Stella Faye's Birth Story

"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him." 1 Samuel 1:27

Our sweet family of 5 has been home from the hospital for a little over an hour now, and I'm just dying to share Stella's birth story with you! I am so blown away with God's goodness and how He orchestrated the entire experience for His glory.

On Tuesday morning, we had what would be our last prenatal appointment before Stella arrived. This was our first appointment with my doctor after she got back from her week-long vacation. Since we were already 4 days past our estimated due date, we had an ultrasound to make sure that everything looked good... and it did! Stella and I were both perfectly healthy and we decided that we could safely continue to wait for the Lord's timing on her arrival. I was still 3 cm dilated and around 60% effaced, so the doctor stripped the membranes (which she had also done 2 weeks earlier) to release some prostaglandins and hopefully trigger labor. 

That evening around 9pm I also decided to give ole castor oil a try... and for the record, I don't think I would recommend it to my friends! :) I spent 11:00pm-11:30pm in the bathroom, having my system totally cleaned out. I'm so grateful that I was able to go to sleep after that and rest until my contractions woke me up at 2am. They were too intense to sleep through and coming every 1-2 minutes, lasting around 30 seconds each. At 3am, I woke Jason up (he had been running a fever that afternoon, so I was trying to let him rest) and told him what was going on. I still wasn't sure if it was truly labor or if this was some sort of side effects from the castor oil!! He thought that we should call my mom, since she too had tried castor oil when she was 12 days past her due date with Allie. She seemed pretty sure that it was in fact labor and suggested that I walk around the house and try a warm shower. I called our doula, Lacey, and got in the shower a little after 3:30am. The shower was WONDERFUL!! Excellent for pain relief! When I got out around 4am, I guess it hit me.. just how intense the contractions actually were. I knew we needed to get to the hospital pretty quickly! Jason called his parents to see if they could come pick up our big girls. By the time I dried my hair and got dressed (around 4:30am), I knew we couldn't wait for his parents, so we called them to see if they'd meet us at the gas station- and I'm so glad we did! We made it to the hospital at 5:09am, with me feeling the need to push while signing in at the nurses' station! When we got to the room, I was 9cm and pushing before they could get the monitors on me. After about 3 pushes, Stella was born at 5:35am on Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 with the help of a sweet nurse, Jason, my mom and Allie, and our doula. (The on-call doctor was doing a c-section at the time.) She weighed 7lbs and 5 oz and was 21 inches long.

Now before you think that I'm super woman, please know that as soon as we got to the hospital.. I was begging for drugs- even though I knew I didn't want them! I literally kept telling Jason that I thought I was going to die!! If you read my blog about my birth plan, you'll remember that I had planned and prayed that I would be too far along to get any drugs when we got to the hospital and the Lord answered that prayer! My sweet mama had also prayed that I'd have a 3 hour labor, and He provided again!! 3 1/2 hours from start to finish! 

We were discharged from the hospital 31 hours after Stella's delivery. We are at home and doing very well! She's nursing like a champ and I feel great!! This recovery has definitely been the best of my 3. I'm so thankful that the Lord gave me the strength I needed.. not only to deliver my baby without medical intervention, but also to trust Him and His timing for her birth. 

Thank you Jesus for the wonderful blessing of Stella Faye!!