georgia's birth story

I apologize for the delay in posting this, but reality has set in and it has been hard trying to find time to sit down and write out the birth story. I look forward to sharing this with Georgia one day.

I had secretly hoped that Georgia's birth story might be like Father of the Bride 2 where you wake up in the middle of the night running around gathering your bags and rushing to the hospital, but it was not like that at all. Around 37 weeks the ultrasound technician informed us that our baby was already approaching 8lbs and I still had 3 weeks to go. My doctor felt like the ultrasound was most likely inacurate so he didn't feel the need to induce. I went in again at 39 weeks for another ultrasound to check on the size and her weight was estimated to be 9.2lbs. Crazy! My doctor finally decided that we needed to induce. I got a phone call later that day asking if we could go ahead and come to the hospital the next evening to get the induction processes started. It was such a strange feeling knowing that I would be going to the hospital the next day to have Georgia. On Wednesday morning, I made sure the house was picked up, bags packed and then I treated myself to a pedicure. I had my toes paint 'Feeling Hot Hot Hot' by OPI. How appropriate right?!? Paul came home from work and then we had a true southern meal for dinner - country style steak, black eyed peas and mashed potatoes. After dinner, we went to the hospital and got checked in. Within a matter of minutes, I was in my gown.

There was so much paper work to fill out. I would stare at my newly painted toes in between answering all the many questions:)

Our families came to visit on Wednesday night. I was on a low dose of pitocin all night long.

Thursday morning slowly came and nothing had changed. I was told that I could eat a light breakfast, but that was to be my last meal. Soon after, my doctor came in and broke my water. The party was well underway after that. The contractions started coming faster and were more intense. I found that standing up helped to ease the pain some. I would squeeze Paul's hand through each contraction. Around 1 p.m. though, I asked for the epidural. I just couldn't take it any more. Kudos to those of you who have babies without an epidural or any other pain killer.

After I received the epidural, I was in the bed. I did have the shakes with the epidural, but at least I couldn't feel the contractions.

Several hours passed and finally around 5:30 p.m. I was 10 cm dilated. My doctor was still concerned that our baby might be big, but thought we might be able to avoid a c-section, which was what I wanted. After 2 hours of pushing though, there was no luck. I was exhausted and the epidural had worn off on one side of my body so I was in a great deal of pain. The doctor thought it would be best to go ahead and quickly perform the c-section. Paul put his scrubs on (he looked so handsome:), we told our families the news and then I was sent to the operating room to begin preparations. I was pretty upset about having the c-section mainly because that's not what I had planned in my head, but God had bigger plans.

Paul was so great the whole day. He was a great coach and encourager and stood by me the whole day. In the operating room, he sat right beside me too. I couldn't have made it without him. At 8:11 p.m. I heard Georgia's first cry and everything that I had been through earlier that day was completely erased from my mind. At that very moment, our lives had changed. Most of my body was numb, but I could feel tears of joy running down my cheeks as I saw our baby girl out of the corner of my eye. Georgia was indeed a healthy 8lb 11oz baby girl!

The next morning I woke up and told Paul that we had to nail down her name. We knew we would call her Georgia, but we never could seem to agree on the middle name. Paul finally agreed to let us name her after him. We have always liked the name Georgia for a girl. It is a family name on both sides of my family too. The Blue Willow china that I have was also a gift to my mom from her aunt Georgia. Paul's first name is Cameron so that is where her middle name came from.

We enjoyed introducing her to family and friends.

I loved my nurse - Autumn!

We headed home on Sunday and it was a great feeling! All the waiting was finally over.

We are so in love with our Georgia Camryn. She makes us smile each day. We are continuing to adjust to our new life as parents and look forward to the many adventures ahead.

gown from here.