Birth Story: Claire Murphy and Her Three Babes

Baby Number 1

This story marks one of the most pivotal moments of my life (obviously…it’s the birth of my son!) and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of sharing this story! (Also, as a head up, this story may feature a little bit of TMI.)

Labor and birth were completely unexpected in every single way, including the way it got started.  I had prodromal labor for nearly three weeks before his birthday.  Almost every evening (and sometimes during the days), I would have mild contractions that would be timeable and consistent.  I would go to bed every night, wondering if I would wake up to intense contractions and it would be go-time.  Every morning, I woke up still very pregnant and disappointed that our baby wasn’t coming to meet us yet.  I had prayed every day that our son would join us when the time was right, whatever that time was.  It was extremely trying and difficult to trust in God and His timing, and everyday I found myself frustrated that God’s timing wasn’t right now.  I knew in my heart that when it was the right time, everything would turn out perfectly (spoiler alert: they did.)

The night before going into labor was Sunday night.  My husband and I did our usual Sunday routine of going to church, getting Dunkin Donuts coffee, relaxing at home, and going on a walk around sunset when the weather had cooled down.  My husband had a five day weekend and we were hoping that B would have been born during the weekend, but it looked like we were going to just have to wait.  Since he hadn’t come yet, we were both convinced that he wouldn’t be coming until at least the following weekend, which was my due date.  That evening, we talked to B in my belly and tried to convince him to make his appearance.  I told him that if he wanted to be anything like his father, that he would be born tomorrow, which was Labor Day.  My husband, like many funny people, loves puns, so how funny would it have been if B put me into labor on Labor Day?

We went to bed that evening, expecting tomorrow to be a normal, work-free Monday.  My husband slept in until about 7:30 and decided to go to the gym.  As usual, I turned over and went back to sleep.  A little before 8, I woke back up because I had to go the bathroom; nothing unusual for a woman who was 39 weeks pregnant.  As I stood up, I something trickle out, and I figured it was just normal discharge.  When I went into the bathroom, I was shocked to find that it seemed like I had my bloody show.  I had been losing my mucus plug for weeks little by little, so I knew that it could mean absolutely nothing, but I was anxious because of the blood.  I texted Aaron (my husband) to let him know that I had my bloody show and he reminded me that my doctor told me to call if that happened because I had been having so much prodromal labor.  I gave her a call and she asked me if I was having any contractions.

“Uh…I don’t think so.  I just woke up like 10 minutes ago.” I told her.

“Well, keep us updated!”

And like that, the phone call was over.  However, I was a little concerned because I kept wiping and each time, there was still blood.  I sat on the toilet for at least 10 minutes, wiping, feeling more and more concerned.

While I was on the phone with the doctor, Aaron came home from the gym.  He was convinced that today would be the day, so he decided to start shaving so he would look nice and clean for pictures later.  I decided that if this was the real deal, I was going to shower, because who knew how long it would be until I could shower again.  After getting out of the shower, I put a pad on, and was going to attempt to go about my day until I began to feel contractions.

At some point, I had a thought that maybe it wasn’t my bloody show; maybe my water had broken.  I had never heard of your waters being pink or having blood in it.  I also thought your waters were supposed to be just that–super watery–but it wasn’t necessarily like that, so I was confused.

Fairly shortly after I got out of the shower, I began to feel contractions that felt like period cramps.  I won’t say they were mild because they definitely hurt, but I was going to try to ignore them until I couldn’t anymore.  Aaron had made me a breakfast burrito, so I attempted to eat that in between contractions while bouncing on my yoga ball and watching “Superstore.”  Very, very quickly, my contractions went from feeling like period cramps to feeling like I wanted to punch a wall in order to cope with them.  By about 10 a.m., I was at the point where I could no longer walk or talk through my contractions.  Aaron told me to call the doctor and let them know we were coming in.

I was starting to get extremely nervous.  This was it.  This was the day we would be meeting our son.  It had felt like any other day when I had woken up, so how could this possibly be the day?

I am so very grateful that my favorite doctor was on call that day at the hospital and that it was a holiday so traffic wasn’t bad.  The 7 minute drive to the hospital has been almost completely blocked from my memory.  I can’t remember if it was awful to be in the car  while in labor, I just know that somehow we made it to the hospital.

We got into triage and I let them know that I wasn’t sure if my water had broken or not, but I knew that I was definitely having contractions.  The nurse set the monitors up and checked to see if it was my water that had broken.

