It’s been quite a while since I blogged, but things have been far from slow around here! November was an exciting month for us as we waited for and welcomed the newest member of our little Teasley family. She is beautiful and such a blessing. We are honored and humbled that God would allow us to be her parents. I’m already overwhelmed by the privilege and responsibility of raising up this little one and introducing her to God’s great love for her! Here are some images from her arrival, along with a little bit of her birth story. Check back tomorrow for images of a fun little newborn session we did with her at home about a week after her birth.

My due date was November 19, and we were pretty certain I’d go at least that long before giving birth. However, my blood pressure bounced around and was especially high at the doctor’s office (something about that place…) the two or three weeks before, so we were watching it pretty closely. I definitely didn’t want to mess around with high blood pressure! I decided to take some extra time to rest, and stayed home beginning on Monday the 11th, watching my blood pressure several times a day.

After a good report on Tuesday the 12th, we kept waiting. I enjoyed a yummy breakfast-for-dinner thanksgiving meal with our community group, took several long walks, and Thursday morning I sat on the exercise ball at the desk for about an hour while I worked on a few things. Something worked. (I think it was the exercise ball.) Shortly after I got up from the desk, around 11:30am, my water leaked or so I thought. I called the doctor’s office, and they told me to come on in and get checked out. They would verify what had happened, and send me to deliver if it was time. We decided to take our time since I was feeling fine, so Nic and I ran some errands. We picked up our new glasses at the eye doctor, and grabbed Subway for lunch. We came back home to put our hospital bags in the car, and headed for the doctor. I made another quick stop at the chiropractor… if I was going to have this baby today, I wanted my body to be as ready for labor as possible! 🙂 At this point I wasn’t feeling any contractions, just hanging out.

We headed to the doctor around 3pm, and they quickly verified that my water had indeed leaked. Since the doctor’s office is connected to the hospital and they wanted to deliver within 24 hours of my water breaking, one of the nurses escorted me straight over to labor and delivery. They hooked me up to some fluids and let me walk the halls for a little while. I wanted to use as few drugs as possible, so I hoped to help kick start the contractions. This didn’t happen, so they started labor-progressing meds around 7pm. Nic’s mom came by to bring snacks, and my parents came by on their way into town. Nic and I passed the rest of the time by playing Monopoly deal and watching season 4 of Downton Abbey, until the labor just got too rough. Thursday evening, I labored without pain meds for 6 hours. The first 3-4 were fine, but the last 2 were pretty miserable. Contractions were so intense, and I had not progressed much since arriving at the hospital. This was super discouraging. At 1am, after being told it could be another 5-6 hours of these super intense contractions before I was ready to push, I decided to get an epidural. Although it wasn’t what I originally wanted, and this point I knew it was the right decision. They told me to sleep, and I couldn’t, but I did relax… In fact, I was so relaxed that I was ready to push after just one hour! The doctor came in and explained to me what we would do, and then we started pushing. I had 6 cheerleaders (Nic, the doctor, and four nurses… maybe more) counting and yelling and encouraging me. It was crazy! After 45 minutes, and hearing, “you’re almost there,” way too many times, sweet Rachel made her appearance. These are some of the moments that followed, all captured by Nic!

 

…And last but not least, here is our Teasley family Christmas card (giving you a sneak peek at tomorrow’s blog post) designed and printed by the talented Leslie Ann Jones at Felicity Paper.