the street and seen me naked and I wouldn't have cared. But poor Shannon. My labor was rough, and I may have scarred her for life... oopsie. But I am so grateful we have these photos. They are amazing. So priceless to me. Here's all of them in a little slideshow video.
Here is Amelia's birth story with all the gruesome details from my journal. So stop reading if you can't handle gross words.
Sunday, March 30th: Lost my mucous plug around 5:30 am. I had mild, period-like cramps after that continued throughout the day. By 7:30 am, I felt like our baby girl might actually be coming today... Monday at the latest. Oh how that thought brought me so much joy. Joy to have my baby in my arms, and joy to get her outta me! We went to Sacrament meeting in our ward and then headed to Hurricane so Austin could give his mom a blessing after breaking a family fast (she had been having some health scares). My cramps became more and more consistent, and I started timing them on our way to Hurricane. They were about 5-6 minutes a part, but still pretty mild. They just felt like really bad period cramps. We got to the Beechers by 3 pm, and by 4:30, they felt super legit and painful to me. At this point I started to wonder when we should head to the hospital. I hated this part... the wondering when to go in. I wanted to hold out as long as possible, but I was also a little nervous being in Hurricane. We stopped by my parents' house for a quick visit before heading back to St. George. We stopped at the temple to walk around a little bit to see if we could get things progressing. Super fun walk... not.
After going home, I tried sitting on the exercise ball for a little bit, but my contractions were starting to really get to me. They were so bad that I would start crying during them and then be fine when they stopped. Austin made the call to head to Labor and Delivery (I was being too emotional about being scared that they'd send me home to make a decision). We got there at 8:30 pm. They checked me out, and I was only dilated to a one! A ONE! I almost lost it. They kept monitoring me and checked me again at 9:30. The nurse couldn't seem to find my cervix during that second exam. She was "examining" for quite a while (which I think actually helped spur labor). She said I was only about a one-plus at this point. I asked her how long I could be in this state. She said we might be back tonight or in a week. That statement put me over the edge. As soon as she left the room so I could get dressed, I lost it. I just couldn't fathom going home and not having this baby. I also had already texted my maternity sub and didn't know what to do about school the next day. I obviously couldn't be teaching like this, but didn't want to use a precious maternity leave day. Ugh.
As soon as we walked out of the hospital doors to go back home, my contractions were coming on a lot harder and faster. I could barely walk to the car. I also felt really sick so I had Austin stop at the gas station to get me some Gatorade. By the time we got home, I was in a lot of pain-- I could hardly handle it. Plus I felt so discouraged about school and how to tell when I was progressed enough to go back to the hospital. I couldn't stop bawling as I started bouncing on the exercise ball again. This lasted about 20 minutes until Austin made me put my clothes back on and we went back to the hospital. I was way glad he did. We were back and hooked up to monitors by 10:30 pm and found out I had dilated to a 3. Yay! Lot's of progress within an hour. I was admitted and started getting prepped for an epidural. By this time, Lols had shown up. I was glad to have my mom there to hold my hands during contractions as they did the epidural since Austin had to leave the room while they did it... haha, that boy and needles. It took quite a while for it to kick in, and even then, it only numbed my left side. Ah man, my contractions HURT at this point, and apparently I'm crazy woman in labor. I feel like I turned into another person. Crying loud, horrible tears, yelling, etc. Ugh. The anesthesiologist had to come back and try and wiggle the epidural to try and get it to numb my right side. He had to add a bunch of other meds so it would work (not surprising since I usually always need double the dosage for any kind of meds to work for me).
Monday, March 31: Once the epidural finally kicked in, it was pure HEAVEN. I could hardly feel anything, which was a miracle for my SPD (hips, pelvis, and back). After laying in that bed with my hips wide for so long, my pelvis felt like it was on fire in addition to my contractions. I tried to get some sleep, and Lols was fading fast, so she left for home to get some sleep. By 1:15, my doctor came in and broke my water (dilated about a five at this point).
By about 3 am, my epidural was starting to wear off. I regained all the feeling in my legs, and after pretty much spending the night in the worst position possible for my hips, I was in excruciating pain. I was that lady begging for the anesthesiologist to come back. They tried to dose me up some more (yes, I had been pushing the epidural button to stay ahead of the pain, but it just wasn't working), but my epidural never did kick in. By 3:30 I was dilated to a ten. We waited for the doc, and called Shannon to come. I was a bawling, screaming mess. I also started barfing like crazy too. That's when Shannon got here. I can only imagine what I looked like to a sane person. I started pushing by around 4:30-5 am. This is when all hell truly broke loose. I was in more pain than I've ever experienced. All I can say is, my hips, my hips, my hips. Labor was truly the hardest thing I've ever done. I remember yelling "I can't do this" quite a few times. Austin was so great through all of this. He held one of my legs while I pushed and kept telling me I could do it and that I was doing so great. I was so proud of him for watching the baby's head progressing too! He made it clear until the doctor did the episiotomy. Then he had to give up a leg and sit down by my side to hold my hand. He felt pretty sick at this point. Amelia was posterior, so the doc tried to turn her around by grabbing the top of her head. Oh man. That did not feel good. I guess that would have been before the episiotomy since he couldn't ever get her to turn... hence the episiotomy. My pelvis just wasn't giving her any room to roll over. Also, one of the nurses was driving me crazy. She kept saying, "yeah, she can't feel her legs.." I finally said, "Um, yeah, I can definitely feel that. And I can move them too." After wiggling them around, that shut her up. They had to numb me up locally for the episotomy.
Once baby girl's head had made it past the pubic bone, it went a lot quicker. Even though I had the episiotomy, I still tore really badly. It was crazy to me how fast she came out though on that last push. And all my hip/pelvic pain disappeared (for the most part). Heaven. Being not pregnant never felt so good.
I couldn't believe it when I saw that baby come out of me. Such an unreal feeling. My baby! Both Austin and I got emotional seeing her and hearing her cry. They put her on a towel on my chest. But only for a minute because they had to stitch me up and clean her off. They seriously took more than 30 minutes to stitch me up. Longest 30 minutes of my life. Austin got to hold her, and my heart just couldn't even handle it. I was so glad Shannon was there to capture all those moments. I finally got my turn and held my baby girl skin-to-skin. I can't even describe the emotions that overcame me for the tiny girl in my arms. She is absolutely perfect. It made all that torturous pain I went through (and truly thought would never end) totally worth it. And I would do it again to have her in my arms. My baby girl.
I tried breast feeding for the first time pretty soon after delivery. She did so great and took right to it. Yay. We stayed in the hospital Monday night and went home Tuesday late afternoon. I was so ready to go home. Although I did miss the room service food! Love this little family of mine.
