Our Birth Story — The Storks

I always love reading birth stories & I wanted to share our welcoming of Anne Rawlins.

My due date was December 26th, 2020. I was so hopeful to try to do anything I could to get her here before Christmas. Spending our Christmas in the hospital was the last thing I wanted. I had been walking, bouncing on a ball, eating spicy foods all in hopes of dilating more. On December 21st, I went to my 39 week appointment. I was nearly 2cm dilated, and after some monitoring it was decided I would be induced that afternoon due to some extra fluid(which turned out to be nothing, but Dr. Google had me terrified). Lee came home from work, we got our bags, & actually drove to to get his COVID19 vaccine first which I was super emotional about.

Monday evening they began the induction process. I hardly slept that night due to leg cramps, being uncomfortable, & just anxiety. Tuesday morning came and I was 4cm dilated so they began pitocin. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing L&D team. We had a fantastic nurse, Jenna, who was seriously awesome. She was encouraging, funny, kind & put me at ease the whole time. We also were able to have a doula who served as our birth coach. She not only coached me, but helped coach Lee in how to support me. She empowered me to get through the hard parts, told me I could do it & helped me manage the pain well. I had a goal to get to 6cm dilated before my epidural. I don’t know why I made that my goal but I wanted to feel as much as I could for as long as I could handle it. We started pitocin at 5am. Contractions started increasing strength and intensity pretty quickly. By 9am, I needed the epidural. I do wish I had gotten it about 45 minutes sooner. The pain was intense, strong, and I had a hard time catching my breath between contractions.

Around 11/11:15am, it was time to start pushing. I was so tired at that point but somehow mustered up the energy thanks to the amazing encouragement by Lee, and our birthing team. I pushed for about 40 minutes, and she arrived! Our doctor nearly missed it though—he left to go do some paperwork and very quickly had to come back as she was coming whether we were ready or not! At 12:02p, our baby girl arrived—Anne Rawlins Stork was born. The baby girl I have been dreaming of pretty much my whole life was in my arms. She did give us a little scare as they thought she had swallowed some meconium in utero but luckily she came out healthy & lungs clear.

We were at the hospital through Thursday morning & got to come home on Christmas Eve. The time in the hospital with just the 3 of us was truly special, precious & a blur. We all were getting to know one another, learning about one another & becoming a family. Watching Lee with her was & probably always will be one of my greatest joys. We came home to my mom who had organized, cleaned, cooked & taken care of our dogs while we were gone. It was one of the simplest Christmases, but one of the sweetest. Slow, calm, & still.

A month in we are all still getting to know one another, find our rhythm, new roles, new normal but life has never been so sweet.