Mae's Journey

Mae has been an angel baby from inside the womb and out. I want to share her birth experience and entrance into this world.

Mae gave her Mom plenty of warning she would be coming soon. While frustrating at times (see the post below “Tricky Baby”) this proved to be a wonderful thing. Mae wanted to make sure her Daddy would be there for her birth, and she was quite successful. Peter flew in about four days earlier then planned when I called after a few hours of contractions. I didn’t know if Mae would come that night (she didn’t), but I knew she would probably get here sooner than we planned. So Peter got on a plane Sunday night (Feb. 21st) and we woke up Monday and said, “let’s have this baby!” We started out on a long walk, which did nothing (meaning no contractions) and then we went to my doctor’s appointment.

To our surprise we found out I was 3 cm dilated and to our greater surprise the doctor gave us the option of being induced that same day (this was important because Peter only had so much time off work). The doctor helped move things along by stripping my membranes (google it if you‘re wondering) and sure enough I left the doctors office about noon with pretty intense contractions. Labor had officially begun!

We went back to finish packing up the hospital bag and say goodbye to Chloe who was staying with Grandma. I was supposed to call the hospital at 2 pm but decided to call sooner as my contractions were pretty intense. We went in and got all set up and when they checked me I was 5 cm! There was no need to be induced (obviously) so I said, “Can I have the epidural, like NOW?” (FYI: The pain really was bearable, but I knew better than to think it was going to stay that way). It took some time to get that all set up, but when it was it was great, and I can honestly say getting an epidural isn’t all that bad. I had a PCE (patient controlled epi) which means they start you out with a lower dose and you can click a button if you want to be more numb. I did push the button a couple times :)

We were all settled and the epidural was in, so it became the waiting game. We would guess what time we thought she would be out (we were both wrong twice.) and we just hung out. We thought this baby would come really fast (like 4 hours) since Chloe came in eight, but she took her time. The doctor broke my water at about 4 pm, and then two hours later they checked me and said “are you ready to have this baby?” You bet I was!

The nurses and doctor were great and helped coach me through pushing so that I didn’t tear. I only pushed for about 15 minutes and our beautiful daughter arrived. Recovery went great and after spending a few more days with Peter’s family we flew back to AZ and received help from more of Peter’s extended family until my Mom could come. A huge THANK YOU to all of those who have been so helpful and supportive. We love you!