Well, after 38 1/2 weeks of pregnancy, I was definitely ready to meet my beautiful daughter! Brad was at work on Valentine's Day, so I crashed at my parents house for the day. I had been having contractions off and on for a couple weeks, but that night around 6 pm they got worse...much worse. I tried really hard to convince myself they were just Braxton Hicks because Brad wasn't there and I was determined that she wasn't going to come even a minute before my due date. I decided to just sit in pain with Todd, Catrina, and my parents until Brad got off work and picked me up. Once Brad got to their house, I was convinced that even though my contractions had been 5 minutes apart, lasting over a minute each for 3 hours straight that I wasn't in labor. We went home and while Brad fell asleep, I laid in bed until the morning still having contractions. At about 8 am, I called my doctors office to see if they thought I should go to the hospital. Because I had been dilated 3 cm and 80% effaced since 36 weeks, they didn't hesitate to send me to the hospital. I decided to shower and make sure everything was packed before we left for the hospital. At about 10 am we checked into Labor and Delivery to start the baby monitoring. I couldn't believe it!
Then began the fun part. More waiting. By this time I was dilated to 5 cm and 100% effaced. Only 5 more to go! They decided that Dr. Glenn should come in and break my water to get things moving a lot faster. Before he got there, the nurses started an IV on me. I could not believe how painful this part was! My nurse tried on my left hand and blew the vein. She then missed the vein completely on my right side and decided to go get a better nurse to try again. That nurse had to fish around on my left hand for what seemed like forever, but she finally got the IV in. I was not very happy with the nurses because it hurt so badly! After they got the IV in, the anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural. I felt when he gave me the numbing shot, but when he said he was done with the epidural, I thought he was joking. I didn't feel it at all! That was the part I was most worried about, and I had no idea he had done it at all. What a blessing! The epidural worked really quickly and was the best decision for me! Soon after I got my epidural, Dr. Glenn showed up to break my water. That was quick and painless as well, thanks to the epidural!
After all of that fun stuff, we just kept waiting. The nurse came in about every hour to see how much I had progressed. To pass the time, Brad had brought a season of the TV show Scrubs, so we watched a few episodes of that and some TV. By about 6 pm my contractions started to hurt very badly. The nurse contacted Dr. Glenn and they decided that because I was officially fully dilated that I would start pushing at 7:30 pm, after about an hour of rest. I was excited when the nurse told me that the average pushing time was 2 hours because that meant that I was so close to being able to hold my baby girl! Brad was so helpful in this process - even when I got mad at him because he was counting to 10 too slow! I kept looking at the clock to calculate how much longer I had until the 2 hour mark. The nurse kept telling me that the baby was getting closer and closer and that I was doing so well, but I still didn't have my daughter in my arms after 2 hours of pushing. What luck! Dr. Glenn showed up about 9:30 pm to check on my progress. The end of my labor was finally in sight! Thank goodness, because by now I hadn't slept in a couple days and I was practically asleep in the delivery room!
At 10:11 pm, my beautiful daughter was born. At that moment, I was so grateful that Brad was there and that our family had grown more complete. After Brad cut her umbilical cord and the nurses cleaned her up a little bit, I got to hold her for the first time. Even though I was completely exhausted, that was such an incredible moment that I will never forget. I could not believe that she was finally in my arms and that she was absolutely perfect. The nurses then took her to the warming table to clean her up even more, give her the vitamin K shot and the eye drops, and take her first measurements. She weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 inches long.
I got to hold her again and still couldn't believe that she was mine. It was so surreal that the 38 weeks of waiting, preparing, and planning was over! After seeing her and holding her, we decided to name her Sarah Naomi Larsen. Sarah is a family name on both sides of the family, and Naomi is my Grandma Brewer's middle name. I absolutely love her name and it is so perfect for her. Our parents had been in the waiting room for hours and it was getting really late, so we let them come in the room to see our baby. It was such a happy experience but I'm pretty sure I only remember half of it because I was SO tired and SO hungry. I remember how glad I was that they were all there, though!
After our parents left, the nurses took Sarah to the nursery to wash her, check her vitals, and get her dressed. While they did this, I ate some snacks and then they took me to my room on the Mother/Baby floor. After a few minutes, Brad and Sarah came into our room. We settled in for the night at about 12:30 am. I didn't sleep well that night even though I was extremely tired because I couldn't stop thinking about how much my life had changed in such a short time. I was happy that she had arrived safely and that she was so perfect!
I'm so glad that everything went well with her birth and I'm even more glad that the first month of her life has been such a wonderful experience. It's been really hard and really tiring, but it's been so worth it. Brad has been such a great help with Sarah and he is such an amazing father. I really appreciate all he does when he is at home. Our families have also been a great help to us, especially when Brad is at work. I'm so grateful that our families are so close and that they are always willing to help with anything that we need. I have learned to much from my mom over the last month and could not imagine how much harder this all would have been without her so close!
Sarah is growing more and more each day. She is such a healthy baby. Most of the time she is a pretty good sleeper, but some nights are still so hard because she wants to stay awake all night! Her newborn clothes are starting to get a little tight and I am dreading the day when she can't wear them anymore. They are so cute! She has lots of cute clothes that are bigger, though, so it will be okay. Sarah is so unbelievably strong. She has liked tummy time since week 1 and is always looking around and lifting her head up. Her facial expressions are constantly making us laugh and she tends to smile right before she spits up. We love the fun things that she does every day and we even love when she explodes out of her diaper or spits up everywhere. I can't think of anything that we don't just absolutely love about her! She is such an incredible blessing that has been placed in our lives and I am forever grateful for the great blessing she is within our family. She is just the best!!
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