Luna is Here: Our Baby Girl's Birth Story

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Ashley + Andy Fisher - Baby Girl Birth Story

Luna - Our Baby Girl’s Birth Story

 It’s been a week since our little Luna arrived and we are truly falling more in love with her every day. One of my good friends texted me a few days after her birth “ Are you just obsessed with her?” to which my response was: “I am loving her more every hour that passes. I don’t think I had the initial OMG I’m obsessed with you feeling when she was born. It takes a minute to process for sure.” I mean, let’s be honest, GF rips through my vag (sorry, TMI) after an endurance workout of record proportions. It’s the most surreal experience but all you want to do is sleep afterward and within minutes you’re figuring out breastfeeding, birthing the placenta, getting PAINFUL uterus massages, and being wheeled into postpartum. It’s A LOT.

That being said, here we are snuggling with our little mama and I already want to have another baby haha. So what’s the birth story? Overall it all went so quickly, definitely not what we anticipated but all in all a very positive journey! I hope by sharing my story it empowers you to feel confident going into your labor that it may not go as planned but it will all work out and in the end you get to meet your precious little nugget! Alrighty, so here’s how it all went down:

While I was so ready to put all of my labor-at-home knowledge to work, baby girl had a different plan. On Thursday afternoon (almost 41 weeks with induction scheduled for Sat.) I texted my doc letting her know I was pretty sure my water was leaking. She told me to go to the hospital to check. The test is a quick swab test that instantly shows results similar to a pregnancy test. Well, it was leaking and it was probably leaking for at least 5 days before (eek!). It was mildly worrisome because there’s a risk of infection once your water bag has been ruptured and all the literature says babe should be out within 24 hours. The nurse also let me know I was ALREADY 3cm dilated!

We were admitted around 5pm, antibiotics + pitocin were ordered, and we got on our way. Pitocin was administered around 7pm and for the first hour or so I felt fine. I think Andy has a video of me saying “this isn’t bad at all!” then things got real VERY fast. At 9pm I was like either this is a f'*in contraction or I’m going to poop my pants. Def a combo of both - hah! To me pitocin induced contractions felt like the worst period cramps you’ve ever had to the 1000th degree combined with the worst food poisoning ever. I consider myself to have a high pain tolerance but by 9:30 I asked for an epidural because it was truly unbearable. The nurse did another check after my epidural was placed (which btw, was so easy, painless, and truly magical when it hit!) and I was already at 8cm…. hmm, no wonder I was in so much pain.

I basically went from 3cm to 10cm in 5 hours. I hit 10cm by 11:30pm but doc wanted me to “labor down” since I wasn't really having any feeling to push. I guess the term means waiting to let the contractions do most of the work vs. force pushing. So Andy and I legit slept from like 12-2:00am then my nurse came in and said “okay lets try this.” After trying to push and having NO feeling (since my epidural was administered pretty recently) we decided to turn it off so I could at least feel pressure. After 30 minutes I started to get more feeling and pushes were becoming more fruitful. Our little Luna Cruz Fisher was born at 3:21am weighing in at 6 lbs. 2 oz. and Andy was the first person to touch her and welcome her into the world. Our amazing OB made him put on gloves right before she came out and he caught her head - totally unexpected (I mean, I thought we were staying above the knees!!) but what a special moment.

Mama ended up with a 2nd degree tear but doc stitched me up pretty well. The healing down there hasn’t been nearly as bad as I anticipated; I’ve only had to take Motrin or Advil for the pain since delivery. Obviously everyone is different but I noticed the bleeding/pad situation went from insane to totally manageable in a 36 hr. time frame. Like “OMG, WTF is coming out of me” and stack of pads/ice packs/tucks to just a basic pad and some numbing spray.

Our positive birth story - Everyday Pursuits

Two of my gf’s are expecting in July and August and this is something l texted them while in the hospital -

Biggest takeaway - it all gets less overwhelming by the hour. Yesterday was just so much because once you deliver it’s non-stop with trying to feed, vital checks, etc. I feel 100% more competent today than yesterday even though I still know nothing. 💕 What a journey!

And after one week I really feel like the learning curve is steep but every day gets better and better!

In terms of hospital bag prep, here’s what I DIDN’T use:

• breast pump - highly suggest leaning into lactation help if you decide to breastfeed. I let the nurses and lactation consultants grab my boobs and do anything they needed to do to help Luna to latch. The first day was insanely frustrating but once we got the hang of it there was no turning back. GF is now a hungry hippo who can’t get enough!

• most of my toiletries - aside from washing my face before we left the hospital I didn’t have the energy to shower or do anything else. That being said, it was nice to HAVE just in case.

• baby nail clippers - we just waited to do when we got home.

I labored in this boyfriend PJ shirt and somehow it didn’t get dirty so I wore it my entire hospital stay. It perfectly covered all the parts with easy access for feeding. For bathroom trips I would tie it up at the bottom like a little beach shirt which worked really well, too!

To be honest I’m still wrapping my head around that I have a DAUGHTER - what an epic experience and an even more epic journey we’ve officially embarked on . Sending all my love to you expecting mamas out there. YOU’VE GOT THIS! And thank you for all the sweet messages, we are feeling so grateful and very loved. xo - Ashley

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