Kayla's Birth Story

For 2 and a half years my husband and I tried to conceive a child. We were soon frustrated after a couple of months of trying and eventually forgot about constantly trying . I guess God knew when it was the best time because I became pregnant right after I received a huge promotion at work, my husband started working for a better company and we purchased our first home. It was such a wonderful surprise to us and we could hardly wait for our baby's birthday.

My pregnancy was very easy. I did not experience any morning sickness (which was wonderful), backache or swelling. I attended Jazzercise classes up until my 8th month. I thought it was great until the last 3 weeks. I was very uncomfortable and practically screaming for the baby to come out. I was walking all over the place to help out the process. A week before my due date my baby still had not dropped. Finally it happened...

On 1/3/01 I woke up for work and noticed that I was spotting. Being both nervous and excited, I called my doctor hoping she would tell me to leave for the hospital. To my disappointment, I was just informed to hang in there because my water did not break and I was not having any contractions. So I went to work like normal. That night, I started feeling cramping sensations, but they were not regular or uncomfortable. During the night, I kept waking up from the contractions. I tried timing them, but I kept falling to sleep in between contractions. Finally, I woke my husband up about 2am and we counted until 4am. At that time they were 3-5 minutes apart. We called the doctor and she told us to leave for the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital about 5:30am and were settled in by about 6am. At that point I was checked and announced to be 4cm dilated. I just couldn't believe how much I was dilated. I thought for sure the hospital was going to turn us back home. I was given Pitocin to speed up the process and my doctor broke my water bag. Two hours later, I was 8 cm. By that time I was hurting from the contractions. The nurses were trying to convince me to have the baby naturally because I was so close and doing so well. But just because I was not screaming in pain, does not mean that it did not hurt. An epidural was administered as I requested and an hour later I was ready to push. I was wheeled into the delivery room at 11am and with three pushes I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl at 11:10am. I did not feel a thing. It was so quick and wonderful - thanks to the epidural!

Kayla is now 2 months old and just a joy in our lives. We could not imagine life without her. I'm also breastfeeding and it's so fulfilling just to know that my baby is growing from me. Overall because of the great experience I had, I would definitely try again.