Ruby's Birth

Ruby was born right on time- on her due date. She's a punctual gal. The day before she was born I was dilated to a 4. I woke up at 3:45 on Wednesday, the 4th, with contractions occuring every 3-4 minutes. It was time to go! As we got ready to go a storm was building outside. We could see flashes and hear thunder. As we went outside we were surprised to see crazy lightening all over the sky. We sat out side and watched it for about 15 minutes, until I was feeling to impatient to enjoy it. It was incredible. As we were driving to the hospital we could see big bolts of lightening hitting Mount Timpanogos. We could see the actual point of contact as it would flash bright red. Very cool.

When we got to the hospital I was dilated to a 7. I opted out of an epidural as I'd been planing a natural birth. The contractions were strong but manageable. They came in and broke my water which caused the contractions to get stronger (aka more painful). The next hour I had very intense contractions. Dave did a great job of coaching me. He was so encouraging.

The last 20 mintues were the hardest. It hurt bad and the contractions were so close that I hardly had a break between them. I was going through transition (the last stage of contractions before you get to push). I then started wanting to push. However the doctor was not available, he was doing a c-section. So they had to call in another doctor. It took her about 10 mintues to get there. Okay, that really sucked. It hurts to not be able to push when your body is basically doing it anyway. She finally showed up and I was able to push. Whew! She was out in about 10 minutes. She was big and beautiful.

They laid her on my tummy for just a minute as there was merconium in my fluid so they had to make sure she hadn't inhaled any of it. Then she was so pale from the cord being wrapped around her neck so I got to see her for another minute before they took her away again for about 2 hours. I hated not being able to see her for so long.

Finally they brought her in. She looked so good.

She's an incredible baby. So good. In fact she slept 6 hours last night - woohoo! She rarely cries. We actually didn't hear her cry till she was 5 days old. We love her so much. Here are so more pics...