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Birth Stories

Taylor Grace

I figured I should take a few minutes to send you the details of the birth of our beautiful little girl, Taylor Grace. My mom left today, but my mother-in-law is still here. I will certainly miss my mom's helping hand (and I cried when she left), but the house is much quieter with one less person.

On with the story...
My husband and I arrived at Henrico Doctor's Hospital at 6:30 AM on October 4 full of anticipation for the induction my doctor had scheduled for me. I kept telling myself that I wasn't nervous, but as we sat waiting for the nurses to escort us into labor and delivery I could feel my emotions coming over me.

At 8AM my doctor came in to check my cervix and baby's position. Still only 3cm dilated, 50% effaced (after 3 weeks), and the baby still had not dropped into my pelvis. They started a pitocin drip and my doctor came in to check my progress every couple hours. At some point the doctor broke my water, and beyond that I honestly have no recollection of my progress. To encourage Taylor to engage, the nurses inverted the bed and also had me try some different positions on all fours, with my rear-end up in the air. Let me say that was not an easy task being that my legs were numb from the epidural.

At about 6:30 PM my doctor told me I was fully dilated, but Taylor still had not engaged. My doctor told me I could start pushing, but also reminded me that if the baby did not make adequate progress with the pushing that a c-section would still be a possibility. I was determined to not have a c-section.

The nurse came in and taught me how to push, and at about 6:45 PM we started pushing with every contraction. Let me just say, thank god for epidurals because I didn't feel a thing.

Taylor started moving down the birth canal, and when the doctor could finally see the top of her head she said, "Wow! Look at all that hair!" My husband, who up to this point said he was not going to look "down there", just be by my side for support, got down there to take a look. He was so cute. I also surprised myself by saying okay to having a mirror put up so I could see what was happening. It was amazing and motivating. I could see the progress of each push. After pushing for an hour, you need all the motivation you can get.
After an hour and a half of pushing, Taylor Grace Hamilton came flying into the world. Literally, she came flying out. My husband swears the doctor almost dropped her because she came out so fast. She weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and was 20 ¼ inches long. She has a head full of dark hair and big dark eyes.

My husband and I are absolutely in love with our new little girl, and I don't even mind waking up every 3 hours during the night.

I miss yoga and sharing our pregnancy stories. Good luck to everyone! It's an amazing and beautiful experience.

Namaste,
Sarah

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