Mayla Lynn

A true dream. That is what I will remember when I think about my first moments with our new. daughter. She is a beautiful blessing and our little rainbow...

But let me back up a bit and share how she came into our arms.

First I have to say that I didn't think she was ever going to come. I never thought I would go into labor and I was sure that we were going to need an induction. So when I woke up at 1:30 in the morning with my first contraction I didn't think much about it. Back to bed I went.

About 10 or 15 minutes later, there was another. Then another. Finally I started to get a clue and decided to get up and take a bath. After being in the tub for about 30 minutes I realized that we might be going to the hospital soon. BUT the problem was that we didn't really have anything ready! So I quietly packed our bag, put together some clothes for our children, emptied our camera, got the video ready, and brought the car seat down.

By 3:00 am I felt that we needed to go to the hospital. So I woke up daddy-to-be. He really thought that how I woke him up was really funny. I woke him up at 3 am and he just looked at me for a minute. "What?" he asked. No response. "What??" he asked again. "Why would I be standing in front of you at 3:00 in the morning fully dressed?". Ding Ding Ding!!!! He jumps out of bed and dresses in record time...

Then he thought I was even funnier when he got to the bottom of the stairs to see bags packed and the car seat ready.

So about 3:30 my mom arrives and we decide to go to the hospital. By this time my contractions are still rather irregular between 5 and 8 minutes apart and only moderately painful but since I was at high risk for placenta abruption we decided it would be safer to be at the hospital then at home.

I was a little surprised when we arrived at the hospital at about 4:00 and were already 5 cm! By about 5:00 we had an epidural and I was 8 cm. We really wanted our very special Dr Shope to be our delivering doctor but unfortunately he wasn't on call. The on call Dr was wonderful. She agreed to wait until 6:00 am and call him to see if he would come and deliver for us! And as promised she made the call and he was on his way instantly.

I believe that he arrived at about 6:40 quickly ruptured my membranes and told me that we should deliver in the next little bit.

Have I ever told anyone how much I love epidurals? I love epidurals!!! They ROCK! The only reason that we were able to wait for our awesome Dr Shope was because of that wonderful epidural. In fact he said that without it we would have delivered over an hour earlier...crazy.

Anyway... he came back into the room and announced that we were about to have our daughter in our arms. The room was quiet and without the normal hustle and bustle of a quick birth. The bed wasn't taken apart, and everyone was extremely relaxed. Dr Shope sat at the edge of the bed and within a couple of pushes she had arrived. At 6:58 am our little Mayla Lynn took her first breath and let out her first cry. 8 pounds 2.5 ounces and 6 days early! I'm lucky we didn't go 5 days late like we did with her big brother.

My husband would be disappointed if I didn't share one last part of her birth story...

As the Dr told me is was time to push, I quickly asked Kevin to hand me our camera. Without thinking or asking me why he just did as I asked. So the entire room was SHOCKED when, after my first push, as I saw her tiny head appear... I snapped my first picture of her. Both the nurse and Dr stopped what they were doing (in the middle of her birth...I might add), looked at me in awe and said they had NEVER in their entire career watched a mother that is PUSHING her baby out taking her own pictures. I just laughed and continued to take pictures as she arrived. I guess that's what happens when you have had 5 babies!