On April 23, Bret and I went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. Nothing eventful happened, other than we walked around forever looking at bones and old things. We went home and took a belly photo. The rest of the evening was not very eventful until 9:00. Around that time (just minutes after talking to Holly), contractions started. They were happening every ten minutes, and seemed quite regular. Bret and I got ready for bed, and then tried to go to sleep. Bret succeeded, but I didn’t for quite a while. Eventually, I was so tired that I fell asleep, but every contraction woke me up. Needless to say, it wasn’t the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had (but I’ve had worse). Around 7, I got up and tried taking a bath. It just wasn’t helping, so I gave up and went back to bed (this is also partially why my hair looks like it was cut with a lawnmower in the following photos). I threw up twice.

By 8:30ish contractions were about 3 minutes apart, so we decided to go to the hospital. On the way up to Labor and Delivery I threw up again. Elevators never settle with me very well. I checked-in, and the nurses did all their monitoring/measurements and determined I was really in labor. Not a big surprise. I was dilated to a 5 and fully effaced. We went to my delivery room. I wasn’t going to get an IV, but because I had thrown up everything and wasn’t doing a good job re-hydrating, I decided it would be a good idea. They gave me one bag of saline and some nausea medication (no more puking!). The IV froze me out, so a nurse brought me warm blanket.

At this point things get hazy. My midwife was seeing someone else in another hospital, so she wasn’t going to be with me until the actual baby-come-out part. However, there was a student working with her, and she came to help me instead until the actual midwife could. She was amazing. Seriously. She spent the next few hours massaging my lower back, almost nonstop, which helped so much with the labor. My water broke..humm…probably around noon. I didn’t hear it, but Bret heard a little pop, and then all of a sudden there was tons of water gushing out of me. Really glad that I didn’t have to clean up that mess.

I was so tired and remember thinking all I wanted was for this baby to be born so I could go to sleep. At some point I started leaning over the top of the raised bed, and I really do think I fell asleep. Again…really, really hazy…every hour the nurse would come in and monitor me/baby, but it seemed more like she was coming in every ten minutes.

Bret was an essential part of the birth. Obviously, just his presence was invaluable, but he also more than that (obviously). Bret helped with massaging, and he spent a lot of time reading and telling me happy things. And sweet things. And making sure I was getting enough water. He also made sure I realized how ridiculously fast everything seemed to be moving.

It took a while for the baby to come out once she started moving down. Both the midwife and the student midwife were with me at this point. Once the baby’s head was out enough to be seen, the midwife told me to feel baby’s head. Well, I was expecting to feel a head, not a squishy bit of squish, almost like reaching your hand into a bag of produce and feeling a rotten piece. Eventually, the baby’s head came out and the rest of the body very quickly followed. Amirah Monet Little was born at 3:01 in the afternoon on Easter Sunday, five days after her due date. Amirah means princess in Arabic and Hebrew, and it is a name that we’ve liked since before we were married. Monet is my middle name as well.

After she came out, Amirah was put up next to me. At this point, I stopped feeling contractions (didn’t feel any before labor, and nothing once she was out). She was crying, wet, slimy, and poopy. Yes, she had her first bowel movement just moments after birth. The placenta came out rather quickly. There was a ton of blood (another mess I’m glad I didn’t have to clean up ).We waited until her cord stopped pulsating, and then Bret cut it.

The nurses took Amirah to measure, monitor, and weigh her. She weighed 7 pounds and 3 ounces (although she did just poo…) and she was 19 inches long. They gave her back to me, and we just held her until 4:20. There were a couple other babies that were born around the same time, so they let us keep her with us longer until the nursery emptied out. Then Bret went with Amirah to get her clean up and tested.

One of my nurses helped me walk over to the bathroom and get cleaned up, and then we went to the mother/baby room. Ironically, I was no longer tired at all. I tried to rest while I waited for Bret and Amirah to come back, but I was mostly just bored. And hungry.

My parents, Tavin, and Tilmann came down that night to see us, along with the Carbines and Stices. First grandbaby and niece!

Both Amirah’s and Bret’s wristbands said “Little Baby Tearsa.” I thought it was cute.

We spent the night at the hosptial (while my family spent the night at our apartment), and Amirah was brought in every few hours to be fed. We kept her with us during the day, other than when she needed to be tested/monitored/poked. Because I am RH-neg, Amirah had extra billi testing at the hospital (and then more the next day after we home). Each times her levels were in the low risk zone. Because everything looked good with Amirah and me, we were able to go home that evening.

Our experience with our midwives, and nurses (and the hospital in general) was fantastic. We liked all of them and really liked a few of them. They were so helpful, friendly, and kind, and they let us do things the way we wanted to. We were so blessed to have a heathy and wonderful pregnancy, birth, and baby. Really, we couldn’t have asked for anything more. Everything went so smoothly, and the timing couldn’t have been better. We are so grateful for our beautiful little baby, and are so grateful she could be a part of our family.