First, I have to lead off by saying that all of the pictures used in this post were taken by the amazing, AMAZING, Lauri of Lalee Photography. I was hesitant to have a birth photographer there to capture the delivery at first. Especially with this being my first baby, I wasn’t sure what to expect and having heard some horror stories, I thought it might just be an experience that I wouldn’t want to remember that well. ;-) Now I am so very grateful that I had her there and that I have her photos to help me remember a day that is a bit of a happy blur. If you are considering having a birth photographer there for a delivery at all, do it! I promise that you will not regret it. Even if you think that you won’t care about the photos of the labor itself, to just have someone there after the delivery is incredible and I can’t say enough about how wonderful it is. It’s actually made me think about photographing births, something that I’d never thought I’d want to do in the past. I could go on and on about this, but I’ll just end by telling you that Lauri is fabulous and you should absolutely contact her if you’re expecting and want incredibly special birth photos.

Okay, so since I am forever asking my newborn parents about their birth experiences, I thought it was only fair that I share mine. I was very lucky to have a delivery with no real complications to speak of. Although it was a long day, our family and friends were at the hospital anxiously awaiting Baby Gross’ arrival (those who couldn’t be there were being frequently updated via text messages and phone calls) and my overwhelming memories are of visitors coming and going and being super excited. I know that’s not the experience that everyone wants, but it was perfect for this social butterfly. A couple of weeks ago, I told my mom that the entire experience was “fun” and she said that I’m crazy and the only person who she’s ever heard describe childbirth as fun. :-)

Since I was six days late and still having no real consistent contractions other than the Braxton-Hicks that I’d been having for months, my OB decided to induce me. The upside of this was that I was able to be fully prepared and packed! This is a very big upside since I am not known for my timely packing. I was very nervous to be induced though and kept hoping that the baby would decide to come on his or her own before the dreaded induction day. No such luck. Eviction it was!

The day of the scheduled induction was a very snowy, wintery day. When I arrived at the hospital at 8am, they broke my water and I tried to walk the halls to get things moving without pitocin. Unfortunately, other than a bit more pressure and just generally feeling uncomfortable, there were no contractions. At that point they hooked me up to monitors and started the pitocin. At first it was completely fine and I was chatting and having a good time, eating my ice and listening to music.

Every fifteen minutes, the dosage of pitocin was increased and after a couple of hours, the pain was very intense. I had sort of considered going drug free for the birth, but I knew once we started talking induction, that I probably wasn’t committed enough to the idea to go through with it. Within two hours of the pitocin starting, I was more or less begging for drugs. I do have to give credit to my yoga breathing for preventing me from yelling at everyone in the room. Two other moms were ahead of me “in line” for the epidural, so my breathing was super important as I waited for the anesthesiologist to make her way to my room. When she finally got there, I was seriously never so happy to see someone walk into a room ever.

After a brief bout of low blood pressure accompanied by a dizzy spell (dizzy spells whilst laying down and being numb from the waste down are really not fun) and a bit of nausea, I was VERY happy to have the epidural. I have major respect for moms who do it drug free because that pain is no fun, to say the least.

One of the main reasons that I considered going drug free for the birth was because I was afraid that an epidural would slow things down and I wouldn’t progress and I’d eventually wind up with a c-section. I like to expect the worst. Luckily though, I was already 4cm when I finally got the epidural and I was more dilated every time they checked me until it was time to push! By that point it was already 10pm and I was pretty tired since I’d barely slept at all the night before. I think more than anything, not knowing if Baby Gross was a boy or girl got me through this part. I couldn’t wait to find out what we were having!

Once I got pushing, things were progressing well and the nurse was almost ready to call in the OB to help with the delivery. Then the phone rang in my room and although I was somewhat in a state of delirium by then, I remember thinking that the tone of the call didn’t sound so good. I was right. The doctor had to perform an emergency c-section on one of her other patients and I would have to wait. This was by far the worst part of the delivery. Although I had the epidural, I was feeling a lot by that point and every contraction was like pure torture. 45 minutes of pure torture.

Once the OB came to the room though, I got right back to pushing. I think I may have been the most annoying patient ever because after every push I asked for an estimate of how much more time and/or how many more pushes. Pushing is exhausting and I just wanted that part to be over. After a little over two hours, Florence Ivy finally arrived! I pulled her up onto my chest and we all looked to see if she was a boy or girl. I seriously can’t imagine ever wanting to find out the gender before delivery because that part was just so exciting.

Although I love all of the photos, of course those featuring miss Florence Ivy are my favorite. I love how she came out so alert and already gazing into the camera.

Just for fun, the reaction to the big gender reveal. The best!!

That is it! Now she’s already two months old and already so big. Just like everyone says, it goes so fast.