Here is Miss Eveleigh's birth story: On Friday March 13th, I knew it was coming soon. She wasn't due until the 28th, but I just had a feeling. I started having mild contractions that afternoon at work but they died down by midnight. My breasts were tender and I was leaking. Which I loved since my milk didn't come in for 2 days last time. The contractions came every evening that weekend but died down after midnight. Monday night, the mild contractions started when I went to bed and kept me up most of the night. Tuesday at work I was exhausted and ready for the baby. My coworkers took me to get Italian food as a joke to get the labor started (the old wives tale of the eggplant parmigiana- which I knew had more to do with the oregano and basil). But, I felt like she wasn't coming that day though since I had quite a few people rooting for the 17th. I went home and put the car seat in the car- figured I'd get that out of the way. I had a feeling of discomfort that was eerie, like my body knew what was coming but my mind didn't.
At 3 a.m. I woke up to a 10 minute long contraction. An actual contraction. I told myself it was just like the other nights but I knew it was different. They kept coming and by 4 a.m. I knew this was the day. But I wanted to monitor them until hubby left for work because I didn't want to drive all the way to the hospital for false labor. Plus it is more comfortable to do my pacing and breathing in the comfort of my home. At 5:30 a.m., I made the decision to go in but I told hubby to go on to work and let his mom drive me just in case it wasn't it. It's a 40 minute drive from our house but he only works about 10 minutes from the hospital so he could be there in no time if this was go time. The contractions were several minutes apart at this point- good thing we left in time to miss rush hour traffic on the highway.
At 7 a.m., I get admitted as the contractions intensify. I was at 7 cm and coming up fast! I told my mother-in-law to call Alex. I sent a text to my parents who were in Las Vegas at the time. At 7:30, I'm in tears from the pain. I was induced my first pregnancy and was told that would be worse since I still delivered naturally. However, these contractions were 10 times worse than when I was induced. They moved me to a delivery room. By the time Alex got there, I was crying out loud from the pain- which says a lot because I have a high threshold for pain. I felt most comfortable lying on my side for the contractions. I was having cold sweats and laid on my side with my eyes closed between contractions. The urge to push was coming on and the midwife asked if I wanted her to break my water- YES! That felt great at that point. Took a lot of pressure off down there.
At 8:30, my body was telling me to push and I did. The midwife rubbed mineral oils on my perineum and began massaging and stretching my vagina to help with any tearing. By 8:33, baby was out! I didn't even have a chance to object to my mother-in-law being in the room- not that she would have listened, I think she really wanted to be there. Eveleigh had been head down the majority of the pregnancy so she just slid right out- which is also why she had fluid in her lungs. Her body didn't have time to get rid of the fluid before she left the birth canal. I watched her pop out and it was so surreal. After trying for so long to get pregnant and then going through a rough pregnancy, my baby was finally here and I cried tears of joy.
This hospital has the rule that for 1 hour after birth the baby is to remain on the mother's chest before they do any weighing and cleaning. And after that, baby will remain with mommy at all times. Love it! She started breastfeeding immediately. I did have some minor tears caused by the scar tissue from where they sewed me up extra tight the first time but it wasn't bad. The midwife and nurses massaged my stomach a lot which hurt like hell at first but my stomach went back down faster and my bleeding wasn't as bad as after the first pregnancy. One nurse put my hand on my stomach to show me the area where the baby had been. It felt like a little softball. This time around, I felt my uterus cramping while breastfeeding. I didn't feel that the first time. It's interesting to see all the differences and similarities between the two pregnancies.
I had her name picked out for 4 years but Alex wasn't sure about it. We hadn't found any other names either so when the nurse asked him what the name was, he told her Eveleigh Rose- the name I chose. My father-in-law brought Olivia to see us and the look of joy on her sweet face when she saw her baby sister was pure bliss for this momma.
The next 7 days were Hell on Earth but that tale is for another story time.