“Yep! Your water broke! You’re having a baby today.”  The nurse said to us.  I was still in disbelief and shock, and now I was also annoyed that I had to stay laying in bed while I was having contractions.  I just wanted to stand and sway.

Once they got my into my room just a few minutes later, things become quite a blur.  We checked into the hospital at 10:50 a.m. and I think we were in our room by 11:30.  They set me up on the wireless monitors, did my IV, and all that other great stuff, and my contractions continued to be strong.  I had wanted to try to have a non-medicated birth, so eventually, Aaron and I were left in the room to labor alone.  We listened to Paraklesis on my phone, and I loved trying to listen to the hymns while laboring. Once we got to the point of “the intercession”, the intoning of all the list of saints made me want to pull my hair out, so we turned it off! My contractions began to pick up even more and I began to not be able to talk or move around even in between contractions.  The only way I felt comfortable was by slowing dancing and leaning all my weight on Aaron, or by leaning on a chair and swaying through the contraction.

Soon, the contractions felt like they were beginning to be too much for me.  I was shaking, hot, my legs hurt, and I just really want to lie down and rest.  I couldn’t believe that I would still have to push after this!  I asked Aaron what time it was, fully expecting it to be 3 p.m.  He told me it was 1:15.  I had only been doing this for a couple of hours?!  How was I supposed to keep doing this for several more hours?

“Babe, I can’t do this.  I can’t do this anymore.”  I said to Aaron during one of my short breaks during contractions.

“Do you want an epidural?”  He asked me.

I told him that I did.  He asked if I was sure, and then told me, “let’s wait an hour.”  Which was a phrase we were supposed to use if medical interventions were being pushed upon us that we didn’t want.

“NO! I want it now!”  I knew that it could take up to an hour from the anesthesiologist to be available, so I knew if I wanted it within the near future, now would be the time to ask.

Aaron called the nurse and she and the doctor came in.  “There’s no shame in getting the epidural.”  The nurse told me.  However, the anesthesiologist was in a c-section, so he wasn’t available in that moment.  Also, they wanted me to have a pint of fluids before receiving the epidural, so they hooked me up the IV, told me they’d page the anesthesiologist, and I would have the epidural shortly.

Two minutes later, I realized that my body had begun to push without me even trying.  “Uh…babe.  My body is pushing.”  I told Aaron.  I guess I was going to do this non-medicated after all!

He immediately paged the nurse, and she and the doctor returned to the room.  After checking me, the doctor confirmed that I was complete and it was time to push!  I started pushing on my hands and knees but quickly became too tired to continue in that position so I switched to laying on my back.

If I’m being honest, pushing was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.  I have heard that it can feel amazing because it feels productive and you’re so close to meeting your baby that pushing almost feels exciting.

No.  Just no.  It feels like pushing a bowling ball out of your body.  I didn’t even remember that I was trying to push out my son.

After about 45 very long, loud, vocal minutes, at around 2:30 p.m., my son was born!  He came out so perfect in every single way.  I was shocked as they placed him on my chest.  This was my son.  This was who had been inside me of me kicking me, making me feel so sick and tired and hot all these months.  This was the little cutie that was curled tightly inside of me for ten months, that we had been talking to and wondering who he would be.

He was and is all mine.

He was so much cuter than I ever imagined and he was so alert!  He didn’t look like anything I imagined, and it was crazy to know that in some ways, I already knew him, and in every other way, we still had to get to know each other.

We are now 12 days postpartum, and it has been the craziest, most magical, difficult almost two weeks of my life.  I am trying to soak up every single moment with him in these early stages, and I’m already almost mourning this newborn stage.  It’s true what they say: the nights are long but the days are short.

I am utterly exhausted, completely enamored, and unbelievably grateful.

Baby Number 2

Here is our sweet baby girl’s birth story (read at your own risk for TMI)…

Before going into labor, I wanted to spend more time in mental preparation for labor and delivery this time. I spent time working on visualizations, listening to Christian hypnobirthing, and using Orthodox birthing/labor affirmations. I had two losses prior to this pregnancy, so it was a very anxiety filled pregnancy - I was determined not to bring that anxiety into my labor and delivery. 

