Georgia Newborn Photos

I can't believe it's already been two weeks with our little girl. Here are her darling newborn photos! 

Courtney Blatter Photography 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from us to you! 

Obviously we are so incredibly grateful for our new little girl this year. But, even more than that, we are so grateful for good family and friends, health, our freedom of religion, our jobs, our home, and so much more. 

Georgia Kay: Birth Story and Meaning of Name

Pregnancy Journey post here 

Georgia Kay 

November 12, 2018 4:05 am 

7 lbs 6 oz and 20.5 inches 

As I look back at these pictures, I am seriously brought to tears. The overwhelming love that happens when you birth a child is truly indescribable. I know the hormones are flowing and the exhaustion is so overwhelming that I feel like I could cry at anything right now (I may or may not have cried when I left to go to Walmart for fifteen minutes on her third day alive!), but these pictures made me even more emotional. 

This birth story went very differently than I imagined it would go. 

It was Sunday night. I was scheduled to be induced on Monday morning at 6 am because baby girl was a week overdue (longest week of my life!). During the weekend, I was getting flu-like symptoms. I was achy, throwing up, nauseated and had diarrhea. 

I was doing research and it said that some people have these signs a few days before labor, so even though I felt terrible, I had a feeling that meant baby was coming soon. I was at family dinner with my family and I was starting to feel some pain. I got home and started to feel contractions. The contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart after about an hour so T and I headed into the hospital around 9:00 pm. Once in the hospital, they monitored me because I was only dilated to a 1 1/2. After monitoring me for an hour and walking around for 45 minutes (through awful contractions), I hadn't made any progress, so they sent me home. I was livid! I was coming back the next morning to get induced!! 

I headed home and, well, you guessed it, my contractions were getting significantly worse. I took a few baths and sat on a yoga ball. I found that I couldn't sit to work through the contractions, though. The best way for me to work through the contractions was standing up and rocking. Even though the contractions were getting worse, I just assumed that I wasn't making enough progress because at the hospital, after two hours, I hadn't. I didn't want to head back to the hospital just to have them send me home again, so I waited it out for a little bit. But, eventually, the contractions were getting so painful and close together (like 1-2 minutes apart), that I was crying and screaming out loud. Before I knew it, my water broke.

So, obviously, we rushed to the hospital. Once I was there and they checked me in, I had dilated to a 7 (almost an 8!!). I had dilated from a 1 1/2 to a 7 in about 3 hours!! So, essentially, I did all of my labor at home without medication and didn't even know it!!! 

Even though I was progressing quick at this point, I was in so much pain, I screamed for an epidural. They gave it to me, but because the epidural takes at least fifteen minutes to kick in, it never really took full effect because in 15-20 minutes I had dilated from a 7 to a 10 and was ready to push in those few minutes!!! I think the epidural took the edge off of pushing a little bit, but it definitely did not really kick in. Ha. 

While pushing, Georgia's heart rate dropped, but because I was so "in the zone", I had no idea. I definitely could feel people pressuring and coercing me to keep pushing, but I truly just tried to listen to my body and push when I felt it. I pushed for about twenty minutes (maybe five pushes) and baby girl was here! 

So, in a nutshell, I arrived at the hospital at 3 am and she was born at 4:05 am. My sisters and mom were in the delivery room and they almost didn't make it! Ha. I basically gave a natural birth, but it was not even on purpose! I truly never expected my labor and delivery to go like that!! 

My recovery has been amazing. I went home to the hospital on Tuesday. I went to the store the day after we got home. I went on my first walk with Georgia! I am so amazed at the entire process. It truly is amazing to look back and see how my body went into gear and just knew what to do. 

Also, I am just grateful she wasn't a 10 pound baby. Haha. Both Tanner and I were big babies and I was a week overdue, so I thought for sure she'd be a chunker. But she was 7 lb 6 oz and most of the weight was in her cheeks :) 

During this time of year and Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for such a healthy labor, delivery and baby. I am constantly amazed at all of the things that could go wrong and I am so grateful for Georgia. We are exhausted and we are still trying to get the hang of things, but it is amazing to see how much T and I love her (I know it's cliche, but I didn't even know this kind of love was possible!). Georgia is loved by so many people. Nurses at the hospital had to kick people out from visiting because all of our family wanted to come and see her and snuggle her! She is beautiful (I may be a bit biased) and is a good eater. 

We named her Georgia Kay for a multitude of reasons. Georgia is my great great grandmother's name and Tanner's great great aunt's name, so it was a family name on both sides. Also, Tanner served his mission in Georgia, so that was just an added bonus. But, even more than that, we just thought the name was cute. Anyone who knows me knows that I can't stand weird, made up names with horrible spellings. But, I also wanted something a little unique (one where there aren't a million of them!). I felt like Georgia was a good combination--not weird enough for people to be like, "huh?" but unique enough that it felt special. 

Kay is my grandmother's middle name, also my sister's, and my niece who passed away from SIDS middle name. Kay is also Tanner's grandma's middle name and his sister's middle name as well. So the full name had lots of family and special meaning. 

And I feel like it fits her perfectly.