Our birth story for Miss Bailey did not quite go as I had envisioned it!
We were on meds and partial bedrest for months to hold labor off, so when I hit 37 weeks, I expected a quick arrival of our girl. The kidney stent did not help my pain, and I was ready.
The Sunday before she was born, we had 1 false labor episode, but were sent home with no progress. I had contractions off and on the entire next week, but still nothing that was too intense or progressive. By Friday, I was miserable. I called my dad and Lianna and asked if they wanted to go with me to Bass Pro, so that Ashlynn could get some attention, and I could try and walk this baby out. I did not really think it would work, it just felt like I was doing something!
We spent the day eating spicy food and walking until I couldnt walk anymore!
That afternoon, we sat around the house. I was having contractions, but nothing that was new or different. All of a sudden, my stomach did this:
It was painful, and weird! It just went completely off to the left. After this, it stayed hard and uncomfortable for most of the night.
We went to bed around 10:30 that night. I was having more painful contractions, but they were still only about 12-15 minutes apart. Around 1 a.m., they all of a sudden went to every 3-5 minutes. They were painful, and I called the doctor after 45 minutes (15 minutes early than I was supposed to). He said to go ahead and come in.
While getting ready and getting Ashlynn up, my water broke. We called my mom to meet us at the hospital, and headed out. On the way, sweet Ashlynn was so upset because she could tell I was in pain. When we exited for the hospital, I got a sudden urge to push. I yelled at Mark to run the red light, and to call and tell our parents to come, and tell them that they probably wouldn't make it!
When we arrived at the hospital, there was no one to run me up to L&D. The security guard had to sit with Ashlynn (who was in the car screaming!) while Mark took me up. As he went back down to get her, the nurse ran me back to a room.
They went to check how dilated I was, and didn't have to. She could see the head! This was at 2:45 am. They started furiously putting an IV in and trying to see how far away Dr. E was. At this point, I was not even sure that Mark would make it back up in time. I wanted to push, but they kept telling me to wait until they got an IV in.
Once Mark arrived, a sweet nurse took Ashlynn to the nurses desk and he ran in with me. At this point they were still working on an IV (the first blew!), but they told me just to go ahead and push. All that I remember about this point was yelling a lot about needing medicine, or an epidural.
3 pushes later, our sweet Bailey girl was born!
I then had to lay there waiting on Dr. E to arrive to finish the delivery process. Yes, that means that 6 incredible nurses and not my doctor delivered our baby!
It was the fastest 17 minutes of my life! I was exhausted, and finally got a little bit of pain medication once Dr. E arrived! Mark was so incredible and encouraging through out the entire process, even when I didn't think I could do it.
We were so blessed that we had a safe delivery, and that we made it to the hospital when we did! Had we not called 15 minutes early, we may not have made it. God's timing is always perfect. Our sweet Bailey has already been such a blessing to our family, and we cannot wait to watch what God's plans are for her and her sister!




