Welcome sweet Savannah

Before my memories get foggy and life catches up with us, I wanted to record the story of how our little princess entered the world. I had prayed for weeks that my labor would begin on its own and that I would not need to be induced. However, the Lord is sovereign and had other plans. I went three weeks at 1 cm dialated and almost fully effaced. Even still, we made it to induction day and the Lord worked many miracles all throughout the day. 

Sean and I arrived at the hospital at 7 am and begun paperwork right away. Shortly after, we met the sweetest nurse I could possibly imagine, Abby. One part of the induction that I was most scared of was the IV. Abby was amazing! She got it on the first try and it was almost painless. Pitocin was started at 8 am and contractions got going almost instantly. The dr recommended that I go ahead and get the epidural before she broke my water, and I am so glad she did! I got my epidural at 9:30 and she came in to break my water at 10. Savannah was still very high and over my right hip, instead of down in my pelvis, which made breaking my water very difficult. Thank goodness for epidurals!!! After that, things progressed slowly. It took from 10 am to 5 pm for me to change from 1 cm to 3 cm. I was getting very discouraged and starting to feel some of the contractions. I worried that with having broken my water several hours, I would start to get an infection. Things changed quickly after that. I went from 3 cm to 6 cm in the next hour and a half and was officially in active labor. However, during that time my epidural stopped working in most places and even higher doses were not helping the pain. I started feeling intense pressure and knew that I had to push. They kept telling me I was only at 6 cm and it was not time, but I knew what my body was telling me. About that time, shifts changed and I got a new nurse, Courtney, who was also wonderful and made for a much better labor coach a little later on. Finally, the dr (who by the way was the dr that I had hoped all along would be able to deliver Savannah) came in and said she would let me try pushing anyways. Short version, I pushed for ten minutes and she suited up and ordered the baby nurses in. Another ten minutes of intense, painful pushing and the most precious baby girl I have ever seen was laid on my chest. It was all over and she was perfect. She weighed 7 lbs 7.7 oz (777 is the number of perfection and she was exactly that) and was 21 inches long. Things went even better than I could have planned myself and I am so thankful for a God who cares about us. 

I'll give more details in the next blog about Porter meeting Savannah, our hospital stay, and life since becoming a mommy of two. Until then, enjoy some pictures from the big day. . . (some of the pictures are sideways, so sorry, I'm blogging on my kindle while we are laptopless)