Snuggles and a Story

Seth has been the primary blogger on here the past few days. Now that I have somewhat adjusted to mommyhood or at least felt a lot better, I have to say being a mommy has been one of my favorite jobs in life so far (next to being Seth's wife). Caring for little Audrey has stretched me to the limit, but it has been an incredible opportunity to trust in the Lord in moments when I have no idea what to do or how to care for her best. She has been an added measure of joy to mine and Seth's lives. I honestly can't remember what life would be like without her.

Our little meeper is a sleeper. Since birth, we have had to wake her up to feed her at night. If we let her she could sleep 6+ hours. On the downside of that, we can't let her do that in these first few weeks until she gets back up to her birth weight. How's that for a goal? And hopefully by then maybe she will easily transition back to her sleep ways. I am probably an optimistic first time mommy.

This past week has been provided lots of opportunities for reflection and its hard to believe we have already had a week with her. It feels like just yesterday I held her for the first time. In considering her birth, it was probably one of the most amazing experiences.

Seth and I optimistically planned for a natural birth and by the amazing grace of God everything happened according to our birth plan. We walked away from the experience feeling so so blessed and very grateful for God's grace to get through it all. Looking back I honestly can't say "this is when I went into labor" but it seemed liked something that happened progressively over the span of a few days with the real deal kicking in on Thursday morning. I woke up after a night of mostly disrupted sleep and called the midwives and they confirmed that I was actually in labor. It felt like a pretty normal day. Seth headed off to work and Becca came over to hang out with me just in case anything happened while he was gone. I labored through contractions that were coming about 5 minutes apart all morning and then when Seth got home around 1pm my labor stalled out and I wondered if she was going to come at all. I called the midwives back around 4pm when it seemed like nothing was progressing and she encouraged me to take advantage of the break and take a nap. About 30 minutes later the stall was over and contractions were coming one on top of the other about 1-2 minutes apart. I decided to get some relief and take a bath and Seth got our stuff together in case it was time to go to the hospital. Around 5pm, me not being in the mood to talk, Seth called the midwives and she said she would meet us at the hospital in 30 minutes. Contractions continued, we arrived, and after filling out some papers were able to get a bed in triage in L&D (which was God's mercy with there being 15 deliveries that night) and found out I was 5cm, 90% effaced and 0 station. After waiting about an hour or so, we finally got a room. 3 hours later I had only progressed to 6 cm and I was really discouraged after many hard contractions, and as we were talking options about breaking my water, all of sudden my water broke on its own. From that point on, I pretty much begged for the epidural, but it was definetly too late and I was so so close. I progressed from 6cm to 8-9cm and really wanted to push so the midwife let me and I went right to 10. 45 minutes after my water broke, including 10 minutes of pushing, our sweet baby girl made her entrance into the world. It was so surreal and now thinking in a rational state of mind, it was totally worth it. Some people called me crazy for going natural, and when I was in the midst of transition I thought I was too. It was the hardest work I have ever done, but God helped Seth and I make it through.

Seth was amazing. I had back labor pretty much the whole time and had I not been fighting that, it honestly wouldn't have been that bad. With each contraction he put counter pressure on my back and without his help I wouldn't have been able to do it. He encouraged me and reminded me of truth. He gave me ice chips and kisses. I love him so much more for it. We did it together (and I had some pretty amazing friends help out too). And, I would totally do it all over again to hold her for the first time.