September 28th - Julianna's birth

Julianna's birth was much more simple compared to the previous two. I hadn't really had any braxton hicks with hers, I remember the few days leading up to her birth, we walked a lot, but nothing regular going on.

She was due on September 30th I believe... On the morning of September 28th, at 3:00 am, I woke up feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom, and my contractions immediately started up. They were strong enough that I knew I was in labor. We woke up my cousin Ian (who lives with us), I jumped in the shower, Nathan grabbed the bags, and we left. I remember I was running around the house trying to get a few things finished, and every couple minutes I had to stop and bend over and handle the contractions that were coming....

We got to the hospital around 3:45 or 4:00 am... They checked me and I was in labor. I was emotional because I felt like I was just in there delivering a baby... I had just had William 15 months earlier... so walking into the birthing room was like deja vu ... I wasn't quite mentall ready....

Also with some of the issues I've had in the past pregnancies with my pelvic floor, they wanted me to get an epidural, so I wouldn't push very hard... What I didn't know was that in order to get an epidural, you have to have 2 full bags of iv fluid pumped into to you... I seriously wanted to ask them if I could just drink that stuff... drip drip drip... my gosh it took a while... AND on top of that, the lovely massive bags of fluid has to go someone on your pregnant swollen body... so I literally looked like a puffy water baloon sitting in the bed.. :) But I can say, I was all smiles and talking... much different than my previous labors!

Around 6 or a little there after, I told my midwife that I felt some pressure, she checked me and said the baby was crowing ... So I gave a little push and out she came ... She had the cord wrapped around her shoulders, so the midwife had to pull on her a bit to get her shoulders to come out, but it was such an easy experience. (Even though I will admit that during my minute of pushing, I was thinking.... I thought with an epidural this wasn't supposed to hurt... I sure did still feel the burn.. ha ha) Our beautiful Julianna Spencer was born around 6:15am ... weighing in a whopping 9 1/2 lbs, 20 inches... I remember thinking she was so chunky!! And her hair... oh her beautiful red hair... We had our own little strawberry shortcake!!!

She was such a happy baby and fit right into our little family... She was just so good, it made things seem easy. And now we have our precious beautiful little firecracker... She can be oh so very sweet, but she definately has her very own opinions!! :) Bless her little heart!