Our Daughter

As I sit here, watching David cuddle our one week old daughter, it still boggles my mind that I actually gave birth. We knew that we always wanted children, but there was always the lingering thought in the back of my mind of how much the whole experience was going to hurt. But when things got underway, all I could think of was bringing our little one in to the world.

Sunday, April 23rd (39 weeks/3 days)
All day, David and I did errands around town. I was starting to feel some pains of possible labor, so we wanted to get the errands done, but also to get me moving/walking just in case this was the real deal.

We were ready to go to bed at 9, but I just couldn’t get myself comfortable. I was experiencing contractions about every 5 to 7 minutes, but they were tolerable. About an hour later, they were feeling stronger and I was even bleeding. We called the hospital and they told us to head over. Thankfully being 10 at night, there was no traffic getting to St. Vincent’s in Worcester (a 30 minute drive). I was checked in and admitted right away.

Monday, April 24th (39 weeks/4 days)
All through the night, the contractions were getting stronger, but I was only 3 cm; I was thinning though and they were sure that this was it. Eventually they gave me some pitocin to speed things up, and by the morning, I was 9 cm. In the meantime, they gave me an epidural and it was the best thing ever. I couldn’t feel the contractions, only the pressure. At around 1:30PM, the midwife checked me again (after going back and forth between my own contractions and those aided by the pitocin) and I was fully dilated and ready to push.

Three hours later, at 4:32PM, Eleanor Joyce was born.

Looking back, I’m glad, and lucky, that my labor was uneventful and I came out with only a few stitches, and a beautiful, healthy girl.

We stayed in the hospital for two nights, and we had such a great experience with all of the midwives and nurses. They had to monitor her for a bit since it took her a while to urinate, but everything ended up working out. We got home on Wednesday, and now we’re navigating our life as a family of three. And we are so in love!