My mother in law and sister in law came to town on Friday evening, since my due date was nearing and they were going to hang around until baby was born. Also, Aaron’s nana (my mother in law’s mom) was sick, so my mother in law and sister in law were in town to visit her as well. Their plan was to stay with us thru the weekend, then go down to visit Aaron’s nana on Monday, and then come back up when I went into labor. Aarons nana lives about 1.5 hours from us, without traffic, and due to how fast my labor was with B, I was anxious I’d have a baby in my apartment. At the same time, I knew baby was going to come whether or not a medical professional was there to catch her, so I wasn’t too worried. 

We waited around all weekend for baby to make her appearance, and during the weekend, I developed a terrible cold (it wasn’t the dreaded virus that starts with a C, which I know for a fact because they tested me at the hospital when I was admitted). I spent the weekend coughing and blowing my nose and trying not to pee myself (oftentimes, unsuccessfully…thanks to a super weak pelvic floor due to pregnancy). 

Monday came and it was a blazing hot day. We (Aaron, B, my mother in law, and sister in law) went to the park in the morning, and then decided it was too hot to cook food, so we ordered chick fil a for lunch. My MIL & SIL left after lunch and I went to work for a couple of hours. I continued to cough and continued to pee myself every time I had a huge coughing fit. Thank God for postpartum pads. 

After I worked a couple of hours, I felt pretty gross overall and chalked it up to the fact that I had a cold and it was very hot. I laid down in bed and aaron took B on a walk. We had dinner, I worked a couple more hours, we put B to bed, I took a shower, and then I hung out with Aaron before bed. 

Around 1:30 in the morning, as was typical of me, I woke up to go to the bathroom and went back to bed. Around 2, I woke up again to mild cramping, but it was definitely coming in waves and a pattern. I figured, “if this is labor, it will intensify and I’ll know!” But in the meantime, I tried to go back to sleep: sleep is always a priority for me. After about 5 mins, it became clear this was labor. They were still mild but I couldn’t sleep through them. I downloaded a contraction timer on my phone just to confirm, and after timing my contractions for about 10 mins, the timer told me it was time to go to the hospital.

I ignored that message. 

Around 2:30, I woke Aaron up and said “my stomach hurts.”  He said, “what does that mean?” I was too anxious to say I was in labor because I was nervous to jinx it. He understood though and immediately got up. “Do we need to call my mom to come?”

“No, let’s wait until we are sure it’s the real deal.” I told him. 

Shortly after I woke Aaron up, I decided I needed to be on my hands and knees on my bed, leaning on my birth ball, rocking side to side. He kept asking me if we should call his mom, but I was nervous it would go away if we called her. Around 3, he finally convinced me we should call her. She said she would come as fast as she could, but they had to pack up their stuff and then drive, so it would probably take them two hours to get to us. 

I told Aaron that was fine – he wasn’t as convinced. 

I continued to labor on my hands and knees on my bed, moaning through each wave/contraction. They were painful, but I was handling them well overall. I was able to take each wave as it came. 

I called the hospital and told them I would be coming in around 5a. My doctor called me back (the one OB in my office I hadn’t met yet) and he said, “so you think you’re in labor?” And I said “nope, I know I’m in labor, I’ll see you around 5.” He told me he would be in a c section at that time, but he would meet me when he could. I told him no worries. 

The contractions were very close together but I was still managing well. I started to feel a lot more pressure, but not a “concerning” amount. Aaron was getting really nervous his mom wasn’t going to make it in time, so we tried to call some backups. No one picked up. I told him to stop stressing, we would make it to the hospital, and if we didn’t, we would be okay. 

Aarons sister kept texting us updates about their ETA. Aaron was scurrying around the house, getting everything we needed to get done and finishing packing the bags. I made him stop at one point and I said to him, “I need a hug.”

He said, “what’s wrong?”

“I’m scared.”

“Scared of what?”

“Of labor, of birth, of things changing”. I cried while he hugged me, and I think this was the moment I truly released all my fears of birth and labor and life after she would be here. I finally accepted I was in labor and that she would be here soon. 

I kept laboring until Aaron’s family was about 10 mins away. I started trying to head towards the door. When they got here, I was waiting on the back porch and as soon as they arrived, I moved as quickly as possible to get into the car – it took a while because I kept having contractions. I was starting to feel anxious and wanted to get to the hospital. 

Thankfully, we live 3 mins from the hospital. Even still, the ride felt like it took forever. I am a safety freak and am always very concerned with car safety, but I took my seatbelt off because the pressure of the seatbelt on my belly was too much. 

