My baby is ONE!!

So, today is Baby Pants' FIRST birthday. I can't believe that 365 days have gone by since she was born. And of course, this makes me think about her Birth Story. So...here we go:

Baby Pants was due on February 5th, 2008...and then February 5th came and went. And so did the 6th, and the 7th. We actually took the kids out on the four-wheeler on the 7th, to do the whole "bumpy road" thing. I have pictures with my little Monkey and me on the four-wheeler with my belly pushing into Monkey's back...and waving at the camera looking like the fat cow that I was. Then, the 8th came...and went...but then the 9th started for me at 3am with contractions. I laid in bed for awhile making certain that they were actual contractions and not Braxton Hicks, and that they were also consistent and not sporadic. After about an hour, they were coming about every 20 minutes. So, I got up at about 4am and watched some TV and ate some breakfast, because I definitely wanted to eat prior to my impending physical exertion. I also wanted my contractions to get closer before I started notifying everyone. So, by about 5:30am, the contractions were about 10-15 minutes apart.

I woke Aaron up at 5:30am, and told him he should get up and get showered and call his mom. We left the house at about 6am or so, and got all checked in to the hospital by about 7am. When the triage nurse checked me for dilation, she asked me if I wanted to guess how far dilated I was. I said "No, just tell me"...and she said I was already 6cm dilated! I was really excited! Because I thought it would be just a couple more hours until the baby was born. But...no...I had about another 6 1/2 hours to go before our little girl would make her debut.

Also, I was doing this birth "au naturale" as I had done with Monkey just 3 yrs and 3 months before. So, my first two girls I had with epidurals and my second two girls I had zero medication. The first 3 hours of the 6 1/2, I was doing pretty good...my mom was there by this time and she is a much better coach than my hubby (sorry honey). So, she was keeping me calm and focused through my contractions. Going in to the 4th hour, things kind of stalled. This happened to me with Monkey too...my contractions kept going, but I stopped dilating. This was due to my water still being in tact (on all 4 of my births, my water never broke on its own)...so it was making a nice soft cushion between baby's head and my cervix...but this unfortunately was not allowing me to dilate all the way.

So, my last 3 hours got quite a bit more intense. During the last hour, they kept telling me I was 9 1/2 centimeters (and in case you don't know, you have to be 10cm before they let you push). BUT, Baby Pants was coming, and I wanted to push dammit! It felt better when I pushed, and I told them they better get the doctor because I was going to push. They told me that the doctor might be able to push the teeny bit of cervix that was left out of the way so that my little girl could come out. I said "Sounds good to me. Let's go"...so that's what we did. I started pushing...Aaron was freaking out kind of (oh yes, in case some of my readers don't know...this was my husband's FIRST baby...I had 3 children before we met)...and then Baby Pants started making her way out.

All the nurses started commenting about her hair...by this time, I really wanted her out, so I said "Can you just grab her by her hair and pull?" (I was joking of course...sort of). After a couple more pushes, her head was out...this is the greatest feeling in the world (if you have read my last couple posts about not being able to poop, that's kind of what it feels like until the baby's head comes out...after that, it's all gravy). A couple more pushes later and she was in my arms. She was beautiful. Then, they had to take her over to a little table in the room because she had already pooped before she was born, aka meconium, and they didn't want any of it to get in her lungs so that had to make sure to get it all out.

Aaron was watching her the whole time, and tears were streaming down his face. I had never seen that man cry until that day...I had seen his eyes sort of well up before, but never saw tears. That was beautiful too. She looks JUST like him, and he was really proud of that. She weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces, and was 20.5 inches long, with a head full of hair. And her hair has just continued to grow and grow since that day...she wore her hair in a pony tail at her birthday party yesterday, that's how long it is now! :)

Anywho...it's such a great feeling to be a mom, and my little girl is so precious, it's been amazing watching her change and grow this year. Can't wait to see what the next year brings. In the blink of an eye she'll be all grown up, like my oldest girl who starts junior high next year! But...that's another blog entirely. hehe