Birth Story with photos =)

Finally!

My water broke and we were on our way to the hospital. This is me at 39 weeks and 5 days pregnant.

The most joyous part of this is that we had decided to induce on Friday night, May 29 since nothing was happening and we were ready for the baby to come. We had still planned to do things as naturally as possible after the induction. We were really praying about if we should induce and although we felt like it was ok we still weren't super excited about it. I had been praying all day that God would make it very clear if we shouldn't go ahead with the induction. I was exhausted and just wanted to meet this baby girl. I left work that day about 11:30 AM and then Josh and I spent the afternoon shopping and ate a nice early dinner around 3:30. We got home around 4:30 and were finishing packing and cleaning house before our time for induction which was 8:30 PM. At 5:15 PM I coughed and to my amazement my water broke! I was still not quite sure since I wasn't having contractions so we went to the hospital.Here I am in triage. Most definitely water has broken they said. There was meconium in the fluid so this meant baby was in distress, she wanted out. It also started the timer, she needed to be delivered within 24 hours. We walked for 3 hours while we waited for a room to open up! There were a lot of babies being born this day but I was so glad that God answered my prayer. I have no doubt that He heard our cries for direction. We are so blessed to serve the Master Physician!
After 3 hours of walking we were only at 60% effacement and barely 1 cm dilated. We decided to start pitocin to see if that would help. We gradually turned up the dosage for a few hours and tried to labor without the epidural. The pitocin started contractions hard and fast and they were unlike anything I have ever felt. After 3 hours of these contractions I still had not progressed any more. We decided to start the epidural. They started me on a prett high dosage which did not react well with my low blood pressure and ended up having to give me some other drugs to keep my blood pressure up which in turn kept the baby's heart rate up. It was a very long night and morning with having to be monitored so often due to the BP and heart rate issues. Around 10:30 AM, May 30 I was finally dilated to 8 cm, and baby was at station +1. I was finally able to push around 12:00 noon on Saturday, May 30.
Exactly 19 hours after my water broke precious Avalyn Marie entered this world. I only pushed for 15 minutes. She was posterior which typically takes a while to push or ends in c-section and that also explains why labor was taking so long. From the looks of her head she was stuck for a while on my pelvis! She came out a little bit blue due to her cord being wrapped twice around her neck but they got her some oxygen and suctioned out all the meconium from her mouth and she was good to go!

Our doula, Nicki. She was amazing and it was so nice to have a familiar face join us in the delivery room after such a long night!Who needs a boppy when you have a sweet black Lab princess??

Hopefully she'll fill out these pants soon!
Our lives have totally been turned upside down and we are so happy that God chose to bless us this way. We cannot fathom His love for us, that he would entrust us with His creation. That He created Avalyn for us to enjoy just as he made the mountains and the trees and the clouds in the sky, she is part of His masterpiece-wow.
We love you sweet girl, your life is a miracle to us.