We arrived to the hospital a bit before 5a and had to go through the emergency room in order to be let in to the maternity ward. I had a contraction while in the emergency room and they immediately called security to let us up. 

Once we got to the maternity ward, they began trying to ask me questions and do the C virus screening, but I had a contraction while they were trying to do that. They asked Aaron what number kid this was and how long my other labor was, and they immediately disregarded the C screening questions and took me straight to a room – no triage. 

Once I got to the room, it was a bit of a whirlwind. They checked me, and I was 6 cm dilated and 90% effaced (or as Aaron says, I was at a “level 6”). 

They tried to put the monitors on, but I wanted to labor on my hands and knees on the bed there too. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a birthing ball that worked well to lean on, so I had to use a peanut ball – it wasn’t ideal but it worked.

The nurse told me they needed 20 mins of monitoring to establish a baseline. However, because of the way I was laboring, it was extremely difficult for them. One nurse held the monitor on my belly the entire time. They never ended up getting the twenty minutes they needed. Other nurses were asking me questions, putting in my hep-lock for my IV, and trying to take my blood pressure. They kept asking me to let them know when I wasn’t having a contraction to get my BP, but my breaks were never long enough to get an accurate BP reading. I continued to labor, riding each wave as it came, moaning through the contractions. I tried hard to relax my jaw, unclench my hands, relax my shoulders, and tried to remember to deep moan through each contractions. I kept thinking “release, release, release”. 

At one point, the doctor came in and introduced himself, but my eyes were closed and I didn’t turn around to say hi. 

I was in labor land and I wasn’t going to be disturbed. 

I continued to labor, when I got that undeniable and oh-so-strange feeling of my body pushing on its own. “My body is pushing!!” I called out. It felt weird to be at this point in labor because I never reached the feeling of “I can’t do this” or “this is too much!” I’ve heard that’s usually the indication you’re in transition but I never reached that point. The nurses reassured me it was okay but they needed to check me to ensure it was “okay” to push. They told me I had a bit of a cervical lip so they advised me not to push for fear that I would tear my cervix. I didn’t actively push but my body kept pushing on its own. Another nurse checked me and agreed I had a cervical lip. A few minutes later, the doctor arrived and checked me and said the lip was gone and I could push now!

I turned over to push on my back (because that is what felt comfortable to me), and the doctor advised me that baby girl was having some decelerations and that I would need to “get her out quickly”. I thought to myself, “okay, no problem, this isn’t my first rodeo”. 

I began pushing and it was painful, but I did my best to continue to low moan instead of high pitched scream. It honestly wasn’t awful though. With B, pushing was the worst part and this didn’t feel as terrible. Aaron kept encouraging me and was telling me how good of a job I was doing. I didn’t have the nurses coach me so I was able to push whenever I felt was necessary. At one point, Aaron told me, “she’s crowning, there’s her head!!” And I said “yeah, I know, I can feel it” (I get very sassy during birth). 

I continued pushing and was surprised: she was sunny side up (face up instead of face down). They told me to look down and see her, as I looked down at her, with only her head born, she started crying!! She wasn’t even fully out of me and she was crying. I pushed out the rest of her body (which will forever be the weirdest feeling on the planet) and she was put onto my chest. 

“She’s tiny!!” I said. I cried a little bit because I suddenly became overwhelmed with how she was here, finally here, my “rainbow baby”. After two losses, I really thought I’d never have another baby, but here she was!! She was perfect. I pushed her out in 10 minutes! 

I forgot to mention that I asked the doctor if my water broke and he asked me what time it broke. I said I didn’t know if it had broken! It seems like water may have broken/started leaking before I went into labor. I still have no official idea when but I think that maybe all my coughing the day prior where I was peeing myself wasn’t just pee 

My labor from start to finish was 4 hours long. The craziest thing is that basically as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I thought to myself “my labor will be 4 hours long”. And sure enough, it was. 

It was the most empowering experience of my life. I felt in control the entire time and while it was painful, it was never more than I could handle, mentally or physically. I still can’t believe I had such an “easy” labor (although I feel like I deserve it because pregnancy was awful haha). 

I am so thankful that this time around, my physical recovery has been much easier. I am so thankful for two beautiful children, a supportive and amazing husband, and uneventful births. I am thankful for my church family and all my friends who have brought coffee, food, company, or sent kind words. And selfishly, I am thankful for a summer baby instead of a fall baby.

