As many of you know I work as a photographer, mainly doing weddings, but babies and families as well. The 3 weeks before Kynleys due date I had two weddings to photograph. One on february 9th and one on the 16th. Photographing a wedding normally is exhausting and takes a lot out of you, but being 9 months pregnant is a serious task. Anyways, I successfully photographed my Saturday, February 9th wedding with no problems, a bit of swelling in my feet but other than that I was good. On the tuesday after that wedding I started having some serious braxton hicks contractions. They started in my back and worked their way around to the front. I spent the day wondering if this was the real thing or just my body playing tricks. Luckily that night we had a birthing class at the hospital so I went in to get checked out. The mid wife hooked me up to the machines and I was having contractions 5 mins apart. They weren't anything strong and I wasnt dilated at all so I was given some sleeping pills and sent home being told "It would happen tomorrow or in 2 weeks". I was just determined to get past Saturday the 16th so I could photograph this final wedding I was booked for, so I set my mind that I wouldnt go into labor until sunday!
I woke up wednesday and thursday feeling great. By friday night I started having contractions again. Nothing serious but for sure uncomfortable. I went to bed begging for them to be gone by the morning so I could just photograph this wedding, then whatever happened was fine with me. Well saturday morning comes and I wake up with horrible cramping in the front. It wasnt contractions that were coming and going, it was a consistent pain. I got out of bed and was determined to make sure I had everything together in the case that I went into labor while I was photographing this wedding. The pain eventually went away and I thought I was in the clear. About an hour before I left to meet my assistant photographer I started having contractions again. They were 15-20 mins apart and not strong. I talked decided I would still go to photograph the wedding but in a worse case scenario the two assistants I had hired would take over for me. I had lined these two photographers up for this saturday months in advance so that if she came early or I went into labor I had people I trusted to take over for me.
Half an hour before I left my house I got a call from the second photographer (she would be the main photographer to run things had I not been able to do it) that she was sick and wasn't going to be able to help me. You could only imagine my panic. I had planned so long for this day and I felt like everything was about to blow up in my face! Luckily the other assistant I hired is very capable and I knew that if I had to leave the wedding early I could leave it with her and she could handle it. (Thanks Dee you are the best!!!) So I went off to photograph the wedding. As the day progressed so did my contractions. By the time the ceremony was done they were 10-7 mins apart and by the reception the were 5 mins apart. I knew if I just got the bride and groom entering the reception and cutting the cake I would be done and could go into labor haha
After I left the wedding I called the hosptital and they told me to come in. I went home got my stuff and my husband and we headed to the hospital arriving around 9:30pm. When we got there I was 1 cm dilated with contractions 5 mins apart. The contractions werent super painful so the midwife gave me some pain killers and had us wait 4 more hours to check me again to make sure I was really in labor. After about 3 hours of on and off sleep the pain started to get more extreme and I asked for the gas to suck on. That stuff is amazing. When they came back to check me again I was still only 1 cm but my cervix had changed and they knew this was the real thing! I was on the phone immediately to my mom and had her book her flights out here. Then I asked for the epidural. BEST. THING. EVER.
The anesthesiologist arrived at about 2:30 am. The worst part of the epidural was when he tried to put the IV in my had and stuck it through my vein! OUCH! It was by far worse than the epidural itself! Once the epidural kicked in I finally go to sleep. Yay! I slept until 6:30am when my OB came into check me. I was only 2 cm dilated and she decided to break my water to progress things. She told me I would probably have the baby sometime that evening because it was my first and I seemed to take awhile to progress. I called my friend Maree who was going to take photo's of the birth for me and told her it was really happening but to take her time coming in because it was going to be a long day! She arrived at the hospital around 10am and the midwife came into check me around 10:30. While she was checking me she had this weird expression on her face and said "it looks like your fully dilated! I cant find your cervix!" I was in shock! I went from 2cm to 10cm in 4 hours! Let me tell you that the epidural was truly the best thing ever I was comfortable, happy, relaxed through the whole precess because of it. And then I had to push.....
I started pushing around 11:30am and went for an hour with out making any progress at all. They let the epidural wear off slightly so I could tell where I was pushing but that also meant I could feel some of the pain. Luckily after a while they topped up my epidural and it wasnt so bad. After an hour my dr came in and said she appeared to be stuck so they were going to need to use a suction cup to get her out. At that point I didnt care what they used. I was over pushing I just wanted her out!!! They got everything ready and with-in a few pushes she was born! As they placed her on my chest I saw her head which scared the crap out of me becuase it looked like her brain had grown outside of her head! The doctor assured me it would go away and it was just from the suction cup, but seeing your baby for the first time like that was pretty frightening! But after I got over the initial shock of her head It was all tears and happiness as I stared at my little girl. She was born at 1:02pm weighing 6lbs 11oz 47cm long :)
Within minutes of her being born her head started to go back to normal minus a bruise. I immediately called my family and let them know she had arrived. My mom was in the LA airport waiting to board her flight down under.
Here are some of the pictures from her birth :)
