BIRTH STORY

A huge thanks to Audrey Rodriguez for taking these sweet photos for us. 
If you are in the Southern California and are expecting, you MUST check her out! She spealizes in hospital births and the Fresh 48 photos like I did here. I am so happy we had her capture Edison only being a day old. He has already changed so much and I am happy to have professional images to remember the sweet face when I first met him. 

yellow swaddle set: Lou Lou and Company 
grey swaddle set: KB Cute Design 
white robe: Pink Blush Maternity 
… 

​

​Today I wanted to share my birth story, which is something that I feel is very personal to me, and wanted to keep it for my records so I will always remember those small little details that time always makes us forget. 

On November 11, 2016 we welcomed Edison Brandon Thurman into the world. It has already been a month since Edison joined our family and I am already smitten and wonder what I ever did without him in my life. 

A week before my due date, November 9th, I had a doctors appointment. My doctor told me I was already dilated to 2 cm; he also mentioned that the baby was sitting so low, he would suspect he would come before my due date. 
After hearing that news, I made a quick phone call to my mother letting her know and to tell her to book her flight! 
It was a Wednesday and she booked her flight for that following Monday afternoon. We debated about her booking her flight for Friday since the doctor said I had a 80% chance of having the baby by the weekend. But just in case things didn’t go as planned, my mom was smart and booked her flight a few days later. Thank goodness she did so. 
Come Sunday night, no baby was here! My husband and I decided we would go to Carlsbad and do a lot of walking to try to induce my labor. We also order some VERY spicy Chinese food, trying just a few things Pinterest told me! 
Sure enough, Monday came, and STILL no baby! I headed to the airport to pick up my mom. I didn’t picture it happening that way. 

I played tour guide for a few days since my mother was in town and Edison decided he wanted to cook a little bit longer. 
By Thursday, we said enough was enough. I again searched on Pinterest looking up all the suggestions that helped other mamas induce their labor. We literally went through a huge list. 
We started out walking three miles in an indoor mall. We chose to do this inside because it was a blistering 90 degrees IN NOVEMBER mind you! We were walking as fast as my huge pregnant body would allow. I’m sure I looked a little silly. 
We came home ate loads of pineapple, more Chinese food, did deep squats, and bounced, bounced, and bounced on a exercise ball. 
My sweet mother even massaged the pressure points on my feet for almost 2 hours. I’m sure her hands were cramping 20 minutes into it, but by golly she wanted her grandbaby here. 
After a long day I finally passed out on the couch. 
I woke up around 11 and was ready to go to bed. 
I gave my husband a kiss goodnight (he was still watching a movie on the couch) and headed upstairs for my typical nightly routine. 
I brushed my teeth, pulled my hair back, and went to the restroom. 
That was when I noticed my underwear was a little wet, and noticed a pinkish tint. (sorry TMI) 
I stood up to go and grab a pad (so naive) and more fluid was coming out! 
That’s when it hit me! My water just broke!!! But to be 100% sure before I go and tell my husband the news, I wanted to make for total sure before I freaked him out 🙂 
I quickly goggled the signs and symptoms of having your water break. I honestly didn’t think I would be one whose water would break considering it is a very low percentage. 
Sure enough the signs the Internet were telling me were pointing to yes! 
I came downstairs and quietly said to my husband, “I think my water just broke” He replied, “What!” I told him what had happened and what I read online, then we were going back and forth deciding if it was true or not that my water did in fact break. (pure denial, I tell you) He told me to go wake up my mom to make sure. Obviously we were still in denial. I woke up my mom and told her what had happened. She said she had no idea; her water never broke for any of us kids. So then we all decided it would be a good idea to call the nurses line to get a real confirmation, as if we didn’t have one already! 🙂 But we didn’t want to drive 40 minutes to the hospital for them to tell me it was false labor, which was my main concern. While on the phone with the nurse I started to feel my first contractions. They were still mild and far enough apart. After talking to the nurse for a whopping 16 minutes. (she asked a million questions it seemed like) she told me that I was in fact in labor and that I better start heading to the hospital.  

We arrived at Mary Birch Hospital at 12:30am
We were timing my contractions before we arrived and they were 4 -5 minutes apart lasting about 40 seconds to 1 minute. 
We were about ready to check into triage right before my biggest contraction had hit. I squatted to the floor hoping to help with the pain. A sweet man who looked to be just a visitor, stopped by to ask if I were okay. All I could do was nod. But wanted to chuckle because I’m sure I looked a little ridiculous! But then again, I was in labor J
We were all checked in and the nurse guides us back to our small sectioned off, curtained room. She had me change into the hospital gown and then checked to see what I was dilated to. She mentioned I was only dilated to a 2. So had no progression from a week ago when my doctor last checked. The doctors kind of ignored me for the next few hours since it typically takes hours for your body to become dilated to a 10. We waited in the same small room for 2 1/2 hours. At least it wasn’t a quite time waiting. We were lucky enough to hear the girl next door screaming the F word every minute!!! All my husband and I could do was look at each other and chuckle. I don’t know how she did it, talking and screaming so much. All I had the energy to do was ask my husband if he could fan me with a paper broacher we found. I would get major hot flashes making me feel very uncomfortable. During the time we were in Triage I sat very quietly and would just focus on breathing through each contraction and try to get some rest in between each one before the next one hit. 