Baby Number 3

Here we go with the birth story of baby no 3!!

I want to start off this story by saying that I have historically pretty fast labors. My other two were 6/6.5 and 4 hours total and I was very anxious going into this pregnancy that I would have a very very fast labor and no childcare for my two older kids.

I prayed the ENTIRE pregnancy for the timing of everything to be perfect - to have the right medical team, for my doula to make it, for my MIL to be in town, for baby girl to be fully ready to be born, etc. I fully trusted God would provide but I was still anxious about how it all would unfold.

Ever since 37 weeks, I had been having painful Braxton hicks/early labor feeling contractions that were so uncomfortable. There were even times that they were coming in waves and consistent but I knew they weren’t the real deal. My MIL was supposed to come to town when I was 39+1 (per my request given the history of my other labors) to come help with the other kids when I went into labor, but I was nervous I’d go into labor before then.

I got a cervical check at 37 weeks, which I’ve never done before, but I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced which made me nervous that I’d go into labor even earlier! (Spoiler alert: baby girl waited until my MIL came to town!) We all caught a cold when I was about 38 weeks pregnant which was so frustrating but I also went into labor with a cold with both of my other kids, so not unusual for me apparently!

I felt badly though because Aaron (husband) was feeling pretty horrible - thankfully, but the time labor rolled around, he was feeling better. We held on until Sunday when my MIL came to town! We ordered Chinese food and hung out that night, wondering if baby girl would make her appearance now that my MIL was here.

I went to bed that night and I slept HORRIBLY! I was up for multiple hours for no apparent reason. I was having contractions but I knew that they weren’t real labor contractions. That Monday, I had a drs appointment and I just felt so exhausted and still felt crampy, but nothing unusual from what I already felt. Because my MIL was in town for a limited amount of time, I weighed the pros and cons of a membrane sweep, and decided to ask for one at my appointment.

The NP said she “did her best” with the sweep, but that it was a bit difficult given the position of my cervix. The rest of the day, I tried to rest, eat (despite feeling yucky), I did what I could of the miles circuit, worked my shift at work, and then we watched a Hallmark Christmas movie. I also tried pumping but it didn’t seem to do anything. We went to bed early that night. I woke up around midnight to some contractions (same deal) and just prayed to God that either they ramp up or I was able to sleep instead. I couldn’t do another repeat night.

I was able to sleep but I tried to sleep using the exaggerated side lying position from miles circuit to encourage baby girl to move down into the pelvis as much as possible. Around 1:30, I coughed a little and felt some fluid. I questioned whether it was pee or if my waters broke, but I had peeing myself a lot from coughing so I just didn’t move and tried to fall back asleep and figured “if my water broke, I will know very soon and it’ll be super obvious”.

A few moments later, I felt quite a gush that continued and I knew then it was my water. I woke Aaron up immediately, “Aaron, my water broke.” “What?!” “My water broke! Please go get a towel quick!” We had pee pads under the sheets just in case this happened (and our mattress protector) but I just wanted to get up quickly as to not ruin the mattress! I hobbled to the bathroom and put on a huge postpartum pad.

I then called my doula, Zoe, and told her we’d be leaving for the hospital in about 30 mins. I wasn’t having any serious contractions yet and I considered hanging out at home even longer but I remember the chaos of arriving in active labor with my second and decided it would be best to go in earlier and labor at the hospital and get all the paperwork, IV, blood pressure, baseline for baby’s heartbeat, etc while things were still manageable.

The contractions did start coming in waves, maybe every 3 mins lasting 30 seconds each, but they were super easy to manage. I was able to talk in between them and even a little bit through them. We arrived to the hospital around 2:30/2:45. When we arrived, we were told that we took the very last labor and delivery room available! So it was good that we arrived when we did! They tested to see if my waters had already broken (which we all knew it had given how much fluid I was still gushing/leaking) and they confirmed it had broken.

They also did a check and confirmed I was about 5cm and 80% effaced. The contractions continued to be super manageable and I was wondering “when is this going to get hard/crazy??” I was able to chat in between contractions and wasn’t in labor land. I haven’t really experience that in labor before. I continued to labor by leaning over on the hospital bed.

