Arrow Faith

So ... it's been ages since I've blogged.  I miss it.  I had a baby... per the title - Arrow Faith.  I need to document her birth story somewhere so since Quorra's is saved somewhere in here too I figured I'd put it here.

Quick re-cap: I found out I was pregnant with Arrow on April 1st.. yep April fools day.. so of course Jared didn't believe me when I told him.  I was so excited and yet super nervous as well.  How was I going to juggle life with another baby while working and taking care of 3 kids and my home!?  We are managing.. ;)

Anyway - on with the birth story.....

Last preggo pic at 38 weeks and 3 days.

Sunday November 23rd 7:30(ish)pm I started to have some light contractions.  Not to painful just the kind that take your breath away.  I figured it was just like any other day since I've had contractions here and there for a week but nothing to send me to the hospital.  I was also only 39 weeks and didn't expect to be a week early.  We had spent the afternoon at my parents house and my mom told me to just keep an eye on contractions and time them out.  So around 8 or 9 we headed home.  I got the kids to bed then laid down to try and get some rest.  Jared fell asleep pretty quick but I was uncomfortable so I just laid in bed until 10:30pm timing contractions.  I decided I should probably let my doula know what was going on so she could be available if this was the real deal.  She let me know she had her phone on loud and to just keep her posted if I needed her.  So while Jared snored away (literally!), I timed contractions and by 11:30pm I was starting to have some pretty intense and painful contractions and decided I would need my doula to come help me labor.  She showed up about midnight and the midwife showed up around 12:30.  The midwife checked me and I was 100% effaced and at a 4.  We labored and chatted while trying different positions to help me be comfortable throughout the contractions.  We let Jared sleep since clearly it was going to be a long night.  Around 2:30am we started walking my stairs to keep things progressing.  The midwife checked me about 2:45am and I was almost to a 6 so we decided we better head to the hospital.  My hospital is a 30 minute drive so we didn't want to get too far along and not make it... (yikes)  So we got in the car and on the road by 3am and made it to the hospital at 3:30am where my mom met us.  I had called ahead to have them get a room ready for me and requested a nurse that was pro-natural labor.

We got right into our room and labored for 3 hours and 41 minutes when Arrow Faith Teter arrived.  She weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 inches long.  She was/is perfect.  My heart doubled in size immediately.