Our Birth Story

 

It has taken me quite some time to finally put this experience into words. This is for many reasons, but most importantly because I realize how quickly time passes and I want to spend every minute I can with my sweet girl before reality sets in and I go back to work. However I also know that penning it to paper (or to the more eternal version: the internet) makes this life changing experience not just ours anymore, it is something that everyone has an eye into. I cherished the fact that Oliver & I lived it together, it was just us in that room and something about that is so sacred. I can't say that it should be that way for everyone but for Oliver & I it was exactly the way we wanted it.

So here goes the short version of how our little angel arrived...

My due date was December 19th which came and went without any sign of labor. I went to my OB and she tried to work her magic to get things started, but our girl had no plans of exiting anytime soon! Christmas came and went and she was still not here, which I think was the hardest part. I had envisioned her in the already purchased Hanna Andersson PJ's snuggled up with us watching Christmas movies- maybe next year!

Oliver & I arrived on Saturday December 26th at 7:30AM for a scheduled induction. We were both anxious and excited, completely unaware of what was to come. They began the induction process at 8:30am with a cervical ripening agent which requires bed rest and fetal monitoring for an hour, followed by 3 hours of just "wait and see". We did this twice, I then started to show signs of progress so we skipped the last dose. Around 6pm I started to feel some mild contractions, I walked the halls and sat on an exercise ball to help through those. Around 11pm the contractions became more painful and frequent, despite only dilating 1 cm more than when we arrived! This was incredibly frustrating! They started pitocin and shortly after an epidural. Around 2:00am the MD attempted to break my water, however Maggie was still in a position that was too high to do so, so we continued to wait. At nearly 4:00am my water broke on its own, but still no progress in terms of dilation. Finally at 8:30 am on Sunday 12/27 the OB on call explained if we still continue to see no progress we will move towards a c-section, but he would give me until 11 am.  This decision was made due to the length of time since my water broke, and the fact that they knew Maggie was measuring on the larger side.

Just after 10:00am the nurse came rushing in and noted abnormal heart rate tracings on the monitor (I was really reaching to remember from my nursing school days!) moments after that we were in the OR. I remember crying, not because I was scared, I was incredibly overwhelmed. We had waited so long for her and I was overcome with emotion that soon we would be holding her.

There were some minor complications which prevented me from holding her in the OR, which made that nearly 2 hours feel like an eternity. I felt so helpless when she was crying and wanted nothing more than to console her.  Luckily the newly minted Daddy came to the rescue! Oliver held her close to me so I could kiss and snuggle her. Unlike myself, Oliver didn't grow up around babies or have much experience so he was definitely nervous going into parenthood, but those first few moments seeing them together made it ever so clear he was a natural and would be the best Dad to our baby girl.

What came after that was endless snuggles, kisses and happy tears! I can't possibly put into words how blessed we are to have this sweet baby.

I just love this photo of Oliver, I woke up in the middle of the night to see him just staring at his little girl. It makes me tear up every time I look at it- he really is the sweetest Dad ever! 

For now we are cherishing every moment with her, but I hope to be back to regular blogging very soon!

As always thank you for reading along and sharing in this journey with me!

XO

First Trimester Recap

I swear I will try NOT to turn this into a mommy blog! I swear I will try NOT to turn this into a mommy blog! I swear I will try NOT turn this into a mommy blog! 

That was to convince you as much as it was to remind myself! I do want to share this journey with you all but I promise to maintain all of the style, home decor, and entertaining posts that the blog was founded on!

In the mean time here are some updates about my first trimester now that I am smooth sailing into the second!

The ultrasound on the left is from our 9 week scan, the one on the right is at 12w. It was amazing to see how much had changed in such a short period of time. That little hand, seriously?! The cutest! :)

Symptoms: Tired beyond belief, the kind of tired where it hurts to think about getting out of bed in the morning. I was so fortunate to not get morning sickness, not even once! (I know every woman wants to slap me for admitting to this....) My Mother and Grandmother never did either so it must be in the family? Just a side note my Grandmother had twelve children so I don't exactly consider her the "typical" woman but she coasted through all ten pregnancies (she had twins, TWICE!) 

Cravings: I ate my normal foods throughout the first trimester, other than the restricted ones. I still wanted coffee, I know many women who were totally averse while pregnant, but I was not one of those. I did however switch to half caff, cut out all soda and minimized chocolate so I could safely enjoy my one cup a day. I will say with the warmer weather and my DC visit I really wanted a cold glass of Rose'... However, that will have to wait till December (although not exactly Rose' season!) 

Sleep: I think this goes without saying but I slept ALL the time given how tired I was, and with the lack of my afternoon cup of Java! I napped when I got home from work, then showered and went to bed by 9pm every.single.night. I did however wake up nightly from week 7 onward to pee, what a pain in the A$$ that was, and will likely continue to be. 

Best moment: Seeing our little one on the ultrasound screen and hearing her little heartbeat! 

Worst moment: I can't think of anything... except maybe having to keep it a secret?- Not my forte - ask anyone who knows me!

Starting to show?: Just looking bloated. To the point where people will stare but never say anything, talk about uncomfortable! The picture below is at 12w 3 days, I was off to a bridal shower and was hoping no one would notice, luckily they didn't! Don't mind the dog crate in the background, if I wasn't so tired all the time I'd probably have moved it ;)

Gender prediction: According to the Chinese gender chart and Ramzi's we were having a little boy. I then was convinced it was a boy.  Clearly from my previous post you now know we are having a baby GIRL according to our genetics testing.

Speaking of nursery planning, do I have ideas! I will make sure to share that with you all after I have posted about a few parties with fun cocktails (for the guests of course) and my summer style inspiration and anything non- mommy related! 

THANK YOU FOR READING!! XOXO