she's here.

It's about time I documented little bit's birth day, no?

On Saturday morning (the 16th), I got a text message from my induction massage therapist checking in and asking me if my labor had progressed. Unfortunately it hadn't, other than a few contractions here and there, so she asked if I could come see her on Sunday afternoon for a "30 minute booster" to give natural labor one last shot before my scheduled induction on Monday morning. At this point, I was desperate so I eagerly agreed. Little did I know that I would be texting her at 2:46 a.m. (sorry, Adrian!) letting her know that I was in labor and wouldn't be needing that booster after all. 

To take advantage of the beautiful weather, John, Brooks, and I headed downtown to the Pepper Place Market. We waded through the crowds and came home with coffee beans, a mason jar filled with beautiful wildflowers, and juicy peaches. Afterwards, we went to lunch at our weekend favorite, Saw's BBQ. Later that afternoon, after Brooks' nap, we went on a long family walk to one of John's projects on Melrose and back home. An hour later, the contractions started...

...and they got closer together...and more uncomfortable as the sun set on our wonderful and final day as a family of three.

Worried that it could be false labor, I called the doctor when my contractions were ranging from 3-5 minutes apart and she prompted me to come in.

At 10:15 p.m. John loaded up the car, we prayed, and pulled out of the driveway hand-in-hand. Once we got to the hospital, we ventured to the third floor where we met our nurse, Caitlin. She led us to our room, 3004. I put on my gown, got hooked up to the monitor, and was told that I was at 5 centimeters dilated. Caitlin left at 11:00 p.m. and I turned on the T.V. We settled on Serendipity and attempted to get some shut eye. At 11:25 our nurse came back in to insert the IV and give me my wristbands. 20 minutes later, Dr. Gregory (the on-call doctor) came in to check me again, and I was still at 5 centimeters and the baby's head was between 0 and -1 station. My contractions were somewhat painful at this point, but slowing down a bit to 5-7 minutes apart. The doctor urged me to get some sleep, even though we both knew that wasn't going to happen. John slept off and on throughout the night and I finally dozed off around 4:00 a.m. and woke up at 6:00 a.m. 

At 7:00 a.m. Dr. Gregory and my new nurse, Apryl, came in to check me and I was about 6 centimeters dilated. Because I had not progressed much, I decided to have my water broken at 7:04 a.m. At 9:19 a.m. they started me on the lowest dosage of Pitocin to see if it could speed things up a bit, and that it did. I wanted to wait until 10:00 for the epidural, but the pain quickly increased so Dr. Barrow arrived at 9:52 to help a sister out. My right leg went numb, but I was still feeling pain. I laid on my left side to try to get the medicine to distribute evenly and finally felt relief. 

At 10:52 a.m., Apryl decided to check me before she stepped out for a bit and to everyone's surprise I was "ready." Wait, you mean to tell me that I just jumped from 6 to 10 centimeters in an hour?! John and I were shocked! It was GO-TIME. With excitement we took a few deep breaths (and pictures). We were minutes away from meeting our precious baby and finding out if he or she was a boy or a girl…the excitement!

Apryl came back in after prepping things for delivery and said that it was time to start pushing. At 11:11 a.m. she grabbed hold of my right leg, John lifted my left, we waited on a contraction, and I pushed. And then I saw the astonished look on John's face. "It has a lot of black hair!" I couldn't believe that I was already crowning! Dr. Gregory was paged and arrived minutes later. After every one in the room made predictions if we were having a boy or a girl (every one said boy) I pushed one last time and at 11:19 she was here. Our baby girl was here. We asked Dr. Gregory if John could cut the umbilical cord and if he could be the one to announce if it was a boy or a girl. Because he was concentrating on his big task and curiosity was killing me, I peeked between my legs when I heard his or her cry. In unison John and I both got a look at her privates. I immediately started crying as we both tried to grasp the reality that we were the proud parents of a baby girl.

One of my biggest fears was that I wasn't going to be able to love this baby as much as I love Brooks. I couldn't fathom my heart growing any bigger, but it did. With that first breath, it did. Time stood still as I held Ann Bennett in my arms for the first time. My heart literally ached. It throbbed with fullness of gratitude, love, excitement, and joy; the way every mother's heart bursts when she first lays eyes on her children. A throbbing that can only be gifted by our Heavenly Father. Life. 

"When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world." John 16:21

On December 13, 2012 our lives were forever changed. On August 17, 2014, our lives became richer and our hearts doubled in size. You are a blessing, Ann Bennett, and perfect in every way. Happy Birth Day, baby girl.