Month: May 2016

In case you missed the big news, our daughter was born early Friday morning, April 29, at 40 weeks and 3 days! I still want to remember the details of the last few days of my pregnancy, though, so today we’re going back in time to cover what happened the day before my due date and beyond.

If you don’t care about any of this and just want to see lots of baby photos, head directly to my Instagram. 🙂

Monday, April 25, was my first day working from home. I had hoped to go into labor over the weekend to avoid working from home at all, but no such luck! I put in my eight hours at the computer, then set out on an afternoon walk with Aaron — who was also working from home so he wouldn’t miss anything — to try and get the baby moving.

We walked about two miles in the gorgeous sunshine, but it seemed to have no effect. After I Instagrammed this photo, a few mom friends said they went into labor while hiking or shortly after, so Aaron and I did just that on Tuesday — my due date.

We did a three-mile loop on one of Aaron’s favorite mountain-biking trails — the same one where I started trail-running last summer! It was beautiful, and I was so happy to be able to enjoy a nice hike at 40 weeks pregnant. I always imagined I’d be completely miserable at this point, but thanks to staying active throughout my pregnancy, the only discomfort I felt was when I squatted to pee behind a tree. 🙂

Still, I didn’t feel anything happen that night. On Wednesday, we had a doctor appointment, where my doctor reported that I was 2 centimeters dilated! I told her to do anything that might help move things along, so she swept my membranes — meaning she vigorously swirled her fingers around up there as high as they’d go; not a great feeling — and that further opened my cervix to 3 centimeters. A membrane sweep can cause bleeding (from irritating the cervix) and cramping, and may ultimately stimulate uterine contractions. The doctor said she hoped to see us back the next day to have the baby!

I worked through the rest of Wednesday morning and early afternoon. Aaron took this photo of me because my belly looked so basketball-like and ridiculous.

I experienced some bleeding, cramping, and back achiness similar to being on my period, and had to sign off from work early because the icky feelings grew in intensity to the point where I couldn’t get comfortable sitting at my computer. I also felt exhausted and just needed to nap. I slept for about three hours that afternoon, and then woke up feeling… perfectly fine. Dang!

On Thursday, my alarm went off at 6 a.m. and I relaxed in bed for a few minutes before getting up. I noticed some minor tightening low in my abdomen — nothing painful, but definitely noticeable. It happened again about 10 minutes later, and then again every 10 minutes after that. Could these be real contractions? I began timing them using an app I’d downloaded, just in case.

That’s where my pregnancy story ends, and Evie’s birth story begins!

…

Thanks for sticking with me through 40 weeks of pregnancy updates! It’ll be fun to look back on them to remember what the experience was like (I’ve already kind of forgotten, since I now have a baby to focus on!), and perhaps Evie will someday enjoy reading about what her mom was up to while she was growing in my belly.

In the end, I gained a total of 36 pounds between my first doctor weigh-in at nine weeks and my final doctor weigh-in at 40 weeks. Here’s the before-and-after comparison:

I was worried that I would look in the mirror by the end of my pregnancy and not recognize myself, but luckily, that didn’t happen! I always felt like myself, and actually kind of didn’t (and still don’t) recognize myself in the “before” photo. 

As the weeks went by and my belly — and everything else — filled out, I stopped being plain ol’ me and grew closer and closer to becoming a mom. The “before” me had no idea what was in store. The “after” me survived food aversions, nausea, fatigue, an achy back, and seemingly endless anxiety to grow a beautiful 9-pound baby who brings me more joy than I ever could have imagined.

My body made this human?!? I still can’t wrap my mind around it.

Next up: Evie’s birth story!

Aaron and I are thrilled to announce that our daughter was born Friday, April 29, at 3:50 a.m. Evelyn June weighed 9 pounds even, measured 20.5 inches long, and completely stole our hearts from the moment we met her.

Although Evie (pronounced like the word “eve” + y) joined us three days past her due date, she did us a big favor by arriving quickly! I’ll share her full birth story soon, but the brief summary is that I got the greatest epidural of all time upon being admitted to the hospital — I was alert and able to move my legs a bit, but felt zero pain — pushed for an hour and a half, and gave birth less than five hours after we arrived.

It was the strangest experience of my life — the whole time, I really couldn’t believe it was happening — but also the best. Pre-epidural, the contractions I experienced were far, far more horrible than I’d ever imagined, but the seamless way things went down after the glorious epidural more than made up for the pain. 

Plus, of course, the end result was our daughter — the light of our lives.

We stayed in the hospital Friday night, went home late Saturday night, and have been enjoying baby bliss ever since.

That daddy/daughter nap happened today, and I just sobbed after taking this photo because it was so sweet and these two make me so, so happy. Postpartum hormones be nuts!

We are exhausted, of course, but Evie has been an incredibly easy baby so far in that we’ve always been able to soothe her crying in just a few minutes. I know this may not always be the case, so we’re celebrating small victories as they come! 

She seems to only cry to let us know when she’s hungry — although we try to look out for her early hunger cues to prevent her from getting to the crying stage in the first place — and she’s eating like crazy all the time! We can tell she’s growing, too, and it sort of breaks my heart already, even though she’s only a week old. Stay little forever, please, my sweet girl!

Every parent thinks their child is the cutest in the world, and I am no exception. You can fully expect my Instagram to be flooded with Evie photos for the next, uh, forever. I’m not sorry. 🙂

More to come on the blog soon, including a final pregnancy recap of week 40 and the few days leading up to Evie’s birth, plus her birth story!

From there, I may write more about becoming a parent and share Evie’s progress and hilarious moments. I definitely plan to write about being active and running again, once I get to that point. Who knows! Life will never be the same again, so this blog probably won’t, either.

Both Aaron and I are amazed by the way our hearts seem to have grown a million sizes since Evie came into our lives. I couldn’t have imagined the way she makes me feel — like nothing else in the world matters more than her happiness.

When I was pregnant, I sometimes worried that I’d miss life as just the two of us. Now that she’s here, I’d never, ever go back. Aaron and I often look at her and then at each other in amazement, saying, “This is the best. She’s the best.” It is. And she is. 

Ahhh, now I have to go snuggle my baby and cry all the happy tears again. Stay tuned! 🙂