I don’t often post personal stories, but I’ve wanted to document my birth story for a while, and with my baby about to turn one, so I think it’s about time. Not to mention with the photo I shared on Instagram last night (of the wedding I photographed the day before I went into labor) I have had a lot of people ask me about her birth. It’s a long one, so here goes…

Yes. I worked throughout my pregnancy. Yes. People told me I was crazy. I was due September 1st, and had already booked a wedding for August 22nd. Sometimes I thought I was crazy. Plan A was to work the wedding on Saturday, have the baby on Sunday. I told immediate family to just not plan anything for Sunday, because I would have this baby by then. They knew I was crazy. I made it through the wedding a hot, sweaty mess, but was overall feeling pretty good. I had an amazing couple to work with (shout out to Rachel & Torey!) and a Plan B, C, and D.

After the wedding, I drove home to an amazing husband who rubbed my feet, made me a milkshake, and drew me a bath. Life was good. I stayed up late to backup the day’s photos as usual, and at midnight, contractions started. They weren’t bad at all, more of just an ache, so I went to bed. At 5am, I woke up in pain and my water had broke. Off to the hospital we went!

On the way, we called our parents (over and over, trying to wake them all up) and after 30 minutes had finally gotten in touch with everyone. Brandon had offered to stop somewhere for breakfast, but anxious to get to the hospital, I passed. We got checked in and settled into our room, and family started to arrive, followed by our amazing photographer, Holly, who had worked the wedding with me the day before!

After a few hours in the room, labor had stopped. Willing to play the waiting game, we found things to pass the time. I walked danced around the labor and delivery floor with the help of Sam’s music playlist from the 90’s, played euchre in the waiting room, and was brought adult coloring books and colored pencils to tap into my artsy side. We even took polls as for what we were having (we didn’t know if it was a boy or girl!) from all our friends, family, and the wonderful nurses we met throughout all three shifts we waited through! Everyone tried to rest throughout the day, not knowing what lied ahead, but I couldn’t sleep one minute. At 6 hours in, the nurses began covering my options. I chose to hold off on any medication and an epidural to try and progress naturally. By 6:00 that night, I agreed to start 1/2 the normal dose of Pitocin, which was supposed to help things progress as the drip would increase every hour after that. At midnight, with not one minute of sleep since that morning, I was beat. My body was exhausted and still, no progress. We called for the anesthesiologist to start the epidural process – and for those new mommies to be, trust me, it is a process. By 1:30am, I finally had the epidural, which allowed my mind and body to slow down enough to rest. In a three hour nap, I woke up to stronger contractions and had finally progressed 4cm.

At 8:15am Monday morning, it was time to push. Now, I’m not going to go into detail, so don’t freak out, but what an experience! I had the absolute best support team I could have asked for, and the staff at Presence Covenant Medical Center is seriously the dream team. Of course I had my moments of weakness, but because of the love and encouragement I had received from all three of my mothers, to the nurses (shout out to Sarah and Jared!) I was able to push through. They tell you that the minute you see your baby the pain is immediately forgotten and they’re right. The moment I heard our little girl cry and Brandon got to announce that it was a girl was hands down the best moment of my life.

I still can’t believe that it has already been one entire year. Looking back on these photos, I am so incredibly happy to have chosen to bring a photographer with us, and so so happy that it was Holly.

The view from our room was amazing during the sunrise… This man. I tell you what. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to be by my side through the whole process. He was my rock.  The best part about having a photographer there to capture things for me was so I could see Brandon announce to our dads that we had a healthy baby girl. These photos bring tears to my eyes every time I look at them.
And of course I couldn’t leave my camera at home! We were in the hospital for four days (Bexley was admitted to the NICU for precautionary measures) so we got to know the staff really well and I got to practice my “fresh 48” photography skills! haha!The multicolored blanket Bexley is laying in is the same blanket my late grandmother made for me as a baby. You’ll notice it in the birth photos above as well, as I wanted grandma there with me as well.

Bexley Ann Magers

Born: August 24th, 2015 at 9:03am
Weight: 8lbs 10oz
Height: 21in long