My Birthing Story

 You know when you start a race or a marathon and feel great, then during the last 6 miles, when you only have a 10k left, your body starts to remind you that it currently hates you... Well that is how my pregnancy was.  The first 8 months were honestly a breeze! I was fortunately enough not to have any morning sickness or real side effects except not being able to see my toes at the end.  However, the last month was tough.  Baby girl was measuring small for her age so I was told I needed to stop working out and increase my protein intake.  Trust me, that is easier said than done.  It's like my racing plan went perfectly to plan right up until the end when everything starts to fall apart. Then just when you don't think you can do it anymore,  you see the finish line. And just like that adrenaline really starts to pump through your muscles and you find yourself somehow sprinting across the finish line, hands held strongly in the air.  It is time to finish strong - and you do!

Well that is how giving birth is like.  It was crazy, yet surprisingly enjoyable experience!

I know - I never thought I would describe giving birth as "enjoyable".  I figured words like 'torture', 'painful', 'miserable', 'never ending' would be more of the terms I would use to describe my labor and delivery experience, but thankfully I was wrong.

I attribute that to the fact that I was actually induced into labor.  For those that aren't aware of what 'being induced' means, I basically means that I was scheduled on a specific date and time to show up to the hospital to give birth. Once you check into the hospital, you are placed on an IV and given a drug called Pitocin which causes the body to start having contractions and begin labor.  At first I was kind of scared to get induced, because I wanted my baby to come when she was ready - not when I felt like she was ready.  However on the day that I was to be induced, I woke up with an overwhelming sense of calm.  There was no dramatic "oh my gosh, my water broke", or waking up in the middle of the night in excruciating pain because the contractions had suddenly begun. There was simply my alarm waking me up, I ate, showered, did my hair (because you know photos are about to be taken), double checked we had everything we needed in our hospital bag and then calmly drove off to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital, face masks in place and all, we were greeted by security who did the newly mandated COVID-19 screening tests.  Thankfully my husband was still allowed to join me for the birth of our daughter, however once he checked into the hospital with me, he was not allowed to leave.  Good bye leaving to get In-N-Out after delivery, hello taking everything in all at once.

We were escorted to our birthing suite where I was able to unpack, get changed and had the IV put into my arm.  Everything was so relaxed, it was AWESOME!  After my doctor checked in with us, she broke my water - which was probably the least enjoyable part of the entire process of induction - and we waited as the contractions began. Over the next 6 hours, we hung out, watched TV and chatted with out nurse.  Finally the contractions got to the point where I couldn't ignore them anymore.  We called in the anesthesiologist who gave me my epidural - AKA an angel who delivered the God sent drug that made all the pain go away.  I got very lucky as I only had 3 or 4 truly painful contractions before the epidural kicked in.

Now that I was pain free again, it was just a waiting game for baby girl to arrive.  5 hours later, it was time to go! Pushing was NOT an easy task,  I felt like my head was going explode by the end of each push, but thankfully those only lasted for 3 sets of 8 seconds. I was very fortunate because I had an amazing team of nurses that would have made great workout partners.  Their instructions were so spot on, I was able to push baby girl out in just under 20 minutes!! 

Before I knew it, baby Aurora was on my chest, beautifully screaming announcing her own arrival.  

Just like that - our whole world changed <3  Best marathon finish ever!

Now it is time to start our next marathon - life as a family of 3 (well, 4 with Miss Bella of course!)

For those of you just ending your pregnancy marathon, here are my hospital bag must haves that were essential during my delivery:

1. Birthing Outfit: You can use the gown the hospital gives you, or if you want to glam up your photos a little bit, then I recommend this set! The robe that came with it matched nicely with my postpartum outfit as well!
2. Postpartum Outfit: I am SO happy I brought this outfit.  The hospital gowns are not very soft, and you have to literally untie half of the outfit just to breastfeed.  This dress was beyond soft and made feeding SO much easier.  Plus I actually felt cute in this dress, which did wonders for my mental state as well.  I think I have worn this dress more times since being home than any other outfit!
3. Pregnancy Pillow: Honestly I didn't love sleeping with this pillow while I was pregnant, but I did use it a TON when I was watching Netflix. At the hospital though it was a life saver! The pillows at the hospital are fairly flat, you need about 6 of them to get any real support.  This pillow worked both during labor and as a breast feeding pillow because I was able to wrap the legs around my waist for support.
4. Breast Pump - I received this Spectra breast pump free with my insurance! I didn't use it at the hospital but I am glad I had it with me so the lactation specialist could go over how to use it.
5. Slippers - not going to lie I didn't use mine at all! During COVID-19 we were allowed to leave our room, so that meant no walking up and down the halls.  I did have socks on though!
6. Amazon FireStick - I had my husband hook this up to the TV in our room so we could watch whatever we wanted.  It definitely made the hours go by faster.
7. Bluetooth speakers- when the time came to start pushing, I had my husband throw on Don Omar station on Pandora to give me a little motivation music to listen to.  Most people play "spa-like music", but not me.  Not going to lie, I may or may not have been dancing in my bed between contractions :) 
8. Clothes for Dad - Since he wasn't allowed to leave either, we brought two changes of clothes for him as well.  Usually they allow you to stay for 2 nights in the birthing suite, so plan accordingly 
9. Toiletries - the only items we actually used were the toothbrush, toothpaste and face wash, but it was so nice having the option of everything else. 
10. Photo Light - not even ashamed that I brought this with me and set it up in our room.  Since we weren't allowed to have visitors, we didn't have anyone to take photos for us.  Sure we could have asked our nurses, but you can't ask them to take multiple photos or expect them to know which lighting looks best.  Well with this light we were able to take our own amazing selfies, our first family photos and have the angles and lighting exactly like we wanted.
11. Other items - below are the other items we brought based on recommendations from online lists and friends, but honestly did not even think about using
1. Deck of cards - Honestly we just wanted TV the entire time.
2. Dry shampoo - Since I was induced I was able to wash my hair before heading to the hospital so I didn't need to use any
3. Sleeping mask and ear plugs - since no one was allowed to leave their room due to the COVID-19 restrictions, there wasn't really any excessive noise or light we needed to shut out
4. Towels - Hospital towels aren't that soft, so everyone recommended we brought our own. We didn't shower at the hospital though so for us it was just another extra item