Special Delivery!

I'm proud to announce that Baby Smith - now known as Phinneas James (Phinn for short) - joined us on Wednesday, October 27th at 8:02PM. I went into labor on Tuesday night as Hunter and I laid on the couch catching up on our DVR. My contractions weren't close enough together to alert the Midwives just yet, so we decided to try to get some sleep. (Well as much sleep as you can get when you are having some pretty substantial back pain and contractions.) I was back up by 3:30 AM and knew that today was going to be the day! I woke Hunter up around 4:30 AM and we were headed to the hospital an hour later and BOY was it busy!

Shortly after we arrived, all of the triage exam rooms were filled and we could hear the nurses talking about how packed Labor and Delivery was. When I checked in I was 5 cm dilated and as soon as they hooked me up to the equipment my water broke. They kept me in triage for about three hours monitoring my contractions, Phinn's heart rate, and how quickly things were moving. By 9AM, I was anxiously awaiting to be admitted (what I really wanted was an EPIDURAL!) and luckily we got the last Labor and Delivery Suite. About an hour later at 6 cm, I saw one of my favorite people- the anesthesiologist- and once he administered the good stuff, I was a happy camper. (Side note: The nurses and staff at Inova Loudoun's Birthing Inn are AMAZING! I will definitely be a repeat customer ;) )

The next seven hours were spent just relaxing and waiting to reach 10 cm. They did give me pitocin to speed things along. This part was pretty painless and enabled me to rest and store up my energy for the main event and did I ever need it!

At 5PM, our midwife came in and said its time to start pushing! While I quickly caught on to the proper pushing technique, Phinn was making little progress (mostly due to my small pelvis and his size). I was also having some serious neck and shoulder pain. My muscles had gotten stiff because I had been laying on my side for seven hours because they were trying to encourage Phinn to turn and descend. This pain was actually so strong that I was in tears, but the positive side is that it worked like Indian medicine and I was almost unaware of any pain associated with the delivery. I firmly believe that my workouts paid off and gave me the stamina that I needed to push for hours. Plus my athlete mentality helped me to keep going even when the pain felt like it was too much. I knew if I just kept giving it hell then I was going to be holding my son soon!

I also want to give credit to my wonderful coach and husband. He stood by my side the entire time and at times was more involved than he originally wanted to be. He made sure that my ice chips were overflowing, my head was cool, and I kept my focus on the finish line. I could not have done it without him!


After three hours of pushing Phinneas James Smith made his debut into the world at 8 pounds 5 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long, and my and Hunter's world has been forever changed. All the cliches you hear about when you child is born are true. I feel so blessed to have my wonderful family that is healthy, happy, and full of love!