Bentlee's birth

Everyone asks me if our labor and delivery experience was worse or better than I expected. Definitely better. She was born only 7 hours after we arrived at the hospital and looking back, it only seems like a few. After several days of walking, swinging my hips in a ridiculous manner, eating spicy foods, and a couple other things I won't mention, I gave up and just let nature take its course. And I officially don't believe any of that crap, because two days later is when it all went down. (Although the day I did go into labor, I DID eat some fresh pineapple which is supposedly supposed to help. But I happened to pick that up at Sam's Club that day mainly because the sample I had tasted so good.) Anyway, my water broke at 12:30 Friday morning. Luckily a friend had suggested putting something down to protect our mattress which I had just started doing a few days prior. I jumped out of bed, spent several minutes in the bathroom (the water kept coming and coming...) and when I came out Kyle was waiting by the door dressed and ready to go. He had even loaded everything in the car. By the time I woke my mom, went BACK into the bathroom for a while and then ended up taking a shower, an hour had passed before we arrived at the hospital. They started me on pitocin almost right away because they wanted my contractions closer together and I couldn't believe how fast it started working. My contractions were 2 minutes apart and REALLY intense. The nurse told me to let her know when I wanted my epidural and I wanted it then, but I felt like such a baby. After much hesitation on my part, Kyle finally pushed the nurse's button to let her know I was ready. Either he couldn't stand to see his wife in such pain, or he was tired of me complaining. :) I'm so glad I got it when I did, because at that point I was dilated to 2, and when they checked me 50 minutes later the nurse said, "You're not going to believe this...." I was already a 7 and it probably would have been too late for an epidural. 20 minutes later I was a 9. I was especially surprised because they had stopped the pitocin way earlier. Once I was complete they had me do something called "rest and descend". Basically I rested for an hour (it was closer to an hour and a half...we still aren't convinced this wasn't code for the doctor isn't here yet) and then pushed. It is supposed to decrease pushing time/stress on the baby for first timers. It seemed to work, because I only pushed for 20 minutes! My epidural had worn off enough by the time I was ready to push  that I could really feel my contractions. It made for a super painful 20 minutes, but it probably helped me do a better job. Feeling her come out of me was THE weirdest and most wonderful feeling ever. I can't describe the joy I felt with Kyle standing next to me as we watched our precious baby that WE created come into this world. One of my fears was that it would take a while to get her to breath, so it was relieving to us all when she took her first breath and started crying the second she was out. They asked Kyle if he wanted to cut the cord, but he had the doctor do it. I don't blame him, I think I would be too scared to do it. We both just sort of watched in awe as the nurses cleaned, weighed and measured her. I'm not sure who I watched more, the baby or Kyle. I loved the instant connection we both felt. I knew how much he loved that baby already because I loved her just as much. I love watching him with her. He's been such a great daddy since those first few minutes. He was able to go with the nurse and watch them bathe her. I'll never forget the moment he brought her back to me with a little blue bow in her hair that he picked out. I am seriously the luckiest girl in the world to have them both. The rest of our hospital stay was perfect. Kyle was ready to get home but I would have loved to stay longer. It was great to lounge around all day, visit with close family and friends, cuddle my new baby, push a button to have pain meds or anything else I wanted brought to me, pick up the phone every time I wanted something to eat, send Bentlee to the nursery when I wanted to sleep, etc. And there was something about those precious few hours after everyone had left and it was just Kyle and I and the baby. I can't wait to do it all again some day! SOME day...... :)

My nurses were great. There was a shift change about 2 hours before Bentlee was born and our nurse was super bummed about missing it. She even asked if she could stay but they wouldn't let her. She looked like she was going to cry as she left the room. The only bummer about the whole experience is that our Doctor wasn't able to deliver her. She got back from her 8 day vacation at 10:00 am that day, and Bentlee was born at 8:30. She missed it by 90 minutes! I really the liked the doctor that covered for her...not too sure how I feel about her resident that asked me if he could "be there for my delivery" and then was the one that ACTUALLY delivered her and stitched me up and EVERYTHING. But, I'm over it. All that matters is our Bentlee is here and healthy! And we could not be happier!!

This slideshow is super slow. I thought you would be able to flip through the pictures faster but I'm not sure you can...sorry!