The Labor Journey

Well, time for the story of how little Cambria came to be! I'd been playing the waiting game for a couple weeks now, as you know, since the doctor told me I was dilated to a 3 already, a few weeks before her due date. I thought, Sweet, she's gonna come nice and early! But I kept getting up day after day and going to work and hearing people say, "You're still here? When's that baby going to come??" You're tellin me! It was getting harder and harder to sleep at night, and then on last Wednesday, I came down with a cold! Of all weeks of the year, it had to come the week I was probably going to go into labor. Suck it all. So I hurried and took some Zicam, hoping that it would just go away. But on Friday, I ended up staying home from work cuz I felt like crap, and I thought it was a good time to rest up and get back on my feet so that I'd have energy for what was to come!

Luckily, it worked, and I felt much better by Saturday. Jake and I got up and ran errands, and even went out to lunch to Archibald's at Gardner Village. Very yummy. But I was feeling a little crampy by then, and when we got home, I found that I had started to bleed a little. I got excited, thinkng it was the normal "bloody show", but it continued through the day and got me a little worried. So I called the hospital and talked to the on-call doctor, and he told me to come in just to be safe. Long story short, we checked in to the labor and delivery unit, the nurse checked me and said I should be fine, but that I hadn't dilated anymore and wasn't having contractions, so we were discharged a few hours later. Bummer! Sorry for the fake out, Jake. :) He was a trooper.Here's us in the delivery room the FIRST time. We even walked the halls for close to an hour, at the nurse's suggestion, to try to get the contractions going. But alas, no such luck.
HOWEVER, as soon as we left the hospital, I started feeling the "real" contractions that I hadn't felt before. I continued having them ALL night long, but they were only 6 minutes apart, which was basically torture. Early stages of labor is brutal. Needless to say, after a night of no sleep and contractions coming at 4 minutes apart by mid-morning, I was more than ready to head to the hospital. I'd had that bag packed for a month!

Jake was by my side every step of the way. I was SO grateful to have such a good coach and supporter. Love you babe! This was when we'd gotten checked in and admitted, since I had dilated to more than a 4 overnight. Yay! That was at 11:30 am, and I rode out the contractions until about 5 pm when I got my epidural, and was dilated to a 7. After the epidural, it was smoooth sailing! Man I love that thing. :) My siblings came to visit and wait it out at the hospital, and my brother even hooked up his webcam with my parents in PA so that they could be a part of all the action. That was so fun to have them there!
You can see me holding my little lammie, which served as my "focal point". hehe. I held it the whole time I was in that bed, and squeezed really hard or breathed it in (imagining it was like newborn baby smell) during contractions before the epidural, and it really helped! Imagine that.

Here's my cute little nurse, Susan, who was there for me the whole time UNTIL I started pushing, and then she had to go. I was so glad to have her though, she was way friendly and encouraging. Finally, at 7:00, I was checked again and I had dilated to a 10! So we were into the home stretch, and it took just 45 minutes of pushing until Cambria finally arrived. Jake was so good at coaching through it all...he was on one side with a nurse on the other, and he counted when I needed to breathe and push. Even though I had to have an episiotomy and am currently in a bit of pain, it was all SO worth it! Cambria came out at 8:14 pm, but she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck and body, which was a bit of a scare. But the doctor cut it and she started to cry, which was music to my ears! Jake got to cut the rest of the cord after they brougth her right up to my chest. Sooo special.



Weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz., just a little thing!


This was Cambria's first bath, once we got moved up to the maternity ward and settled into our room. Jake got to go with Cambria to the nursery and then bring her back and bathe her in the sink. :) It wasn't her favorite thing, but it sure was cute!


And finally, all nice and clean, clothed and swaddled, I got to hold my little girl and start to figure out how to be a mommy. Such an amazing experience! She's a doll, we love her so much.