Aspen

Aspen's birth story, the slideshow

 

  She is here!!! Our beautiful little Aspen Whitney Ayres arrived on November 30th 2012 at 8:14pm.
  The following is the birth story for anyone interested.
  She was due on November 26th. I hate due dates, because I, along with most women, get so hung up on the one specific date, that if nothing has happened by that all consuming date, will start to lose my mind. And that I did. As the 26th came and went, I got crazier by the day and was convinced that somehow I would be pregnant FOREVER! This was unacceptable so my midwife (Rebecca)encouraged me to be patient and agreed to strip my membranes and give me a little herbal concoction if nothing was happening by Friday. By Thursday night I was melting down, so Rebecca scheduled me for 12:30 the next day. 
  I went in on Friday knowing that our efforts may not actually work, but hopeful nonetheless. I drank my nasty little cocktail around 12:40, had those membranes stripped and was on my way. The contractions started around 1:00 but I figured we had a good 12 hour labor ahead so we headed to Toys R Us to get some Christmas shopping done. We spent about an hour there and I was ready to get home to face this labor head on!
  We got home and I could feel that this was for real so I hopped in the shower to shave my legs (after all, who wants to give birth with hairy legs?). I put on some makeup, touched up my hair (again, must give birth looking good), and made Russ tidy up the house while I balanced the checkbook. Once I was satisfied that all was in order, I started breathing through my contractions and rolling around on my birthing ball while texting all those who were to be involved. Russ just about got punched for telling me "it isn't THAT bad", but I only had to snap once and he got the message!
  My sweet neighbor Tasia grabbed the kids and insisted on bringing dinner, I was grateful so I didn't argue too much.
  I called Rebecca and my photographer, Pam (yes, I had the whole thing photographed... tastefully of course) around 5:00 and told them to plan on coming around 7:00. By 5:20 I texted and told them to come now, things were getting intense quickly. They were both there by around 6:00.
  The kids came back for a little bit to play in my inflatable birthing tub, which they thought was great! After all who doesn't love a big swimming pool in the living room? I kicked them out shortly after 6:00, sent them back to Tasia's and hopped in.
  Russ put on my birth CD that he had made me and we started getting serious. I don't remember much from that point on other than the fact that those contractions were coming hard and fast. At one point I was crying on Russ' shoulder and telling him that I was too old for this! He laughed and everyone assured me that I was doing great and almost there. I started pushing with each contraction to get her to move down and was just praying that my water would break just to relieve some of the pressure. I knew we were getting close so I sent Russ to get Tasia and the kids. Finally I reached down and popped that bag of water myself, somehow that always seems to help.
  The next thing I remember was hearing Pam ask if she had time to change the battery in her camera, I knew she didn't so I said "she's coming" and I started to push with everything I had. As her head was crowning, all I could hear was Rebecca telling me to push slowly. Logically I understood that she was telling me this to prevent me from tearing but in my head I was thinking "YOU ARE CRAZY!" This hurt like hell and I was going for it no matter what anyone said.
  Her head came out! I gave it one more good push and reached down and grabbed my little girl. As I pulled her up to me I felt like I was sobbing (can't remember if that's true or not), partially out of relief, but mostly because of the indescribable joy of seeing your baby for the first time. She was beautiful and we had done it!
  The kids were mesmerized, Russ was again a proud daddy, and I was triumphant. Zoey wanted me to get out of the tub and the boys kept saying "it's name is Aspen!"  After snuggling for a while in the tub, Russ cut the cord and held her while I delivered the placenta. I got out of the tub and we headed upstairs, I took a quick shower and climbed into bed for our first feeding. When we were done we got her weight (5lbs 9oz) length (18 1/2") and did all of the newborn screenings and such. Rebecca cleaned up made sure we were all doing well and left around 11:00pm.
  What a night! I was exhausted but thrilled to finally have my precious girl here with us. As I looked at her that night I knew Russ and the boys were right, her name is Aspen. Now I can honestly and confidently say that our family is complete.