Eden April Harris - Birth Story and first week of Life

The second Eden was placed into my arms I was completely overcome with a love and joy so strong it felt as though my heart was going to burst out of my chest and all I could do was sob with tears of joy.  It wasn't like that with the boys.  I was happy and loved them from the beginning, but it wasn't as intense and immediate as it was with Eden.  I don't know what the difference was but it was an incredible feeling that I never want to forget. 

 

So here's how it happened.  I had been having strong braxton hicks contractions everyday the whole last trimester.  This is normal for me and happened with the boys as well.  The two weeks leading up to her birth they were getting stronger and more frequent and three times during the last two weeks I thought I was for sure going into labor because they were so strong and painful but then they'd never be quite regular enough or last long enough to actually go into the hospital.  Every time this happened it was in the middle of the night and I didn't want to wake up a friend to come sleep at the house with my boys if  I wasn't positive it was the real deal. 

Eden's due date was April 8th.  I was scheduled to be induced on Friday the 5th.  I had an OB appointment the week before and was dilated to a 3 and 50% effaced so they decided if I hadn't gone by the 5th they could induce me.  My mom was flying into town on Thursday the 4th so it would be perfect to maximize her time here.  On Wednesday night April 3rd, my good friend Megan was over at our house with her mom and sister because they were visiting and I wanted to meet them.  While they were over I had a few really painful contractions but just kind of ignored them because they were about a half hour apart.  

About a half hour after Megan and her mom and sister left my contractions started coming regularly.  I started timing them and they were 5 minutes apart and really painful, so after 15 minutes I texted Megan and told her we probably needed her or her hubby to head back over to sleep at the house.  This was around 8:45 pm.  Tanner arrived at 9 pm and Ryan and I were at the hospital at 9:30.  Checking in took FOREVER, and I was in so much pain.  By the time they finally got me back and checked me I was dilated to a 7.  I was of course asking for an epidural, but my midwife was trying to talk me out of it.  She said I was progressing so fast and I really didn't need one and could do it with out.  I wasn't mentally prepared for that so told her to order one anyway.

They moved me to a room and I continued to have contractions as I waited for the epidural.  They were constant now with no breaks in between.  They just went from less intense to very intense over and over.  It was horrible.  I just kept telling myself to take long slow breaths and that seemed to help.  After a while I sat up at the edge of the bed and leaned my upper body against Ryan's chest and that position really helped too.  The midwife didn't want to check me again because she thought that would break my water (it hadn't broken yet) and then I would certainly have to start pushing. Finally, a little after 11 the anesthesiologist came with the epidural.  10 minutes later I felt amazing!  I could breath and relax and talk.  Modern medicine is remarkable.  My water broke, and the doc checked me and I was at a 10.  She suspected I'd been at a 10 for a while.  We waited a few more minutes to let my epidural set in completely and then at 11:54pm after about 10 minutes of pushing beautiful, sweet Eden April was born.  She was an 8lb 7oz little piece of Heaven.  I feel so grateful and blessed that God has allowed me to be her mom and trusted me to care for and raise her sweet, precious spirit.

  
 My mom arrived the next day and she and the boys (and Megan's amazing mom and sister who picked my mom up at the airport and had been watching the boys that morning) came to the hospital to meet Eden.  The boys were so excited and so sweet to her.  It was so fun to see them love on her.

We came home the next day and again, the boys were sweet as could be to there new baby sister.
 

Here are few more pics from her first week of Life.