My Labor Story

My Labor Story

My second daughter, Joy Faith Bedrick, was born at 3:20pm on Oct. 17th.  She will have the same birthday as my uncle actually. :)  She was 21 inches 8.5 lbs.  It was an all natural childbirth with no pain meds at all, which was quite an experience for sure!  But praise God that he got me through it! And praise God for my wonderful husband and awesome mom that helped me SO much today! So thankful for both of them!

Today I'm in the hospital recovering but can't sleep much.  They make us stay for 24 hours after we deliver here in Midland, Texas. :)  When you have a baby remember to bring a fan to help drown out hallway noise so you can sleep lol 

But today went very well I would say!  I progressed from 0 centimeters to 7 in literally like an hour. Pretty crazy. It really seemed like a full on miracle actually!  I didn't even have that many contractions in that hour; only about one every 10 minutes that only lasted about 30 seconds each.  So the 5,1,1 rule isn't always accurate. :)  We, me, my mom and hubby were praying in that hour and I think God literally supernaturally progressed my labor!  woohoo!  They were actually about to send me home because I wasn't dilated much at all.  But praise God I got to get it over with, because I really wanted to at that point! lol :)  My "mucus plug" had come out 12 hours before that so I knew labor was imminent.  And my contractions had started which was why we went to the hospital but the nurse literally told me I wasn't in "real labor."  I was thinking "ha yeah right, I know what labor feels like and this is it thank you." lol :)  So praise God I did dilate so quickly after that or they would have sent me home. :(  Thank you Jesus for that! :)

One thing that helped a ton in my time of labor was that my mom and hubby took turns literally laying their chest on my legs lol It was my mom's idea and it was a great one!  For some reason legs get really shaky in delivery so that helped a ton to calm my legs down.

I didn't have any pain killing drugs whatsoever ah....so I felt absolutely everything!  There just wasn't time to give me anything with how quickly things progressed. Crowning is by far the most painful part. It took me a good 6 or 7 pushes to get baby Joy out because she was 19 inches long! And when she did come out my goodness the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck three times and she didn't cry for a full 20 seconds. It was sad and it scared Ben and I half to death for sure! :(

But she seems to be perfectly healthy and happy now as though nothing happened praise God!  But please pray that won't affect her at all in the future, like in her development. Thank you dear friends!  I appreciate your prayers! :)
May God bless you all!

Other thoughts on my labor:

It's funny all the little things we take for granted, like just being able to walk lol. That gets pretty hard in pregnancy and after having a baby.

Serenity's head when she was born was almost twice the size of Joy's head lol :) I don't know if that means she has a bigger brain and she will always be smarter than Joy. Who knows. But I had a third degree laceration with Serenity I'm pretty sure but with Joy it was just a first degree laceration. Praise God! Because that is why this time around breastfeeding is even possible. Last time I pretty much could not sit up at all for a whole month or so. It was way too painful. The doctor cut me last time, but not this time. I have read that them cutting can cause a greater tear than would have happened on it's own. So for any about to have a baby, opting to not have them cut you is probably the best option I think. :) And if you are about to have a baby, good luck! It always helps to remember the excruciating pain only lasts for a few hours. :)

Currently my mom is helping me out a lot since I'm recovering from my labor. The cramps are no fun. Today she did my dishes, laundry and mopped my floors. What a stellar mom! Thank u mom!

Also I'm currently working on mastering the art of breast feeding and pumping. Yay! I didn't do that great with my first daughter. But this time I got the most wonderful breast pump. Ladies the yellow Medela breast pump works great! Love it! I totally feel like if I can master this breastfeeding thing why not have like 5 more kids lol that could be pretty awesome! And I think Ben and my kids would all be like the next mother Theresa's and Billy Grahams lol yeah! maybe