Teddys birth story

     Now that my adorable, chubby little 4 month old is down for a nap I figured I should probably write down her birth story before my memory dissipates.

   Ryan and I were super excited to find out we were pregnant at the end of May last year. Most people were surprised at our just after the honeymoon pregnancy, but we wanted to start a family right away and think that God timed our baby perfectly!

4 months along!

  First trimester was pretty rough, morning sickness hit me hard. I felt fat almost instantly, even though I didn't start really showing until after around 5 months. Second trimester was pretty smooth sailing except for nagging growing pains. I had a job that kept me pretty active and hoped that would help me not to gain extra pregnancy pounds. I kept working until the beginning on November, when my legs decided they did not want to stand for long periods of time anymore! I ended up gaining somewhere between 55 and 60 pounds by the end, apparently my exercise a lot so you can eat a lot plan was flawed.

   It seems that my family cooks babies a little faster than the norm. Both my Mom (birthed 10 kids) and my sister (birthed 2 kids) have given birth at around 38 weeks. Everyone told me I was crazy, but I held out hope that I would have Tetley a little early, or at least not go over 40 weeks. My neighbor told me 'Girls take longer for your uterus to cook, its just science! It takes at least 2 extra weeks for your uterus to make the babies tiny uterus and eggs!'.
   After receiving a lot of 'interesting' advice throughout this pregnancy Ryan and I decided to take it with a grain of salt ;)

    I help out at a youth group every Thursday and attended on the 7th of January as normal. That night before bed I felt what i thought might have been some braxton hicks, light tightening of my upper abdomen with no pain. At that point I was 37 weeks and 2 days. Ryan and I had been procrastinating and were waiting for 38 weeks to set up the crib and rearrange our room. I had packed the hospital bag with games and planned on bringing a laptop full of videos. I was preparing for the long haul, as I had been told to expect a 20-40 hour labor.

This is a hospital visit in early pregnancy- I did not look nearly this composed while in labor!

    At 5:30 AM the next morning, January 8th, I had to pee really bad. This was not unusual, at that point I was getting up to pee every few hours at night. While in the bathroom I had my first contraction. I went back to bed and decided not to wake up Ryan, but instead to wait until his alarm went off for work.  The contractions started at 20 minutes apart and quickly progressed to 10 minutes apart by 7:15 when the alarm went off.

    We were expecting things to go slowly so Ryan went to work at 8:30, telling me to call him if I got to 5 minutes apart. Shortly after he left my contractions started to ramp up. I had only back labor, and it was at this point that it felt like my spine was being crushed. I had a contraction that was 20 minutes long, and I started puking and um.. emptying my body from every orifice (TMI I know). I believe this was when my water broke, but I didn't realize because I was on the toilet. After that the contractions were 5 minutes apart and STRONG. I called the hospital to double check that I should come in. The nurse seemed to think I was exaggerating and told me I could come in if I could't handle the pain, but really didn't need to at that point.

    I decided that no, I could not handle the pain and called Ryan to take me to the hospital. We got there at around 10 AM and I found out I was 7 cm dilated. I was in a pretty dark mood at that point, I could not lay on my back, or sit still because of the pain. The nurses kept trying to get an IV in my arm but the contractions never stopped, just lessened for a short time, so I kept tensing up and making it hard for them. Ryan rubbed my lower back, which helped sometimes and made it worse other times- which was very hard to convey to him when I was in that much pain.

    My doctor arrived when I reached 9cms, and I really, really wanted to push. It may have only been 20 minutes or so, but oh my it seemed like forever until I reached 10cms! Once I finally was allowed to push I felt much better, in between pushes the contractions finally went away completely and I was able relax a little for small amounts of time. On one push Tetleys heart beat slowed quite a bit so I was given oxygen and it was right back up. Another doctor was called and he wanted to use forceps because of the dip in her vitals. I told my doctor I did not want forceps, I did not think it was necessary because her vital were now stable. The other doctor went off to get the forceps ready and my doctor said 'well I guess you will have to push her out before the forceps are ready then!'

      With that motivation I pushed her out on the next contraction! I had been pushing for a total of 20 minutes. She was immediately placed on my chest. It was a surreal moment in a way that I did not expect.  I was laying at a peculiar angle so i couldn't really see her on my chest, and she was so tiny I didn't even feel her weight. I did not need any stitches, but did need to be watched closely because I was bleeding more than they wanted me to. The lady in the room next to me had her baby right after me so all the of the staff left to attend to her, leaving me without a blanket. I have never been so cold in my life, I think I went into shock for a little while. Luckily a nurse came later and attended to me.

    Teddy was a little bean born at 5lbs 13oz, at 12:45 PM. Despite her size she was breathing well and healthy! It went so fast neither Ryan or I had thought to phone family until after she was born! Many excited and tearful phone calls followed. We stayed at the hospital one night and got very little sleep. At one point in the night Ryan crawled into the little hospital bed with me, we put Tetley between us and had the one and only hour of restful sleep that night.

   The next day was full lactation consultations and people pushing on my belly. Teddy was ready to go home 24 hours after her birth, which was a huge relief. She had lost less than 3% of her birth weight and almost getting the hang of breast feeding.

  Before Teddy was born I had thought that breast feeding would be a very natural thing that would just come to me easily. It ended up to be the hardest adjustment to Mom life for me. Suddenly it seemed as though I spent all day sitting on the couch nursing and all night sitting in bed nursing. I had this crushing feeling that my life was to forever be all encompassed by my boobs :P

    Thankfully nursing has become habitual now and doesn't control my life like I was worried it would. After getting home we have settled well into our new role as parents and can not thank God enough for our beautiful daughter! Teddy is a happy, rolly polly 4 month old now and I often just sit and stare at her awestruck at how amazing she is!

3 month old Teddy with her handsome Daddy <3

That smile!!

-Mellissa