Hey everyone today I wanted to share with you something different. I have been spending a lot of time away from blogging, planning and such because I have been focused on getting used to a new routine with our little newborn baby. Now that she’s almost 3 months I feel like I have much more time to blog. But I haven’t had much material to blog about because all I ever think about now is my cute little baby girl and trying to keep the family in order and house in check. So be prepared for more home & family type posts.

Anyways today’s post will be about my labor and delivery story of my little Sophia. I gave birth to her at the end of December of 2016.  I logged some of my contractions and thoughts in the notes section of my iPhone during the last few weeks and I just wanted to share. this pregnancy was completely different from my first two pregnancies. I have two little boys, Pierce, 5, and Jax, 3. My pregnancies with them were pretty much identical in my pregnancy symptoms, and labor and delivery. I gave birth naturally with all 3 of my children. I didn’t really have a preference to start with but since I was in the midwife program when I was in San Diego with my first son they swayed me with all the benefits of having a natural delivery. And ever since I just stuck with it. So here is a timeline and my notes during this last pregnancy:

12/14/2016 3:28am

I am sitting on the couch because laying in bed then trying to get up is the most painful feeling ever! I’ve been getting contractions every 15 minutes or so but they don’t hurt at all. Just a little uncomfortable. I’ve been googling all night. I think I may be in early labor! They say this can last 6-12 hours. According to my last menstrual period my due date is 12/21. I went to my now weekly prenatal doctor appointment today and he told me that I was 2-3cm and 70% effaced. Already! I hope she comes soon! He didn’t say anything about her coming early just that it will probably be a fast labor! With the boys’ pregnancies I was always at 1cm up until labor came! I’ve been having lots of Braxton hicks contractions (non painful & irregular contractions) I’m wondering if that had to do with helping me dilate earlier. I didn’t know I was having any contractions but apparently I have been and thought they were just me being uncomfortable. Everything I google is like “it may be this, but everyone is different” so I never know for sure, no one ever knows for sure when you’re going to go into labor. These early contractions I’ve been having for weeks apparently has been helping me dilate and efface. Which is good because it means when I actually go into labor then it should be shorter and easier since I’ll already be ready! I so hope this pregnancy doesn’t go past my due date like my previous two! With my first I wasn’t ready at all pre-labor. I had false labor contractions for hours 2 days after my due date. But then it just went away. Then 2 days later I had super painful contractions all night long! He wasn’t born until the next morning!  My 2nd was pretty similar to my first but not as much back labor pain. But I knew when I was in labor because of the pain. This is so different. But then again this whole pregnancy has been completely different.

First off morning sickness with this pregnancy — horrible! With my boys I would just throw up and be fine the rest of the day. But with this pregnancy for the first 2 months I was so nauseous and sick feeling all day long!! I had to be in bed for days.

Next was cravings — with the boys it wasn’t much different from my regular cravings. But this pregnancy, I craved for super spicy foods! My tolerance level for spice was so high! I ate stuff I never would’ve survived before. I had a jar of pickles with my hot sauce every week! Towards the end though I started craving healthy foods and sweets of course. Then the spicy foods craving just completely disappeared.

Lastly in the 3rd trimester was my pelvic pain. With the boys I walked fine right up until I gave birth with no pelvic pressure or pain. But this pregnancy, ever since I turned 32 weeks I’ve been feeling painful pelvic pressure and pain. In the beginning it wasn’t that bad. But now at 39 weeks I can barely walk. It hurts every time I lay down for a while and then try to get up. Once I warm up and stretch it goes away but as soon as I lay down again it starts to hurt all over again. There’s pelvic pain whenever I move one leg at a time. Putting on pants is a real struggle for me.

Nesting was all the same with all 3 kids, I’m just an organized girl who has to be ready. This week I switched my office and kids’ room up. Of course I had my husband do all the heavy lifting. But I was walking back and forth a million times for hours carrying all the little stuff and organizing everything. Maybe that’s why I’m getting contractions now ?

12/23/2016 8:35am

Due date has passed, baby is 2 days late! Last night we went walking around the mall, I did my walking exercises in the house and was getting only 1-2 contractions here and there but a lot of movement in my pelvis area. This morning I woke up and was disappointed that there was nothing in my underwear lol, but I wiped and a big ‘ol mucus plug with a little brownish coloring came out! Then another wipe and this was a bit more with more blood in it! Yay!!! They say the bloody show is a sign of oncoming labor in a few days! Hopefully contractions come soon so we can have our baby girl now and home for Christmas!

12/23/2016 1:42pm

Still having irregular contractions. Started walking, did a mile workout and some dancing on my exercise ball but still nothing painful or regular yet. Started doing some of the spinning babies exercises, they feel so great for my pelvic pain, and really feels like it’s making the baby move down and in right position! I’ve always had problems with my babies faced the wrong way when coming out so it made labor harder for me (lots of back pain, lots of hard pushing).

December 26th night – December 27th 12:26am

Today we walked around the mall and shopped a lot. Took a bath when we got home and drank like 6 cups of the Third Trimester Tea (red raspberry leaf teas and thyme). I drank them back to back. Now I’m finally feeling contractions but in my lower back and lower abs. Nothing painful but just awkward because baby is moving around a lot. Feels like baby is punching or kicking but feels “poppy” hard to explain I don’t know how to explain it really. But hopefully this is the start of real labor! Going to be now and hoping I wake up with a baby coming!

3:20am

Just woke up to a super painful contraction!!! Is it time?! Is this real? I can barely walk because it feels like my groin bones are on fire.

3:34am
Had another one! Took my breath away lasted a minute and was 17 minutes apart from the last one!

The delivery:

Baby Sophia was born at 7:57am!!! Finally!! My contractions got stronger and closer together by 4:00am. By 5:00am they were 10 mins apart and by 6:00am they were only 5mins apart we didn’t even wait for an hour like we were supposed to because this baby was coming! We went straight to the hospital got there around 6:30am. They checked me in and I was already 8cm!!  I threw up and my water broke a little. I was very shaky (hormones?) They rushed quickly and transferred me to labor and delivery. I had a few very painful contractions, the doctor came in and checked me and I was already at 9cm. He popped the rest of my water bag and we just waited. I tried peeing but couldn’t at all, I just sat on the toilet for a long time and had another painful contraction. When I went back to bed they were coming so close together. Doctor came in and checked me again and said I’m ready. I started pushing. Took about 5 sessions of 3 pushes and she finally crowned. What really helped was the nurse telling me to curl my body head down and counting to 10 with my pushing. Soon after she was born!!! Total labor of only 4-5 hours!! Yay! She was born a healthy 7 lb 8 oz and 21 inches long!

Sophia is now 3 months and a healthy and happy little girl. As much as I’ll miss the experience of creating another life, my husband and I have decided that this will have to be it for us. We have our 2 boys and a girl. It’s time to focus on them and watch them all grow. And my sister-in-law made a great point the other day about traveling costs. She has 4 boys and said traveling for family of 6 is ridiculously expensive. Since we have never really traveled, Paul and I definitely want to and plan on taking more family trips across the world.

So that’s my birth story! I hope you enjoyed and maybe took something away from this post. Thanks for reading.