Lucy's Birth Story

We had a doctor appointment with Dr. Royster for my 40 week check on Thursday, January 22nd in the morning. I went to the appointment not expecting anything because I had not been dilated or effaced the week before, but Dr. Royster let us know that I was about 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. He scraped my membranes and set up a date for induction because he didn't think I would deliver anytime soon. If all went well with a stress test for the baby, I was set to be induced on February 2nd. Dan went back to work for the day and I rode the metro with Emma, Lily, Daniel and Talia down to the March for Life in DC. As we were on the metro, I started feeling minor cramping and Emma told me that was the beginning but it could last for a while. The cramping started getting a little more strong but still not painful during the walk through DC but I was still in denial that I was actually having a baby very soon! The contractions were about 15-20 minutes apart, so I knew I had a long way to go. During these past few weeks, we had been looking into cars to be able to have a second car in Dayton, but Dan was getting very inpatient, especially when he tried to put our huge jogging stroller in the trunk of the Altima and it was pretty tight! We had appointments to test drive the Nissan Rogue and the Toyota Rav4 that night and we decided to still go through with it because I was really feeling fine still. I was able to test drive the Rav4 but by the time we went to the Nissan dealer, they were getting a little more painful and I didn't feel like I should be driving a car! We went home and I did not sleep all night.. just stayed awake on our rocking chair having contractions about every 10 minutes apart. I told Dan to go to work the next morning (Friday) because I wanted him to save his days off for after the baby. I continued to labor by myself at home and by 9:00, they were 8 minutes apart and definitely more painful. I talked on the phone to my mom, Sarah, and Nicole Bower who were very helpful. Eventually, I just did not want to be on the phone anymore and I was in a lot of pain. I asked Dan to come home at 11 and he arrived in perfect timing. As soon as he walked in the door, I need a bucket to get sick in and he ran to the rescue! I continued to have contractions and get sick on the very intense ones for a few hours. We decided to go to the hospital when my contractions were still a little irregular at 4-7 minutes apart, but it was the getting sick that was concerning. I was very dehydrated and needed anti-nausea meds. I called Dr. Royster for him to meet us at the hospital and got checked right before he got there. I was positive I would be so far along for how long I'd been having contractions and how much pain I was in, but unfortunately I was only 2 cm dilated. Ugh! He told us we would have to go home or walk around the hospital to help things progress. We walked down to the basement and went into the Galley to get something to eat. Dan got a hamburger and french fries and kept offering me food as I held a bucket to throw up. I was not looking too good! People kept stopping us and asking if I was okay. When we went back to triage, I got checked again and was only 3 cm. Dr. Royster said that he would admit me because it was so close to 4 cm. I got into a room and had an amazing nurse Toyva. When I was 5 cm, the anesthesiologist came to talk to me about the epidural and get things prepped. The resident put in the epidural and tested to see if it was working. I could feel everything so he went to get his staff doctor and she tried moving the epidural around and this was incredibly painful! It still didn't work, so they had to remove the epidural and try placing it again. After 2 hours of trying to sit still during contractions for the epidural, I was able to sleep for an hour with no pain. Then, the contractions came back completely and epidural had stopped working. They kept trying to give me more meds, but it was only giving me minimal relief for a short time. I had a lot of lower back pain, so it worked best for Dan to push on my back and my mom to squeeze my hand and remind me to do good breathing. I also continued to get sick through the most intense contractions and I could always tell at the beginning of a contraction that I would throw up at the end. It was weird! At 7 am on Saturday morning, I was 10 cm and was able to start and push. Dr. Royster had me push 3 times for 10 seconds on each contraction, but he realized that my contractions were very long and we weren't taking full advantage of the length, so we started pushing 4 times for 8 seconds and then extra short grunt pushes at the end. Halfway through pushing, he had a nurse bring a mirror in for me to get some motivation to push harder. It definitely helped! At 9:05, I could really see the head and Dr. Royster told me to just keep pushing. The head came out and in another blink, our little baby had arrived! I couldn't believe how fast the rest of the body came out. Dan cut the cord and Dr. Royster told us we had a girl! I had a feeling it was a girl because Dr. Royster accidentally said "she" during part of my pushing, but it was the best news that we had a Lucy! Everyone says how amazing childbirth is and it is like nothing you can imagine and they are right. I have no words to explain this miracle and how we both felt when we could hold our baby. She was perfect and God had really blessed us with an amazing family of three! We were in love at first sight with Lucy Jean. Lucy was born on Saturday, January 24th at 9:05 AM with light brown hair and big dark blue eyes. She was a 7 pound, 7 ounce, 20.5 inch long bundle of perfection that stole our hearts immediately! My family came in shortly after she was born and it felt so cool to tell them we had a Lucy girl.. everyone thought I was having a boy! There were plenty of happy tears and lots of cuddles. It was so cool to see Madeline next to Lucy.. she was such a big girl and a little unsure of sharing her spotlight! Dan's family arrived a few hours later and couldn't wait to meet their first grandchild. We had so much fun sharing this amazing girl with our families! Big thank you to Nanny Neecie for staying a week to take care of us! She did everything- wash, dishes, meals, cleaning and even talked to me in the middle of the night to stay awake while feeding. Dan and I are so thankful that she could come to help us!

Baby Bumps

Dan and I found out we were pregnant in May 2014 and we could hardly believe it. We had been trying for over a year and Dan was always the one to check the pregnancy test. I remember this time I had come home after school and took a test expecting it to say no and the double line started to appear even before I was finished going to the bathroom. I screamed for Dan and we just stared at each other crying and hugging! We were out of our minds excited and just did not think this was reality! I think I had that attitude during my whole pregnancy. It wasn't until our Lucy was here that it finally kicked in that we were now mom and dad. God seriously gave us our miracle! I had a pretty easy pregnancy and gained about 28 pounds. I had some minor GI complications that resolved immediately after pregnancy but other than that, it was all normal pregnancy stuff! During the first trimester, I completely lost my appetite and got pretty nauseous, but never actually sick to my stomach. I continued to run through my pregnancy until Thanksgiving time when school and life just got too busy! Every few weeks, I made chalkboard signs and took pictures of my pregnancy bump progress. I'm so thankful that I documented my first baby bump!