Jace, Dusti and Daya: September 2009

She is FINALLY HERE!!!!! :D Here are some pics and stories about our birthing adventure!

It was Sunday around 1:20 when my water broke. We were supposed to be subing for a primary class. All the teachers got called into a room to talk with the Stake Primary Presidency. When we sat down all of a sudden I felt like I peed my pants. So I said I had to go to the bathroom. I went to the bathroom and sure enough something was going on. So I went back and grabbed Jace and said "I think my water just broke." He got the biggest smile and said, "are you sure?" I said "yup pretty sure." Then a bunch of cute ladies in our ward over heard us and got all excited! ANYWAY. . . so we headed home, grabbed our stuff and headed to the hospital.
This picture is my face on our way there. I was excited, but a little nervous if you couldn't tell. ha

Jace on the other hand was sooooooooo excited he couldn't stop smiling. Look at his huge grin!

So we got to the hospital and sure enough my water had broke and I was in labor. Right as we got there my contractions started. From then on they were 2 to 3 minutes apart. This picture is at the very beginning of labor when we had just been checked in.

See how happy I still look. Haha that's because it didn't hurt yet. jk but this is when I wasn't very focused and could still take happy pictures.

For those of you who don't know I had decided to have her all natural. I had done hypnobirthing classes and just used breathing and relaxing to "block" the pain. . . well at least "stand" it.

This picture is of Jace probably 9 hours into labor. He was so anxious.

And here I am at about 9 hours of labor. I'm inbetween contractions so I could smile. From about this point on labor became very very intense! It was fine for the most part but I got really bad "back labor" and I just couldn't seem to block that pain. Inbetween contractions was fine, but when they started coming every minute up until the time to push it was so intense I wasn't sure I could do it. Then on top of that from the beginning I had been bleeding a lot because my placenta had detached a little premature. They had to keep monitoring Daya's heart beat to make sure she didn't get distressed. Toward the end my contractions started to make her hear rate dip. They were getting a little worried about baby and me. But a little while earlier Jace and his step-dad Juan had given me a blessing that everything would be fine that I would be able to have the strength to birth her naturally. So I held onto those word and the reassurance of my husband that it was going to be just fine and that it would all go smoothly. Jace was my rock through the entire thing. I know I couldn't have done it without him. Well. . . it came push time after 12 hours of labor, and after only 40 minutes of pushing, Daya LaRae Shepherd was born. (For those of you who don't know, most first time mom's push for 2 hours plus. So I was pretty happy with 40 min.)

Daya was born at 2:31 am on August 31, 2009. She was 7lbs. 7oz. 19.75 inches long. She was perfectly healthy and very alert the second she came out! It was the best feeling in the world!

This is Jace helping her calm down after she was born.

It is definately love at first sight. She was soooooo beautiful. And it felt so good to be done! ha But it is a billion % worth every second!

Then later on we went to the recovery room and she had her first bath. She was such a good baby. She didn't cry at all, just little squeeks.

This is Jace getting her all warm after her bath. He is such an amazing daddy already!

Look how he just loves her. I love these pictures. He does that look all the time. He'll just stare at her for hours and everytime he looks at her he says "she gets more beautiful everytime I look at her." He is so adorable. I'm so grateful for such an amazing husband. He is the love of my exsistance!

So here is Daya 1 day old. It's crazy how much they change just everyday. She is so beautiful and wonderful.

She is already the best baby. She hardly ever cries. Our families call her a little kitten because her cry is sounds like a little kitten whimper. Its so cute!