CALEIGH: HER BIRTH STORY

Caleigh June was born on December 18th, 2022 at 37 weeks. 
She is the sweetest smiley girl and I just love her so.

Let’s start with the night before. 

It was a Saturday and my husband and I had received gift cards to Texas Roadhouse. We decided to have a little date night since baby could “come any day now.” I remember ordering a medium well steak that night thinking, “hope baby doesn’t come tomorrow ‘cause I wouldn’t want this to be the meal I’d have right before I go into labor” — if you know, you know. Ah! It was a great night and I loved every bit of it. However, when we went home, I had to ask Jeff to massage me because I felt just extreme aches in my lower back and all around the sides of my belly. My initial thought was that my body was just prepping for labor … or so I thought.

…then comes morning.

8:45 AM | I woke up at 8:45am to get ready for church because 3rd trimester had my pregnant self moving incredibly slow - I needed a little more time to get ready. As soon as I got up, I felt an immediate gush of liquid and that only meant one thing. My water had broken. So my initial thought was to slowly get ready and pack my hospital bag because of course I hadn’t packed it yet. I was going to have Jeff and Noah just attend church while I got myself ready, but I called the hospital and they advised me to just head in to get checked. I knew that, but I knew it’d take some time, so I didn’t want to rush in to just sit around. 

11:00 AM | Finally to the hospital, checked in and admitted. We’re doing all the tests and answering all the patient questions. It’s a tedious process. They get me going on an IV and pretty much I’m just sitting there for a long time. Like a long time. Jeff and I were able to watch the Champions League and I celebrated with him as he watched. It was fun. Haha! 

5:00 PM | Fast forward to the evening. I really haven’t eaten. Have gone to pee every so often and Jeff helped me with all the iv cords - haha! By this point, I was finally able to feel the contractions happen. I genuinely wanted to try to go without the epidural, so I held off for as long as I could. It’s just a short bout, but when I would feel the contraction coming on, it honestly terrified me. 

6:30 PM ish | I had the nurse come in to check how far I had dilated and I was only 5cm along. I remember the nurse trying to encourage me -while I was having a contraction- and she was so stinkin’ sweet about it all. 

7:00 PM | At this point, the contractions were strong! I couldn’t wait any longer so I told Jeff to get the nurses to prep me for the epidural. The amount of time it took to get the epidural was basically the amount of time it took for me to get to 10cm and deliver this baby. Lol. Literally. 

7:30 PM | I’m getting contractions every 3 minutes now and I’m feeling PRESSSSSURE. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was feeling baby ready to come out and I just wish I would have voiced it as the nurses continually encouraged me to do so. I just wasn’t sure completely - I assumed it was the level of pain from the contractions that I was feeling. 

They finally get me up to sit position to prep my back for the epidural. As I’m sitting and going through another contraction, I literally feel her head pushing down *pretty much ready to come out* and I yell out to my nurses, “OMG I HAVE TO PUSH” to which they answered no (only because I still had the needle in my back). It was funny, but obviously not in that moment. Lol. The epidural only numbed me enough to alleviate some of the pain, so I was still able to feel a lot of it. 

A few minutes after the epidural, the doctor comes in to check and sure enough, I’m at 10cm. We start pushing and baby is out exactly at 8:00 PM. 

We are truly over the moon about being a family of four! The car has less room, we have way more stuff to pack and carry, and we seem to always be running behind a little more these days but man, life's been fun. It's quite the adjustment, but so fun.