Jamie's Baby Story: Welcome to the World

This is over a week late (been a little busy as you can imagine), but I finally have a moment to announce that Shay Seraphina Burton is finally here!!! She was born a week past the due date on Monday March 15, 2010 at 6:21am. She weighed 7 lbs., 5 oz. and measured in at 19 3/4 in. long. Perfectly healthy and perfectly beautiful!

All throughout my pregnancy, I said that I wanted her to have her own special birthday. Not gonna lie, toward the end, I was so physically miserable that I was praying she'd be born before or even on my birthday (March 14th). Dr. Mackey scheduled us to be induced at 7:00am on March 15th at our last OB appointment. As much as I wanted baby to be born, I was less than thrilled about the thought of induction using pitocin which often makes for longer, harder & more painful labors. I wanted a natural labor & childbirth, hence the Lamaze classes. Lots of prayers were being said on my part that Shay would make her appearance on her own.

My prayers were answered when I went into labor naturally around 8:00pm on my birthday. At first we weren't sure if this was really labor but Jeff & I hung at home and timed the contractions for a little over 4 hours. Sometime after midnight, they had gotten more intense and spaced closer together so we headed to Centennial Women's Hospital. Upon arrival, they assessed me and I was dialated at 4 cm. and having contractions every 3 minutes so they immediately sent me to a labor & delivery room. I'm guessing it was around 1:30am or so once we were settled in and the real work of labor began.

After a few hours, I was really feeling strong contractions and wondering where the nurse was because she had been gone for awhile. Jeff called her and she checked and was surprised that I was at 8 cm (said that most women were calling for an epidural way before then and that I had been so quiet). Dr. Mackey was out of town so she phoned in Dr. Driver who was on call that night. Everything happened pretty quickly then. Looking back even though it was only a week and a half ago, I can't really remember what it felt like but I know that this was one of the hardest parts with painful contractions coming pretty fast and an overwhelming need to push but I was told I couldn't until we hit 10 cm. The nurse encouraged me a lot when she told me that if I had gotten this far naturally, I would be able to do the rest.

In a matter of a few minutes, our room went from just Jeff & me to about 8 or 9 people. They transformed it almost into a surgical type room dropping down lights from the ceiling and wheeling in carts with all kinds of instruments and sterile fields. My water broke last minute and they said there was a little meconium . They called someone just in case I needed an emergency c-section. Hearing this gave me determination to get her out as safely & quickly as possible. Before I knew it, I was told I could push and Shay was born 3 contractions and a few minutes later! And thankfully, she was perfectly healthy. It had to have been the most surreal moment of my life. I really can't describe it. I remember having my eyes closed during the pushing phase and someone told me to open them and I was able to see her head and then watch her be born. Jeff cut her umbilical cord (for some reason I don't remember seeing that). They took her right away to make sure she hadn't inhaled any meconium (thankfully she hadn't). Then they brought her to me and I was able to hold her for the first time. It's a moment I will never, ever forget for the rest of my life.

She is the best birthday gift I could have ever asked for. I'll describe the last few days at home in a future blog, but I wanted to at least get some thoughts down about her birth. I am so blessed to have Jeff as my husband and best friend. He was there with me every step of the way and I couldn't have done it without his love & support. He is an amazing daddy already! THANK YOU GOD FOR EVERYTHING!