Eve's Birth Story
During my pregnancy, I kept thinking "I don't remember what contractions feel like. I'm not sure I will know which ones are real and which ones are Braxton Hicks." It was in the morning of Monday, January 23rd, 4 days before my estimated due date, when I felt my first contraction. I had just stepped into the shower, and the minute I felt that sucker, I was like "yep, that was a contraction." The memory of what it felt like came back to me oh in about a half a second.
Actually rewind a bit. I went to my OB the Friday before, and when she checked for dilation she was like "whoa you are 75% effaced, the tissue is very soft (still don't know what this means), and you are dilated 3 cm." She had a weird surprised look on her face, and she said that once my labor started she thought it would go quickly. Honestly this scared me a bit and had me wondering if I could go into labor at any minute. It also didn't ease my concerns that I had to drive 45 minutes home from the doctor's office, and we live about 40 minutes from the hospital where we were delivering. So I called Mikes (I think this might have been the only appointment he missed, of course), and that sent him into a packing frenzy. He is a planner and we hadn't packed yet for the hospital. But it was all good because as I said I didn't go into labor until Monday.
So fast forward to labor day. I felt the contractions a bit longer to make sure they weren't slowing down, and then we called my parents. They came over with my little sisters to watch Flynn man. We all took a short walk to the mailbox. There was such a fun feeling in the air. There is nothing like the anticipation of labor and meeting your new little bundle of joy for the first time. Plus we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, so there was that excitement too!
My dad was super nervous. He kept telling us he thought my labor would go quickly, and we should go up to the hospital. Mikes had been in close communication with our doula, and she kept telling him "make sure Kristi isn't in denial." Honestly, looking back I think I was in denial. After having experienced labor before, I just kept thinking "I have so much longer to go. It's going to get so much worse."
We felt like my contractions were slowing a bit, so our doula suggested we do some walking around Buy Buy Baby (oh the irony). As soon as I stood up ... holy moly I had a big contraction. Right when we got to Buy Buy Baby things picked up. At one point, I stopped during a contraction and grabbed Mikes around the neck and began moaning through the contraction. I was still in denial at this point, but this is when my doula and Mikes convinced me it was time to head across the street to the hospital and get settled in. My sister said that she knew my contractions were pretty strong when on our way to the car, I stopped in the middle of the street (just the parking lot street don't worry) with cars coming at me and didn't budge. Mike held me again as a guy yelled out his car "is she okay?"
We arrived at the hospital at 3:37pm. They brought us back to Triage room #1, while my sister waited for us in the waiting room. It was 3:50pm when the nurse checked my cervix and said I was dilated to 5cm, 100% effaced and baby was at -1 station. I remember thinking "oh God I'm only halfway there. I've got like seven more hours to go."
Mike was freakin awesome. I can still remember his words during that time. He was so encouraging even while I was grabbing his poor arm like you wouldn't believe. Then things got interesting real quick. A couple contractions later, I told our doula I needed to get up to go to the bathroom. And she was like "or is that baby? Let's wait through one more contraction to see." I had one more contraction and she said "that's baby!"
She pushed the emergency button for the nurse as I began to bear down. I was scared out of my mind at this point because I had no idea what was happening. About five or six people came running into the room, and they were yelling "get the doctor ... get the cart." The nurse looked at me and said "don't push." I'm not sure what she was smoking (haha), but there was no pushing about it. I had absolutely no control over my body at that point. It's like it goes into lockdown mode bearing down to get baby out without any of your own doing. Thank goodness my doula looked at me at that moment and said "listen to your body. Someone will be there to catch your baby." The nurses began pulling apart my legs because I was still on my side (yep hadn't even gotten into a labor position yet). My water broke at 4:27 pm as baby was coming. Right then, the hospital OB came in and caught our BABY GIRL! She was born at 4:30 pm (yep 3 minutes later).
She was blue when the nurse placed her on my chest (as you can see from the photo above), and they began patting her and telling her to breath. Her blue little face was about an inch from mine, and I was so scared. I remember thinking "breathe baby breathe." She took that first breath, and I was so relieved! I asked Mikes if it was a boy or girl, and he said it was a girl!
I didn't know until afterward that the cord was wrapped around her neck. Right after they got baby breathing, Mikes said they just rolled us out into a labor and delivery room without him. That was the point he said he almost passed out. A nurse told him to sit down and gave him some apple juice. The craziness of the moment was just overwhelming as he began to process what just happened.
When our doctor arrived, she was like "I thought you would go quick but not that quick!" So let's break down the timeline here. Baby was out at 4:30 pm, oh about 30 minutes after I got to the hospital and they checked me and said I was 5 cm dilated. So the moral of the story here is THANK GOODNESS I DIDN'T WAIT A HALF AN HOUR OR EVEN 15 MINUTES TO LEAVE BUY BUY BABY. I would have had her right there, which wouldn't have been bad for post baby supplies. But let's get real here. Who wants to have a baby in Buy Buy Baby? My sister did have a point though in saying I probably could have made the news and gotten free Buy Buy Baby for life. But in all seriousness, I say my prayers because our babe had the cord wrapped around her neck. I don't know what we would have done without a doctor there.
Needless to say if Mikes, God, and I decide to have baby #3, we are certainly not waiting to get to the hospital.
I really wanted to have a natural birth without an epidural with our lil babe. I'm not sure why ... I guess it was just something I wanted to prove to myself that I could do (if it all went well of course). So as scary as it was, I was actually really happy in the end it went so quickly ... because who knows if I could have done it naturally if it hadn't.
So did I mention her name?!
Eve Foster laquinta
Born January 23rd, 2017 at 4:30pm
Honor Health Scottsdale Shea
7lbs 9oz and 21 inches long
Joins big brother Flynn
My middle name is Eve ... Kristi Eve because I was born on Christmas Eve. We have always liked Eve and the fact that it has a special significance, so we went with it. Foster is just a name we like.
I love this pic of Mikes with Evey. She looks SO MUCH like Flynn here.
Here's is daddy doing skin-to-skin ... does it get any better than this?!
So remember when I told you my sis was waiting out in the waiting room? Mikes had told her we would get checked in and give her an update. She was just a little surprised when Mikes went out there and told her the baby was here. She was so excited to hear it was a girl too! She had been saying girl all along.
Love love love this photo of Eve's lil hand holding Mike's thumb.
My sister got my mom and little sisters on FaceTime. My mom was like "is that a baby?!" when she saw me! 🤣
This is such a cool photo my sister captured. I can't wait to frame this!
Here is Flynn man coming to meet lil sis for the first time!
Cousin Kennedy (my sister and her husband's daughter) came to meet Eve too! I love this pic of the cousins hanging together. It melts my heart.
Kennedy was so excited to meet Eve, and she is still her #1 fan! She is precious.
Another great capture by sis ... those lil Flynn fingers around my hospital bands!
Flynn hasn't quite mastered the gentle hug.
Oh their little noses!
We feel very lucky and blessed for having these two littles in our lives. Thank you all for following along. Hope you don't mind my lil life updates every once in a while.
Major shoutout to our doula and my sister for these amazing photos! I feel so blessed for their support and for capturing these beautiful memories.
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