Life on Summerwood Blvd: Sophia's Birth Story

On May 10, 2014 our lives changed forever as we welcomed our sweet baby girl into the world!! At 5:38 am on Saturday morning Sophia Jo Kirchner was born, weighing 7 lbs 11oz and 20 1/2 inches long. She arrived one day after her due date, although I was convinced by noon on that Friday that I was going to be a week overdue! Ha! I was getting slightly irrational and impatient at that point!

This is how it all went down...
I had seen my OBGYN earlier in the week that I was due and was slightly discouraged when she informed me that I was only 1cm dilated...which was the exact same as the previous week! So NO progress! I convinced her to 'do whatever' while checking me in hopes of getting something going. Painful!! But I was seriously lacking patience! I had also read in my books and online that pineapple juice and walking could also help with inducing labour. So I spent the next 3 days drinking LITRES upon LITRES of pineapple juice and doing a TON of walking. And despite my best efforts, I really don't think any of this did anything! Ha! But at least I tried!!

Friday May 9. My due date!

I was officially 40 weeks pregnant and anxious to meet our little girl. I had a great lunch date with my brother Kellen at Press'd and he tried his best to keep me positive and convinced me that our little peanut would arrive when she was ready! After lunch Kellen dropped me off at home and I decided I was going to run a few errands to keep busy and to keep my mind off the baby situation! I had been looking for a special kind of clip for a sewing project I wanted to start, so I headed to Fabricland to take a look. Just as I was walking to the back of the store, I FROZE!! Ummm...did I just pee my pants?! Slightly mortified, I looked down and was TOTALLY relieved that I did not have wet pants! Ha! But I took this cue and quickly got the heck out of Fabricland and headed home! When I arrived home I was surprised to see that Damian had left work a little bit early,which was a total fluke! I quickly headed for my 'baby bible'...my What to Expect When Your Expecting book to figure out what was going on. After a little research we were pretty sure my water had started to 'break' so we grabbed our hospital bags and headed to the hospital! When we arrived at the hospital they hooked me up to a whole bunch of machines to monitor the baby and me. All looked great and after seeing my doctor, she confirmed that my water had in fact broken, however I was not in labour! Sssssigh!! So we were told to go home, get lots of rest, and come back at 8 am the next morning so they could induce me. *just as a side note- once your water breaks they need to get the baby out within 24 hours, as they no longer have the fluid they need in there* My doctor also said that if I started to feel any signs of labour or contractions to obviously come back in, though she seemed fairly confident that that wouldn't happen and told us she would see us in the morning!

Round One at the hospital!
This is me trying to lay still while the monitors did there work!

After leaving the hospital we decided to stick with our plans for the night and headed to Whtye Ave for dinner and a walk! We ate at The Next Act and talked about how this was it! Tomorrow we would be having our little girl! After dinner we walked around Whyte Ave for a bit, however we cut our walk short as I didn't love walking around as my water continued to 'break'! Ha ha!

Once we got home I unpacked and packed all of our hospital bags again (type A personality much?! ha!) did some laundry, tidied up the house and made sure everything in the nursery was ready and perfect! Damian invited Kelly over to watch basketball so my plan was to have a shower and head to bed as I knew I had a BIG day ahead of me tomorrow!

Welllllll.....things didn't exactly go as I had planned! After I stepped out of the shower my water completely broke! Just like in the movies ha ha! Yikes! And immediately after that contractions started! And holy moly they were NOT what I expected! I guess just assumed that my contractions would start out slow and slowly increase over time. UM...NOT THE CASE! My contractions were extremely strong and close together right from the start and I couldn't even stand through them. So I quickly got into bed and texted Damian in the other room that Kelly needed to leave cause it was 'go time!' Ha! Damian immediately started to time my contractions and they were less than 5 minutes apart so that meant it was time to get to the hospital! The drive to the hospital was not fun, but I was very thankful I had brought my body pillow to help me through!! We arrived at the hospital around !0:00 pm and I was admitted immediately. And when they checked me I was already 4 cm dilated! Which meant I could get my epidural STAT! Woo hoo!! Bring on the drugs!! The anaesthesiologist was AMAZING and so fast!! And within a few minutes I was feeling blissful!! Which was a big relief because I think I had more anxiety about the epidural needles than I did for the actual labour part! I spent the next few hours just resting as my body continued to dilate and trying to get some rest since it was in the middle of the night at this point! My parents, Damian's parents, and Kellen all toughed it through the wee hours of the morning to keep us company! And then at about 4:00am I was 10 cm dilated and it was time to PUSH! And let me just tell you that trying to push a baby out when you can't feel your legs isn't so easy! Ha! After pushing for an hour and twenty minutes I had made very little progress and was EXHAUSTED! My doctor did some checking and determined that the babies head was jamming against my pelvic bone and she wasn't going to be able to come out without some assistance. So we were given 2 options. 1. Try using forceps. 2. C-section. Of course I was pretty discouraged with both options, but I knew we had to get that baby out of there! And I REALLY wanted to avoid a C-section if at all possible! So we gave it a go with the forceps...and within 10 minutes our sweet baby Sophia was born!! It was the most indescribable, amazing, wonderful experience of my life! It was instant love!! Damian cut the umbilical cord and they checked to make sure everything with our sweet baby was ok. And they they put her on my chest! It was the most incredible feeling ever! Damian and I just kept looking at her and then looking a each other and crying! After we had some family time with just the 3 of us, Damian went out to announce to the parents that Sophia had been born. And then the mad dash to hold her began! Ha!

Round two at the hospital!
Clearly this was AFTER my epidural!! ha!

And there she is!!

I had been waiting a LONG time for this moment!!

Proud Daddy finally got to hold her!

Meeting Grandma Kunyk for the first time!

Meeting Uncle Kellen for the first time!

Meeting Papa Kirchner for the first time!

Meeting Aunty Wendy for the first time!

Meeting Uncle Steve for the first time!

Meeting Aunty Bailey for the first time!

Grandma and Grandpa Kunyk are in LOVE!!

Sophia's very first bath!

Daddy getting some tips from the nurse!

After bath snuggles!

After spending just over 24 hours in the hospital,
it was time to head home and begin our new life with our sweet little girl!!

All dressed in her new outfit and ready to go home!