Remembering Audrey's Birth Day

Today seems like a good day to re-live what happened just one year ago today, the birth of our daughter, Audrey. The year has gone by so fast and now that her first birthday is here it all feels a bit bittersweet. How exciting that my little girl is growing up, but she's growing up too fast and the memories are just flying by. After Audrey's birth I immediately wrote up her birth story, so that I could re-read and sort of re-live that amazing experience any time I wanted. I'm so glad to have this memoir. Enjoy the slideshow too!

"It was amazing from start to finish!! We checked into the hospital on Monday, March 26th at 7:30pm for my induction. We got a room, settled in and they started the Cytotech to get my cervix ripened. I got another Cytotech a little after midnight and after that my contractions were strong enough to go on their own. From then on I was pretty much up from 3am on Tuesday morning, b/c my contractions had started to get worse and my back hurt.

By 6:30am Jeff was there and I was having contractions 3-5 minutes apart and I was 2 centimeters. They even got closer (1-3 minutes), but they weren't really on regular intervals for they gave me pitocin around 9am. Well, that made my contractions timelier and really got them strong. I labored for the next two hours without any drugs and mainly just used the birthing ball and was a breathing freak!

Well my doctor stopped by around 11am to see how I was progressing and told me she could break my water or I could get the epidural. I decided on the epidural. My doctor left the room and called the office to inform them that she needed her afternoon office cleared, b/c I was going to have a baby around 2pm. I didn’t hear this conversation, but my nurse told me! It still seemed so far away though. I was at 5 -6 centimeters and 70% effaced and at this point the contractions were really strong and breathing through them was getting tougher. I still can’t decide which was worse though… the contractions or the epidural!

Getting the epidural was traumatic for me, b/c they couldn't get the huge needle in between the bones in my spinal column, so they had to redo it five times and he was digging around in there w/ the needle hitting bone. Not fun!! So for the 30 minutes they tried to get the epidural started I was having major contractions and started to get the labor shakes. It took two nurses to hold me still. They finally got it started though and my anesthesiologist felt so bad for me, but he was very sweet... he kept saying the reason he couldn't get it in was b/c my spinal column was so small b/c I was skinny. I was like, "I love you!! You said I'm skinny!!" Afterwards, my doctor checked me and I was 7cm and 90% effaced and then she broke my water!

So the epidural finally brought relief and I could feel my contractions, but it was nothing like before. It was mainly just lots of pressure really low. I was so sleepy and everyone kept telling me to nap, but not more than 30 minutes later I was really feeling the urge to push. It was unmistakable! The nurse & doctor checked me and I was almost a 10, so they had me do a practice push and sure enough I was a 10 within seconds. So they got me into position and during each contraction I would do three strong pushes with Jeff counting and my Mom reassuring me. After just 4-5 contractions and lots of pushing I could feel her head and after one more contraction and a hard push she was out--I pushed for about 20 minutes. Audrey Burke was born at 2:08pm! It was so amazing when they laid her up on my chest! I just kept staring down at her thinking, “Wow, she’s here! We did it!” I couldn’t believe I had done it—it was a magical moment for Jeff and me.

I had a 2^nd degree tear, but was quickly stitched up while watching my baby get all her measurements done. She has the sweetest little cry and barely made a peep during her first bath. Before long she was back in my arms again and we were bonding and just staring at each other. I felt really pretty good after my delivery and was asking to get up and out of bed just a half hour afterwards. My legs barely felt numb at all. All in all it was the most amazing experience of my life. Everyone always tells you how amazing this is, but seriously... I had no idea it would be THIS amazing!! It was the ultimate high!!"

So, here are the details...
Audrey Burke
March 27, 2007 at 2:08PM
7 pounds 6 ounces
18.5 inches long
possible curly red hair sprouting