Eden's birth story

I finally have a little bit of time to post about Eden's birth. She's been keeping me so busy!

I was due on Wednesday and the day came and went. It was also my birthday so we had a pretty busy day. We went to bed and as always I woke up at around 4am to pee. When I went back to bed, I couldn't go to sleep because I kept getting these weird cramps. It took me about 15 minutes to realize that they were contractions. I went and laid on the couch and found a website where I could time them. They were anywhere from 4-7 minutes apart and pretty painful for a good 45 seconds. After each contraction I felt perfectly fine so I told Craig to just go to work and I'd call him if he needed to come home. Around noon, I called my doctor and he said to head on in to Labor and Delivery. So, Craig came home and we headed to the hospital.

We got all checked in to triage and I was dilated to 3cm. After 2 hours, I was still having regular contractions but was still only dilated to a 3, so they sent me home. I was so frustrated because the contractions hurt so bad. So, I was totally convinced that I wasn't in labor since they sent me home. We got home around 4pm and the contractions never stopped. We laid on the couch until 1am trying to breathe through each contraction. Craig was so awesome. He wanted to help me get through each contraction but I didn't want him to touch me. I didn't want to go back to the hospital because I thought they'd send me home again since I was just there earlier that day. At 1:30am, I couldn't take it anymore so we went back to the hospital.

Again, we got checked in to triage and I was in so much pain. They checked me right away and I was only dilated to 4.5cm. They admitted me though because I had been laboring for almost 24 hours. I asked for the epidural right away. I was so exhausted from being up for 24 hours and I thought I'd be able to get some sleep once I got the epidural. I was so wrong. The anesthesiologist came in and prepped me for the epidural. It took 2 anesthesiologists and about 8 tries to get my epidural in. Once they got it in, in numbed my left side completely but it barely did anything to my right side. I didn't mind though, because anything was better than feeling those contractions! I am such a baby! I progressed pretty quickly so I didn't get any sleep at all. At 10:30am I was complete and ready to push. I pushed through 3 contractions and the nurse started freaking out because the doctor wasn't there yet and this baby was coming OUT! So, while we were waiting for the doctor to get there, the nurse made me STOP pushing for about 10 minutes. That was probably the hardest thing! I wanted to push so bad, but couldn't. The doctor walked in at 11:04am and Eden was born at 11:07am. It was so awesome. After Craig cut the cord, they put her on my belly and she was so precious! We're so thankful that she is healthy! We're also so grateful for our families for their love and support in the past week. She is doing SO good and letting me get so much sleep at night. I just hope it stays that way!

Also... on Sunday, it was mine and Craig's first anniversary. We both almost forgot about it since I was still in the hospital and things were a little crazy. Luckily, Craig was thinking ahead and got me a bouquet of pink flowers for my birthday with one red rose in the middle for our first anniversary. He must have known that we'd be a little consumed with other things. He is such a great husband and I love him more than anything. Watching him with Eden is the sweetest thing I've ever seen. He is such a good Daddy and I love him SO much!










Craig decided to trim her umbilical cord stump down. It was SO big and getting caught on everything! I was freaking out...