Introducing Scarlet Ava

Hi everyone! I am so excited to finally be posting again! Especially this very special post introducing my daughter! Scarlet Ava Klassen was born May 18th 2015, at 10:27 p.m. She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 21 inches long. She is pure perfection from her head to her toes! I am so in love with this little girl!

I know a few of you are interested in the labor/birth story, and I decided I would keep it brief because there is a lot I could go into but its pretty personal for those of you who don’t want the nitty gritty…I’ll start by saying it was really hard! I started feeling cramps at 5 a.m. Sunday morning and was so happy as I was almost two weeks late. “Babies are never late they come when they want to” is what my midwife kept telling me. I was so excited that it was the start of my body getting ready for labor though. I should have gone back to sleep, but I was thinking I was gonna get up and have a baby that day!

The cramping continued and I kept asking myself if this was the real thing or not. My midwife said it was my cervix continuing to thin out and was a sign labor was close on its way. I started having irregular contractions the whole afternoon but they didn’t seem to becoming consistent despite how painful they were. I had really bad back pain for the entirety of my labor. During contractions I had to have someone pressing into my back just to make the pain more bearable.

I did things around the house and even took a walk around the neighborhood while my contractions were still on the lighter side. I was slowly dilating at this point and hoping that by the night I would at least be pushing. Boy was I wrong! I labored through the night unable to rest because of the contractions making it extremely painful to lie down. I paced the house, did squats and got in and out of the birthing tub for the majority of the night, My midwife, husband, and mother in law all got a few hours of rest and then woke up in the early morning to start the whole process of helping me labor again.

The day passed for me in a kind of muddled blur of having contractions but not progressing very quickly and it taking hours just to dilate another centimeter. I was exhausted. By the evening I even was doubting if I could really do this naturally at all. I had to push myself not to give up in desperation even though it had been hours upon hours of a slow and painful labor. As I got more tired my contractions got more irregular. I was stuck at 8cm. for six hours.

I finally had to reach a point where I forced myself to keep going and embrace the pain because the baby needed to come! We monitored her heartbeat throughout the labor and she wasn’t showing any signs of distress. What a trooper. But there reached a point where I knew I couldn’t just be in labor forever, so I needed to do whatever it took to get stronger contractions. I started a routine of walking back and forth through the house and squatting down during each contraction to help push the baby down. I got a second wind of sorts even though I felt kind of delirious. Progress was still slow but I was very determined at this point.

My goal become to have this baby so I could sleep. It sounds terrible but I had never been so tired before! I started pushing with the contractions and started using a birthing stool. Once the baby finally started to crown we got into the birthing tub. My husband sat behind me and it only seemed like a few pushes and the baby whooshed out. The actual pushing her out was relatively easy in comparison o the rest of the labor. She came out with eyes wide open and the sweetest little face. She was just looking around and making all these adorable expressions and not even crying. I had never felt so relieved and happy before. I got to have her to my chest right away and she stayed with me in the water until after the placenta was delivered and cord was cut. My midwife had her head out of water right away but let her body stay in the warm water and float around for a few minutes, My husband and I just stared at our baby in admiration and amazement. Luckily I didn’t tear or having any major complications, so we could just enjoy our baby.

Once we got out of the tub Scarlet was swaddled up and examined by my midwife. I took a quick shower before getting into bed and then watched her get weighed and measured. Then she was dressed and snuggled up to me. We had family come shortly afterwards and they got to hold and see her briefly before the three of us conked out. We slept the whole night through and late into the morning. I think baby was just as tired as me! She wasn’t really interested in nursing until the second day and we didn’t really get the hang of it until a couple days after, but now she is a champ and will not stop eating it seems like!

It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done by a long shot, but I am so proud of doing it! I couldn’t have made it through without the encouraging words of my husband, expertise of my midwife, and constant back rubs I received from my mother in law. It truly was a team effort to get this little baby into the world.

I am in heaven just getting to spend everyday as a a family of three. She is so content and sweet. We simply adore her!

It’s now been nine days with our princess, and I thought it was time to share some photos!