Juliette Joan’s Birth Story
Hi everyone! I’m so excited to introduce the newest member of our family, Juliette Joan. She made her debut on Sunday, June 6th at 8:43 P.M., three days before she was officially due. She weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. (just 4 ounces less than her big sister). We are full of joy, thankfulness, and exhaustion as we adjust to life with a newborn and 3.5 year old.
Juliette’s birth was nothing like I expected it to be—it was so much better. On Sunday morning, we sent Lila to my parents’ house to spend the day, with the intention on picking her up that evening. As an afterthought, I sent her overnight bag with her so my parents would be ready when the time came for us to go to the hospital for baby girl’s birth. While Lila was with them, I took my usual walk through the woods and did a prenatal Barre workout afterward. About an hour later, I started feeling some uncomfortable ‘waves’ in my belly, which I ignored at first. I knew they felt different though, so I took a quick shower and told my husband to do the same in case we needed to go to the hospital. When they started to happen more frequently, I timed them and was surprised to see they were five minutes apart. We headed to the hospital around 3:00 P.M., where they started to monitor my contractions and dilation progress. After a few hours, my doctor confirmed I was in active labor and would be staying until baby girl arrived!
Over the new few hours, I continued making progress but it was slow, so my doctor offered to break my water if I wanted to speed along the labor. I decided I was ready, so she broke my water and we waited to see what happened. I was warned things could progress very quickly from that point, so I was surprised when I didn’t notice any difference in my contractions right away. About 30 minutes later, it was like a switch flipped and I was clutching onto my poor husband for dear life, telling him (not so kindly!) that I couldn’t take it anymore and wanted an epidural NOW. He walked out in the hall to get the nurses and doctors and I told them the same about needing an epidural ASAP. My doctor checked me and informed me I wasn’t getting an epidural—it was time to have the baby now. I remember saying something like, “What?! I can’t do it!” and she calmly told me yes, I could do it and everything would be fine. She kept saying brightly, “We’re going to have a baby!” Her calmness was meant to be encouraging of course, but at the time it made me a little angry because I was in so much pain! But then, my body basically took over and I started to push on my own.
After less than ten minutes of pushing, Juliette was born and they placed her on my chest. I was in complete shock: I’d given birth 100% naturally and survived! It’s hard to believe that after an experience as intense as natural birth, you forget exactly what it felt like so easily. All I really remember is feeling a lot of burning and afterward I had extreme adrenaline shakes from the birth experience (so much that I could barely hold Jules). I suppose the fleeting memory of what it felt like is nature’s way of getting mamas to go through pregnancy all over again, ha!
I read a quote recently that couldn’t be more true: “Labor is the only blind date where you’re guaranteed to meet the love of your life.” The pure love you feel for your children is instant and strong from the moment you lay eyes on them. As ready as we were to go home, being in the hospital allowed us to soak up those first few days in that heady newborn fog, just staring at our precious new daughter and loving on her without worrying about anything else.
Juliette looks so much like her big sister, I feel like it’s seeing baby Lila all over again. When they were born, both girls strongly resembled my husband.
Meeting Big Sister Lila
My parents brought Lila back home to meet baby sister on the morning we left the hospital. My husband snapped a few photos of the moment she met Juliette and I’ll treasure them forever.
I feel like tearing up every time I see this photo. When Lila ran into the room while I was holding Jules, she said, “Awwww!” and leaned down to give her the biggest kiss. It’s definitely going down as one of the sweetest moments of my entire life.
Juliette Joan, you are the perfect addition to our family. Mommy, Daddy and Lila love you endlessly!
