Sydney Athena's Birth Story

               It was Saturday night, June 13th (my due date) and I was heading to bed feeling defeated. I knew that due dates were just estimates but as any woman who has made it to their EDD will tell you, you are just READY. I had texted one of my friends telling her that i didn't think labor was starting any time soon, I really didn't even think that it would start that weekend to be honest. 

               I went to sleep and was woken up around 3am with what I thought was another braxton hicks. I got up to go to the bathroom and then went back to sleep. About 10 minutes later I was woken up again with another, this time much more painful. I couldn't get comfortable in bed to i decided to get up, get some water and head to the couch to see if they would go away. They didn't. The contractions were coming about every 5-7 minutes and lasting about a minute so i decided to wake Nate and tell him that i thought this might be it, but to keep sleeping just incase it wasnt. He couldn't sleep.

              After about an hour of consistent contractions we knew this was it. I called the on-call doctor (my OB wasnt available to be there that day) and she told me to stay home for another hour and then head to the hospital. We called/texted everyone we needed to and then waited it out for an hour before kissing Naomi goodbye and heading out. By the time we were leaving my contractions were getting pretty intense. I was having to stop and breathe during them and they were coming every 5 minutes. Luckily we only live 5 minutes from the hospital so I only had one contraction on the way there. It was 6am when we got there and once we got settled into our room I let the nurse and doctor read over my birth plan. Everyone was on board with all of it so that made things so much easier. (with Naomi's birth my doctor was very pushy, it was pretty much his way or nothing, which led to a lot of interventions and an epidural, which I didnt want going into it.) I had a cervical check and was told I was at 6cm and about 70% effaced. After that the nurse pretty much just left me to do my own thing and came to check on me and monitor baby about ever hour or two, she was great. 

            Mallory got there shortly after that and we just sat around and talked between my contractions. I thought going into it that I would need a lot more support than I did. All I needed was a pillow to squeeze and Nate's hand to hold. I was pretty vocal during it all, making low deep noises to relax my body during the contractions (thanks Ina May). At one point I made my way to the shower to help with the pain and that was amazing. I could have stayed in there the whole time. Afterwards I made my way back to the bed and at this point I really have no sense of what time it is, how long i'm going between contractions, or how long i've been at the hospital. All i know is that my contractions are now BAD. I told Nate and Mallory several times that I couldn't do it anymore, that I just wanted this all to be over. I knew I had to be close. So when the nurse came back in around noon, she checked me and i was at 9cm, with a little bit of cervix left, waters still intact. I sat at this point, having contraction after contraction for what seemed like FOREVER but was probably only an hour. I decided at this point to have the doctor break my water. Something I previously didn't want, but at this point I needed something to get me through that last centimeter QUICK. 

             It definitely did the trick, one contraction after she broke my water & I was ready to push. All the books I had read told me that pushing would feel good, that it would give me some relief from the contractions. They were dead wrong. The intensity of pushing is something I will never ever forget. My contractions slowed down considerably while pushing too, so it seemed like this part was taking a long time. But after what I think was about 30 minutes the time was here, I gave one last push with every ounce of strength i had left, I pushed hard through all the pain and MY BABY WAS HERE!!! 

            It was amazing. I was in awe of her, how perfect (and BIG) she was and in awe of myself. I couldn't believe I really did it! I had the natural, intervention-free birth I had been dreaming of since I found out I was pregnant. I was definitely on a birth high. We delayed cord clamping and I just held her, took her all in for a few minutes before we finally cut the cord and she went to get weighed and cleaned up. Nate and Mallory held her and then I nursed her for the first time. She latched on perfectly and nursed for 20 minutes. Family came afterwards and visited for a few hours. Then the rest of the night was just Nate, myself and our new sweet baby girl, Sydney. 

All the pictures below were taken by Mallory. We are so lucky that she was there to capture all of these priceless moments for us. I will treasure them forever.