The pain I was feeling was getting stronger and harder to deal with. I asked my husband Brandon if he could go find a nurse so we could see my progression. The nurse came in and apologized to us for making us stay in triage for so long. She mentioned it had become a very busy night and they didn’t have any delivery rooms available for us. She also informed me that the Anesthesiologist was also backed up and wouldn’t be able to give me my epidural until a little bit later. But because the contractions had become so strong she did give me some medicine through my IV to help with the pain. It did however help with the pain a small amount, but still felt very uncomfortable. 
A few minutes later the nurse came back in and told us a room had now become available. She asked if I would be able to walk up to my room. I must have given her a strange look, because she quickly came back with a wheel chair! Which I was very thankful for. After standing up and sitting back down my body started shaking uncontrollably. I apologized to the nurse for not being able to stop shaking, she just laughed and said it was all of my hormones.

We got up to our room and the minute we walked through the doors we could hear another patient next door, and my goodness we had another screamer! 
My first request was having my husband get out our portable music player and cracking up some tunes to hopefully tune our screaming neighbor out. (She didn’t quite screaming for about 5 hours, and our nurse found out she was only dilated to a 1. Not even to the pushing part, poor girl) it wasn’t long before the Anesthesiologist came into the room to give me my epidural. I’ll admit, I was a little nervous about getting an epidural from many horror stories I have heard. I was also nervous and being able to hold extra still in between contractions to be able to get the needle in the correct spot. I was surprised with my Anesthesiologist. I barley remember him speaking to me, and before I knew it he was done. I even had to ask if he had done it yet 🙂 I didn’t feel a thing and was apparently just focusing on breathing through each contraction I was having. 
It wasn’t long until the pain started to drift away, however, it was only on my left side. I could still feel a lot of pain on my right side. I mentioned this to the nurse and she mentioned for me to keep pushing my button to give me more medicine when I felt the pain again. 
So, that I did 🙂 

After the Anesthesiologist left, the nurse checked to see what I was dilated to again. The last time I was checked was around 12;30am, it was now around 5 am. The nurse asked me what she thought I was dilated to, my response was “I just sure hope I’m at least dilated to a 5 or 6 by now” she said, “You’re dilated to a 10, we can start pushing now!” I was in complete shock! But also so relieved. The only problem we shortly found out was there was no doctor available yet. Again with it being such a busy night we wouldn’t have a doctor for another hour or more. Thankfully the nurses let my husband and I rest for an hour and a half. I think we both really needed the rest to be able to pull an all nighter.

The nurse came in after we rested to inform us that the doctor who would be delivering would be ready in an hour so it was time to start pushing. After we pushed for several minutes my nurse was shocked at how low baby was sitting and said if we continued to keep pushing she would be delivering my baby because the doctor wouldn’t make it in time. So again we waited!!!! 
After about a half hour of waiting it was go time for real. The doctor would be in shortly. 

Once the doctor arrived, I couldn’t believe how quickly everything went. 
It was within 10 minutes before they laid Edison on my chest at 9:12 am.
The sweetest moment in my life. 
Hearing the sweet little cry and seeing his face for the first time will be something I will remember forever.  A little piece of heaven was now in my arms. Someone I had longed to meet for a long 9 months was finally here. The feeling was so surreal. 
The nurses were cleaning up Edison while I just stared into his eyes and into the eyes on my husband. It didn’t take long before Edison found his fingers and began sucking on them. He came out a hungry little man 🙂 

The nurses left my new little family for some alone time, something I will always treasure. We kept saying to one another that it didn’t even feel real and that he was really our baby. Edison was already looking for food and I was ready to try nursing for the first time after the nurse came back in. He didn’t even hesitate; he latched on with no problem and began eating right away. Something I feel so blessed about. I know so many women struggle with their baby latching on, which was something I feared too. 

A few hours had passed before they weighed Edison, we kept trying to guess his weight, because he had such chubby little cheeks and huge hands! 
He surprised us all by weighing 8 lbs 5 oz. Little chunky boy. 
21 inches long.

This day couldn’t have been more perfect, it was the best day to enter my sweet little baby into the world! 
 

Since it is December and Christmas is right around the corner I will be doing a few giveaways this week over on my Instagram. 
A swaddle set from Lou Lou and Co. and a robe of your choice from Pink Blush Maternity. 
So make sure to head over and try to win!!! 
​