Alayna was born on July 13th 2011. She was exactly one week early which was what I wanted to happen. She must have heard me while she was in my tummy because I would tell her that she needed to come a week early. Haha.
The day Alayna was born I got up early to make Brady's lunch for work and then after he left I went back to bed. At about 9:30 a.m. I woke up because I thought I was wetting the bed! I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom and water just started gushing down my leg. My water had broke! I didn't know what to do.
I know that you're supposed to be prepared for when you go into labor and have your bags packed and the hospital number ready but I was unprepared because this wasn't supposed to happen for another week! I thought I was supposed to feel contractions or something so that I would know I was going into labor and have several hours to get ready before going to the hospital. I felt absolutely no contractions, or pain whatsoever.
I think that maybe the fact that Brady and I went on a 8 mile hike less than a week before might have had something to do with her coming early? That probably wasn't the smartest idea to do so close to my due date. Haha.
I kept trying to call Brady but he wasn't answering so I called my mom. My mom told me to call my doctor and so that's what I did and they told me to come in. I still couldn't get hold of Brady so I called his mom and then she called Brady's dad. (Brady's dad is his boss) Brady's dad then told Brady and so then Brady finally called me back while he rushed home to get me. Oh geez!
While I waited for Brady to get home, I ran around the house like a chicken with its head cut off and tried to pack for the hospital. Once Brady got home, he hurried and took a shower and then we left. When we got to the hospital they had to check to make sure that my water had broke. After it was confirmed that my water had indeed broken, they got me all ready for birth and told me I now had to stay and that we couldn't leave until our baby girl was born. Yay!! They then put IVs in me (The IVs hurt so bad!) and hooked me up to a computer screen so they could see contractions and stuff. The nurses couldn't believe that I still wasn't feeling any contractions. They would watch the screen and be like "Oh! That was a big contraction! Did you feel it?" I really could not feel a thing. I was very grateful for that because I hear that it kinda hurts. ;)
The doctor decided that he was going to speed up my contractions so he gave me something like pitocin? Anyways, my body reacted really strong to that and one of my contractions lasted for like 6 minutes and then right after that contraction ended the nurses couldn't find our baby's heartbeat. The nurses kind of started freaking out and then shoved this thing up me and put it on our baby's head so that they could get her heart beat. They then had me lay on my right side because I guess that Alayna liked that side better? I was just about in tears after all that happened. It just scared me so bad! After that all happened they took me off the pitocin and decided they were just going to let my body have contractions by its self.
I finally started to feel some contractions at about 4:30 p.m. They didn't really hurt yet but I didn't want to have to feel them if I didn't have to either. I was actually really worried about weather I would know if they were contractions or not because I never experienced braxton hicks either (false contractions). Luckily I was hooked up to the computer so that when I felt the contraction I could also see on the computer that I was having one. The contractions were finally starting to hurt so at 5:30 p.m. I got the epidural (which I was terrified about getting that huge needle stabbed in my back). By then I was dilated to a 4.
After that I couldn't feel the contractions at all. Brady and I just talked and watched a little T.V. and just relaxed for a while. Several hours later I started to feel my contractions again and they were really strong and a little painful (even with the epidural). I could feel my body just naturally trying to push our baby out. My doctor was doing a C section on someone at the time and so the nurses told me to just try not to have the baby yet. By the time my doctor got to me and wanted me to actually start pushing I was dilated to a 10 plus 2 (whatever that means). I just know that when you are at a 10 is when you're supposed to start pushing. I pushed for about 20 minutes and then our sweet little girl was born.
She was born at 11:32 p.m. She was 7 pounds 1 ounce and 20 and 1/4 inches long. Just perfect! Right after she was born, my doctor flipped her around so I could see her. She had long black hair! She was just crying and so cute! Brady cut the cord and then the nurses cleaned her up a little and then gave her to me. It was love at first sight. She was beautiful! I just looked at our sweet little girl and kept saying "I'll take care of you." The nurses just left Brady and I to be alone with our little girl for a while.
After a while Brady's family showed up to meet our new baby girl. After they left my Mom got there at about 2 a.m. The second I called my mom to tell her my water broke, she immediately left from Idaho and drove all day and night to Oregon. After my mom got there the nurses came in to give our baby her first bath. It was really funny because she had so much hair that they put her under a blow drier thing for a few minutes.
After a day or more Brady and I finally decided we were going to name our little girl Alayna Mae Fielding. We had a long list of names we were considering when we went into the hospital but "Alayna" wasn't one of them. Haha. We named her "Alayna" after a convert that Brady taught on his mission. Her name was spelt "Elena" but we changed the spelling to "Alayna" so it was spelt more American like. We gave her the middle name "Mae" because that is my middle name. :)
We got to stay in the hospital a couple days after she was born and learn how to care for our sweet little girl. It was a little scary those couple days because our baby had a lot of amniotic fluid in her that she kept chocking on. About 3 different times our little girl would start to turn blue and I would press the help button and the nurses would come running in and stick this tube down her throat to get the fluid out. It scared us so bad! We sure are grateful that the nurses got all the fluid out by the time we took her home.
I felt like such a proud mama when we took Alayna back home to our little one bedroom apartment in Oregon. Can I just say that I have such a wonderful husband! He stayed the night on a very uncomfortable chair/couch for like 4 days and never left except to get food. I love him!
Anyways, overall I would have to say I had a very easy pregnancy and birth. I actually really enjoyed labor! I think that the most painful part of labor for me was the I.V's! Haha.
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