Loved You Then, Love You Still, Always Have & Always Will : Our Birth Story

Our Birth Story

August 4, 2016- Due Date

Anyone who has talked to me about my pregnancy knows how much I wanted Presley to be born on August 4. To us, August 4 is a significant date. It is Coast Guard Day and it is the day (4 years ago) that John proposed to me. I felt like it was fate that Presley's due date was on that day.

So a few days before the due date I was bouncing on the exercise ball, drinking Raspberry Tea, walking like crazy. Anything you can think of that can induce pregnancy I did… but it wasn't working. So on my due date I was so nervous that it was going to happen. Just seems to unreal that today is the day.

After talking to my mom, she informed me that your water can leak out instead of fully breaking, which I did not know. So I thought I might be leaking (you can figure out why), so I called my doctor and she she sent me to the hospital to get checked. I was excited that this could be it, but also nervous that this could be it too.

My mom and I go to the hospital and I get checked. Unfortunately, after the test they say that my water was not leaking. However, they said that it could be, just not enough that the test could pull it up. While I was at the hospital, I did find out that my preferred doctor was on call that night and the next day. So that made me feel like Presley was going to come soon.

We go home, eat dinner and put everything that we need for the hospital by the door, just in case it happened soon. However, when I was at home I was starting to feel a lot of pain and pressure. I texted John that he better be ready in case she comes soon because it was a different feeling than before. So I go to bed and a little after laying down I felt like a kick/burst and thought it was Presley kicked really hard and then a bunch of water came out and I knew my water broke! So after cleaning up and calling John I go to my moms room and let her know that my water broke. And off we go to the hospital….

I get to the hospital and since I was already there earlier that day it doesn't take long for us to go up to Labor and Delivery. I get there and they test again to find out if it was my water that broke and it was. John arrived very shortly and we were both ready to meet our little angel! Not very long after I got admitted did they call the anesthesiologist and I got my epidural (thank god!). Now it was just the waiting game to see when our little angel wanted to make her debut.

My mom and John bringing up the stuff from the car

After getting the epidural, I'm just waiting for Presely to arrive. Really LOVED having the pillow with me, made such a big difference.

John arriving with my big pillow :)

Around 8am (August 5) they checked again and they saw that I was progressing enough, but not enough to start pushing. So they started to give me pitocin to speed it up a little bit. By 11am they said I was ready to start pushing and the labor begins.

Overall, it was a very good labor. However, towards the end it was getting very painful. Even with the epidural I could still feel the pain. After the whole experience I found out that they lowered the amount of the epidural and kicked up the amount of pitocin so I could push more. The feeling that I had was more of contractions every 20-30 seconds. Throughout the whole process, my nurse kept telling me how much hair Presley had. The experience was very painful, but I would do it again in a second to have my little angel with me.

Here are some pictures of Presley's arrival: