The Story

Well both of my boys are passed out right now so I thought I would write our birth story. It's actually all a little weird to think about. I find myself thinking "Did that really happen?" all the time.

Bridger loves his hands on his face when he sleeps.

Austin has helped so much and is such an awesome dad, he's so exhausted he's sleeping during football.

Tuesday Sept 6 I started out at being dilated at a three.

Friday Sept 9 we went to our doctor appointment and everything was going good. I had only had a few contractions all week so we scheduled an induction date for Sept. 16 and another doctor appointment the following Monday Sept 12. (I didn't want to be induced but I also wanted a safe birth and a healthy baby) Friday night I started having contractions, nothing too serious, but they lasted all night off and on.

Saturday Sept 10 (my due date) was the same way until that evening and then they were fairly regular. Some of them hurt but they weren't huge. At the doctor's appointment we were told that if I had contraction 5 minutes apart that I was supposed to go to the hospital. Well Saturday night that's exactly what was happening. So we went to the hospital, they checked my contractions and dilation, my contractions were slowing down and I was dilated at a 4. So they sent us home. :(

Sunday Sept 11 I had pretty big contractions all day but with lots of space in between.

Monday Sept 12 we went in for another doctor appointment at 11:30. Told the doc about the contractions, was feeling ok, he checked me. The most personality I have seen the doctor have was when he checked me. "Oh! You're a 5!....He's SO low and you're really thin! Um, you could to go the hospital today! We'll see what Dr. Evans wants, but you could have a baby today." (He didn't make it sound urgent, more casual than anything.) Austin and I were a little stunned as they put us in another room to talk to the doctor that was going to deliver me. Dr. Evans was flying through paper work and there was no if's and's or but's about going to the hospital. It's a good thing the car seat and bag had been in the car for awhile. At around 12 he sent us straight to the hospital from our appointment.

It took what seemed like forever to check in. And walking into our room was very surreal. We called our parents, I dressed down and they started getting everything ready. When we got there, there were 5 other girls in labor, and only 4 nurses on call. Things were crazy like that all night, by the time I had Bridger there was a total of 9 of us in labor, I think they had to call in some more nurses. So I had lots of different nurses coming in and out the whole time.

The first nurse had a horrible time putting in my IV, she tried twice and failed hard core. I have bruises to prove it. Her second attempt she started pumping stuff and made a huge lump in my arm, ouch. Austin was like "Whoa, her arm looks broken! I saw broken arms in football and that's exactly what it looked like!" Not really the best thing to say to me around needles and such, but kind of funny now.

So they sent someone else in, thank goodness, this time it happened to be the anesthesiologist. It took him 2 seconds to do my IV, didn't even hurt. He was great. He asked me how dilated I was and when he found out I was a 6 he was like, "Well do you want to start your epidural?" I didn't think my contractions were that bad but figured why not, I was going to do it sooner or later. He left to get things ready and the doctor came in and broke my water, talk about oww.

Thank goodness the anesthesiologist came in after that because the contraction following my water breaking was horrible, but it was the only real big contraction that I had. The epidural hurt and after I got it I could feel some of the contractions. Right after the epidural Bridger's heart rate dropped really low during the next contraction, things were beeping, nurses were rushing in, it was all quite scary for a little while. The nurses got things under control and we were both great the rest of the time. After the epidural it was just a waiting game. Austin watched football, I slept, it wasn't bad at all. The weirdest sensation was looking at the monitor and knowing I was having killer contractions and not feeling a single thing. BEAUTIFUL!

A couple of hours before the delivery my wonderful husband, dad, brother, father-in-law and brother-in-law came and gave me a blessing. It was such a sweet experience having that blessing. Lucas, my brother-in-law was just made an elder, so it was his first blessing which was really cool for me. I'm so grateful for wonderful men in my life that have and honor their priesthood. Around 8 pm they came and checked me and I was a 9 1/2. We let the contractions move the baby a little more and then it was time to push. I pushed for about an hour and a half and around 9:30 Bridger Travis Dahl was born at 8 lbs. 8 oz, 20 3/4 inches.

The whole day was crazy, go to an appointment, get sent to the hospital and have a baby.

Bridger is such a good baby. I think it's because he was so crazy while I carried him. When he's not hungry he is so happy and content. He hardly cried at all at the hospital, all the nurses were impressed with how content he was. He didn't even cry when he came out. And once they got him to cry it was only for a few seconds. Hungry and feeding is a different story but we'll get the hang of it soon. He loves his hands on his face, especially while he sleeps. He is also really strong, he can lift his head up for a while and puts up a good fight when we put his mittens on so he doesn't scratch his face! And he loves his dad. 

Austin is the best dad ever! He's so good and cute with Bridger. And he's done so much to help me. I'm so lucky to have him and so is Bridger.

I'm doing good. Still sore but that's to be expected. I'm proud to be a mother, I'm proud that I didn't have to have a c-section and pushed him out in an hour and half. The nurses said it was a textbook delivery and I'm so happy I was able to do that. (before the delivery I asked the nurses how long it normally takes and they said anywhere from an hour to three or more.) I'm proud of how well my pregnancy went and how healthy I stayed. I ended up weighing less at the end of my pregnancy than pre-pregnancy. Sounds crazy but I'm so excited to wear real jeans. And even happier that I can now and that they're baggy.  :) That makes for a happy mom! I love Bridger so much and am so happy I can be his mommy!