Our nurse was awesome and did the mobile monitors so I was able to continue to stand to labor! Once they got the baseline, i was able to do intermittent monitoring! However, during baseline, they said that her heart rate was a bit higher than they’d like, and the nurse advised me to try and hydrate as much as I could. I had brought some electrolytes with me so I did my best to drink as much of those as I could.

The nurse said if her heart rate continued to be higher, they’d probably just give me some IV fluids to see if it helped. However, my hydration efforts worked and her heart rate came down. Per my request, they attempted to do an IV in my arm vs in my hand for the heplock but the nurse couldn’t get it in either arm so the heplock had to go into my hand which was frustrating for early labor but it all worked out!

Zoe arrived around 3:30. I still feel like I was in early labor when she arrived and was still able to manage the contractions. She refilled my electrolytes for me and between her and Aaron, they kept me very hydrated! I think around 4:15 or so, I felt like I wanted/needed to pee, but I was anxious to sit on the toilet bc I knew the toilet is “dilation station”. Lo and behold, the second i sat on the toilet, I felt like labor really ramped up.

After I finished peeing, I had a very hard time leaving the bathroom. While trying to wash my hands, I leaned over the cold bathroom counter and decided that is the place I wanted to stay. Aaron heard me say that the cold bathroom counter felt good and him and Zoe immediately jumped into action getting me cold wet wash clothes on my forehead and on the back of my neck. They also took turns applying counter pressure as things were now getting pretty intense.

I was moaning through contractions - I was trying to fight moaning through them, but at one point, Zoe advised that maybe I try that as she could tell it might be helpful. Eventually I made it back to the bed to labor leaning over the bed. The contractions continued to ramp up and I was getting nervous about pushing. I really didn’t want to push this time and was hoping maybe this time I’d just experience FER.

I started to feel a lot more pressure during the contraction and yelled at both Aaron and Zoe at two separate times “pressure!!” Which they both thought meant to apply more counter pressure and each time I had to say “no, the baby!!!” Aaron had the foresight to call the nurse back in. At this point, I had climbed onto the bed and was hands and knees, with the head of the bed raised up.

The nurse asked to check me and said I was 9cm - they were able to check me while on hands and knees which was a huge blessing! The idea of lying down sounded torturous. They eventually called the Dr in while I labored and just held on for dear life haha! I don’t feel like I was coping well at this point. I was trying to moan through each contraction and keep my face relaxed to allow things to progress but I again was thinking about pushing and how much I didn’t want to.

The dr checked me and I was 10cm and ready to push. I kept fighting the contractions and not wanting to push. I was having a hard time coping in between each contraction and wasn’t doing well with my breathing. Zoe, Aaron, the Dr, and the nurse were reminding me to take deep breaths in between contractions. They also all took turns telling me how great I was doing. I was gripping onto the bed and eventually the Dr advised me to lean back more into squat and just push. She said something to the effect of “you can do this, just lean back and push”.

At this point, I still was fighting the pressure but took her advice and leaned back and pushed. Once I leaned back, the urge to push was there, and I pushed out her head and then quickly her body in one contraction. She was born a little after 6a! After that, I needed a second to recover. They kept telling me to look at my baby, but I said “I just need a second!” Baby girl wasn’t really crying.

Eventually I was ready to look, and they passed her up through my legs (bc I was still on my hands and knees). She was very purple but was now crying! Eventually they helped me get turned over onto my back and they put her on my chest. I have 0 recollection of what I said to her when she was born, but Aaron says I said “oh hi baby!! You’re here!!” Then the Dr told me that she had the cord wrapped around her neck twice (which to me isn’t a concern in itself) but she also had a true knot in her cord!

They said it’s a miracle that she handled the contractions as well as she did, as sometimes babies with true knots don’t tolerate the contractions well. We spent the next while snuggling for golden hour (and I ate a meat stick lol) where she promptly pooped all over my belly. They took her to the warmer to clean her up and put a diaper on her and brought her back. (Ever since then, she’s barely been set down bc we love to snuggle her so much and we know how short this period lasts. )

When it was time to weigh her, we were shocked to learn she was almost 9 lbs!! Both of my other kiddos were closer to 7 lbs. AND she appears to be a bit on the ginger side! She is the sweetest baby with such a gentle cry (until she’s MAD then she sounds like a goat haha). God truly provided for me during this birth - He answered all my prayers. We had the most amazing birth team and the timing of everything was perfect. We are so grateful she has joined our family!