Miya Marie’s birth story

I've heard so many traumatic labor and delivery stories. But I've also heard some really beautiful ones. It was those I clung too and prayed for before ours. I don't think the good ones are shared enough. I was really blessed to have a beautiful labor and delivery. I hope it encourages you to pray and believe the same for yourself.

Here we go!

8pm Tuesday night October 10th we were having dinner at my parents house. We were celebrating my sisters boyfriends birthday when my water broke. I could not stop giggling, my mom was screaming and the rest of the table was a mix of shock and disbelief. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better story of my water breaking, it was a great kickoff. 🤣

We went home to try to get some sleep and make sure the house was all in order. We couldn’t have Miya coming home to things being out of order 😅 We both tried to sleep with intentions of going to the hospital when my contractions were 5 minutes apart, lasting a minute, for an hour. Peter slept a bit. I did not. How could I as my water slowly but steadily was leaking and thoughts of how the rest of the night would unfold were running in my head!?

12:30 am October 11 my contractions were 5 minutes apart, lasting a minute for an hour. They weren’t painful but felt like period cramps and then tightening in my stomach. It was CRAZY how they were every 5 minutes on the dot with the same symptoms. Again, they weren’t painful but I knew they were there.

1:15 am Peter and I left for the hospital 🎉

3:30 am we settled into a room. I got all my preliminary testing and my contractions still felt the same. They checked to see how dilated I was and I was 2 cm. We were pretty disappointed to hear that because I had been 2 cm for 2 weeks up to that point 🙄. So Peter and I mentally started preparing for a long night and day thinking this would be a long labor.

4:30 am I was getting pretty uncomfortable. I started walking around, sitting in different positions, swaying next to the bed and doing some stretching. My hips were cramping a lot so I had to move them.

4:45 am I remember looking at the clock watching the minutes go by thinking about how uncomfortable I was. I started feeling a lot of pressure. Once I started feeling a lot of pressure we got the nurse because that’s what they told us to do. 🤷‍♀️ And when I say pressure I mean A LOT of pressure. I thought I was going to poop a watermelon. (Sorry, to be so descriptive but I'm being honest! ) The nurse came in and reminded me that since my water broke they didn’t want to do a lot of frequent checking. She asked me if this was my first baby again. 🙄 During the conversation my contractions were causing me to lose my breath a little. So she got the resident and she came in and explained the same thing about checking frequently. She said "4-5 cm can be the most uncomfortable point to over come" and figured that was what I was experiencing. While she was there I had a really strong contraction. Again, not painful but it took my breath away. She decided to checked dilated I was and I was 9cm!🤯 She immediately got the attending physician to come double check her assessment. She came in, confirmed I was 9 cm and said " I feel her head". In about 30 seconds there was about 10 people in the room. None being my doctor 🙈 my knees were basically in my mouth and they were all saying different things to me. Peter and I had talked through this scenario(when to push, how to breath etc) multiple times before we reached the hospital so we felt like we had a game plan. We stayed focused on each other. I actually never tried pushing unless my body felt the urge. It was like my body knew when exactly what the right time was. It just did it for me and just had to follow along. I don't know how else to explain it except that way.

5:05 After two pushes, our daughter was here.

I must say I didn’t feel too much pain it was more discomfort. I felt very aware of everything I was feeling and doing. I had a few stitches which again were not painful but uncomfortable to me.

I was asked was it love at first sight? I think we were both in shock for the first day🙈 we prayed for a quick, painless and beautiful labor and delivery. God answered our prayers and we got exactly that. Good Samaritan hospital support staff was a 10/10. We loved everyone that came into our room.

Overall, we had a wonderful experience. I believe the prayer and prep that went into it REALLY helped. WE (Peter and I) did a lot of reading and spent a lot of time walking through labor scenarios. I also spent 9 months preparing my body. Sure, things don't always go as planned and I don't want to overlook that we were blessed to have that experience but understanding the different stages of labor, why my body was feeling certain things, and rehearsing labor room scenarios empowered and helped us to not feel overwhelmed or anxious.

Peter was the best doula I could ask for. 🙈

Miya is the best girl we could have hoped for 💖