Ashlyn's Birth Story

I woke up Tuesday morning at 4:30am to pee, as I walked to the bathroom i felt a big gush of water like I peed my pants. I called my dad and he told me to pack a bag and head to the hospital. We showered, shaved, packed a bag, and got up to Kettering Hospital around 6:00am. I wasn't having anything more than menstrual cramping. They checked me and I was 3 cm dilated and 90% effaced with contractions every 2 minutes apart. I was feeling achy pain in my back, but not much more than that.

My dad told me to request the epidural before I was in pain, so I put in the request around 8:45. They did the epidural at 9:20, it hurt, but nothing more than a stinging sensation. Matt almost passed out at this point, they had to get him some OJ and peanut butter:) It wasn't the needle, but he had taken allergy medicine, hadn't eaten yet and I was squeezing him really hard. They then started the pitocin to keep my contractions going strong.

From that point on I just laid around talking to my mom andMatt, and was dilating a little quicker than 1 cm an hour. At 3:00 I was ready to push. I pushed for 1 hour 45 minutes. Ashlyn was posterior (why i had back contractions) so she would progress and then just kinda get stuck. After an hour and some they decided to turn down the epidural so I could feel to push harder with each contraction. That's when it started to hurt, and I felt every bit of her coming out.

Luckily it was only about 15 minutes of discomfort through the whole process, I can't complain. Best part, Matt held one leg and my dad held the other. I can't imagine a better coach- he was patient and knew exactly what to do to help she and I progress better. The next hour was all a blur. I did have tears of joy followed by like 15 visitors.

The healing process has been good. I had a minor tear with a few stiches. I did have major swelling because of pushing for so long, but we are slowly getting back to normal. kinda felt like i slipped on ice and bruised my tailbone. Ashlyn caught right on with breast feeding, which is a huge sigh of relief.

It took us a whole day to name her, and we did flip a coin a few times, but we are very happy with our final decision (was between Ashlyn, Aubry, Caison). She is such a beautiful chubby cheeked blessing!