Meeting Raelynn...

I'm sure all of you are dying to meet Raelynn...I was too, and now I am so happy that she is here. She is just the most beautiful baby I could ask for. Here's her birth story:

I started my weekly appointments with my OB and she informed me that I would have a quick labor. This was based on the facts of my last labor, that by 36 weeks, I was already dialated two centimeters and by 37 weeks I was already four centimeters. At my 38 week appointment, there wasn't much progress but she was convinced labor could happen any day and that I should get to the hospital as soon as I had any pain. Now up to that point, I had not had any painful contractions, and I was hoping that baby Raelynn would stay put until, at least, my sisters were here which was another six days.

Raelynn, on the other hand, had other plans. I woke up in the middle of the night Saturday to one contraction then another about 20 minutes later. This is how my labor with Carson started so I figured I'd have most of the day to get ready for her arrival. I decided to wake up Travis to let him know what was happening and that I was going to get up and start getting ready. I told him to go back to sleep. So I got up and started packing; Travis decided to get up too. Not more than ten minutes after I started to get ready my contractions were coming stronger and closer together. I told Travis to call his sister to come get Carson because the baby was coming soon. She lives about 30 minutes away and it was four in the morning so I wanted give her and us time.

At 5:00 a.m., she was at our house, and my contractions were only a few minutes apart. Travis helped her put Carson in the car and off they went. Then off we went, to the hospital about ten minutes away.

You know those stories you hear about women who give birth in parking lots of hospitals? Well, I was almost one of those women. My contractions were so close together and so painful, I couldn't even walk all of the way to Labor and Delivery. I walked as far as I could and Travis had to yell for a nurse to get a wheelchair to take me the rest of the way. At the registration desk, Travis, very nicely, informed the nurses that the last time we went thru this, when I arrived at the hospital I was dialated to seven centimeters. I'm sure the nurses thought he and I were both crazy and that I wasn't as far along as we thought.

When I was checked by the triage nurse, we found out that I was fully dialted and they rushed me over to a delivery room. At this point, I was begging for an epidural...unfortunately it was too late. The nurses informed me there would be no time for it and the only reason I hadn't had the baby yet was because my water had not broken. In a matter of minutes, I began pushing, my water broke, then the doctor arrived. Raelynn was on her way out before the doctor could even put his gloves on. So I had her without any intervention and was up moving around a couple of hours after she was born.

Raelynn was born at 6:30 a.m. just about an hour after we arrived. She weighed 7lbs. 4 oz. and was 19.5 inches long.