The Birth Story

*It's long. But since I love reading everyone else's, I figure there's probably someone out there who might be a tiny bit interested.


First of all, I’m now a big believer in the power of a good, vigorous walk as a means of going into labor.


With Sadie, I walked up and down a hill, then back up again, to get to an Aggie basketball game. An hour later, I started having contractions.

This time around, I talked Kevin into taking a nice, long Sunday evening walk around the neighborhood. It wasn’t much on a normal person’s scale, but at 39 weeks pregnant, I was exhausted afterward. We sat down to watch a movie with Sadie before her bedtime and as we sat there, I noticed my Braxton Hicks contractions were coming every 15 to 20 minutes. Two hours later, at about 10:30, I was doubling over in pain during every contraction and was fairly sure this was the “real” thing. Kevin timed the contractions for about a half an hour and when they dropped from 10 minutes to 6 minutes apart during that time, we realized we’d better get moving. We called Kevin’s parents to come from Tremonton to stay with Sadie and flew into a flurry. Kevin gave me a blessing, we packed last-minute things in our bag, kissed a sleeping Sadie good-bye, and were out the door 40 minutes later and at the hospital a little after midnight.

Right before we left for the hospital, in all my 39-weeks pregnant and just-showered glory. :)

The next little while was your typical hospital story. They checked me and I was only dilated to a three. An hour later, I was almost at a six. Getting the epidural was probably the worst part of the whole night and only because by the time the anesthesiologist got set up, my contractions were coming a little over a minute apart and I had come down with a serious case of the shakes. And you try holding completely still so a gigantic needle can be inserted in your spine when you’re shaking uncontrollably and your entire middle section feels like it’s going to split in two. Needless to say, he had to stick me three different times to get it right. Kevin’s poor hand may have sustained some permanent damage.

The rest of the time was spent in painless comfort. We talked, we started a movie, we watched the contractions peak on the monitor. A little after 4:00 am, the nurses jumped into action and got me ready to push. There was a bit of a scare around that time over the amount that I was bleeding. Apparently I had a partial placental abruption there at the end. But despite the brief looks of worry on the staff’s faces and the shade of white that Kevin’s face turned when he peeked and saw all the blood, I never once felt a drop of panic. I chalk it up to the blessing Kevin gave me before we left. Priesthood blessings are amazing things, I can say that much.

At this point, the doctor (who wasn’t even my real doctor since he was gone) and nurses started joking and laughing about boating trips and vacations they wanted to take. Now this might be selfish of me, but I was totally annoyed. Was it too much to ask for them to focus a bit more on me and the fact that I was trying to bring a human being into this world rather than who has the biggest boat? Needless to say, I didn’t have much to contribute to the conversation.

And then, after only 25 minutes of pushing, Ellie was right there. Everyone could see her head and her dark, curly hair. But after two rounds of pushing, I still couldn’t muster the gusto to get her the rest of the way out. And then Kevin made some random comment (I don’t even remember what it was) that made me laugh. And out she came! How many kids can say they entered this world via a laugh?

She was perfect, of course. Covered with goop and still a beautiful sight. She cried – loudly – but didn’t come even close to the screams her sister let out in her first minutes of being in this world.

Fresh out of the oven!

Tiny little hand - just minutes old.

And the rest is history!

Total labor time: a little over 8 hours. (Less than half of my labor with Sadie. I love second kids.)