A beautiful birthday

Last Tuesday started out like all my other "late pregnancy" days...I was miserable, huge and spent most of my spare time silently praying, "Lord, please let her come today." I went to school and taught all my classes and then came home around 3:30. Christian happened to get off at 3:00 that day as well, so we decided to go to a park nearby and take a walk. Walking at the park had become a daily ritual for us in the weeks prior...hoping the walking would force Miss Aubrey to make her appearance. So we took Lex and headed to the park. About halfway through the walk I told Christian, half joking/half seriously, that I thought my water had just broken. We laughed and he joked I probably just peed on myself!

We finished our walk and headed home. We ate jambalaya for dinner and enjoyed watching the Duggars during our (little did we know) "last supper".

I informed Christian that I still felt like my water might have broke...just had a feeling. He suggested I lay down for a few minutes to see if I continued to leak fluid (sorry if this is too much info...I just wanna remember each moment). I spent about 15 minutes laying down and when I got up there was absolutely no denying the fact that my water was indeed leaking. I'll spare you the intimate details!

I immediately began to cry and exclaim "this is it babe...this is the moment we have been waiting for!" Christian and I went to work on finishing up packing and cleaning up the house before we headed to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital Tuesday evening around 8:00 pm. I was checked into admissions and given a litmus like test to see if my water had broken. The test came back negative...meaning my water had not broken. I was devastated...absolutely sick...I kept arguing with the nurses telling them they just didn't understand...I KNEW my water had broken...they were just wrong!! They would have sent us home, but the Lord, in His infinite wisdom didn't allow it to work that way. Aubrey's heart rate was high and I was running a low grade fever so they went ahead and admitted me for the night just to observe us.

I was beyond disappointed and embarrassed that we had jumped the gun on the whole labor thing. I was so convinced that the time had finally arrived only to have my hopes crushed.

We were admitted to the labor/delivery floor for monitoring and settled down for the night. Around 10:30, I felt another (beware...tmi coming up...) gush of fluid and immediately called the nurse. I was like "see...I'm not crazy!" She did the test again and by golly it was indeed my water that had broken! I almost kissed her right then and there!

By 11:30 I was having full blown contractions! I was in a lot of pain, but I was just so excited to get the whole process started and know that I would NOT be going home again pregnant... that the pain was a welcomed feeling.

Well...for a short amount of time at least. I labored all night and around 6:00 am was given a pain medication called Stadol. Let me tell you...I don't know how people do drugs because I was miserable. I kept telling Christian I was at the circus and couldn't get off of a bouncy ball!

Around 8:00 am, the doctor ordered that Pitocin begin (you have to give birth within a certain number of hours after your water breaks) because the clock was ticking! I received my epidural and then was given the Pitocin.

The epidural was heaven and I enjoyed a few hours visiting with my family and just savoring the moments before our baby would arrive. By 10:30 I was 5 centimeters! At 11:45, Christian decided he needed lunch so he ran downstairs to get a bite to eat. The nurse came in right after he left and checked me and low and behold...I was 10 centimeters!!!!! I was frantically texting him to get his hungry butt back in the room before his daughter was born while he was in the cafeteria!

I started pushing around 12:15 and after about an hour of pushing it was determined that Aubrey was "sunny side up". My doctor came in and literally flipped Aubrey around...something that is not always done anymore...a lot of doctors won't do that, but instead just order a C-section. (apparently it's a complicated maneuver and has risks so most doctors avoid doing it for legal reasons) I was so fortunate to have an incredible doctor who was capable of doing the procedure.

After flipping Aubrey, I pushed for another hour before our precious bundle of joy made her appearance at 2:22 pm...all 6 pounds, 7 ounces! We were shocked at how big she was...we had been told just a few days earlier that she was 5 pounds and a few ounces!

This picture makes me cry every time I look at it...it is just a perfect image of the joy and overwhelming love that I felt the moment I looked into her eyes...it was pure magic. All of our love was wrapped up in this tiny bundle...

October 12, 2011-A day that will be cherished and celebrated forever...the day our blessing from above came into our lives! Thank you Jesus for giving her to us. We are so thankful to Him for blessing our family in such a beautiful way.