Ruby’s Birth Story

For about the first week after we found out we were having a GIRL, I woke up early every day with the feeling of Christmas morning. I was SO incredibly excited and felt like the day was so far away when I would finally get to meet my daughter. Our doctor, Dr. Hodges, will induce at 39 weeks, and that is exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to have our baby girl here as soon as possible! At my 38 week appointment, my nurse told me that the hospital would call you on the day you could get induced and let you know if they had a spot for you. She let me know that they could call any time from 6 am to 3 pm, but that usually if they had a spot, they would let you know by about 8 am so that you wouldn’t be waiting around all day. The night before I had gotten everything completely ready to go. I was so excited and anxious wondering if we would get called that I didn’t sleep great that night. I started checking my clock in the morning and by 8:30, I was convinced that today wasn’t the day. I went downstairs and made smoothies for everyone and was talking to my mom. Around 9:30, my phone rang. It was the charge nurse from St. Luke’s and she asked if we wanted to have a baby today. OF COURSE I DID! I woke Morgan up and we headed to the hospital. We listened to a list of songs all called “Ruby” the whole way there. I was mostly excited and just a little nervous. We got checked in and but then sat in the waiting room for a while. I was anxious that they would send us home, but finally our nurse came out and took us to our room. It was right next to the one Clark was born in! I got hooked up to my IV and fetal monitor and was started on pitocin. Around 12, Dr. Hodges came in and broke my water. It was a long day after that. We walked countless laps around the labor and delivery floor trying to get things to pick up. They had to turn off my pitocin and put me on oxygen because the baby didn’t look as good as they would have liked. The rest of the day was spent alternating pitocin and oxygen. Morgan went and got a TON of tacos for our dinner and then we gave a bunch to the nurses. They loved it! At 10:00 or so, I was ready for my epidural. I had been trying to hold off as long as possible because sometimes it can slow labor down, but I couldn’t wait any longer! At midnight I was still at a 4, had really bad heartburn, and felt like I was going to throw up. I was pretty discouraged and felt like this baby was never going to get here! I got some sleep that night and they checked me at 6:30 the next morning. I was STILL at a 4. I could have cried at that point! Luckily, my epidural was working the whole time because with our other three babies, it stopped working about 2 hours before they were born. By 7:30, I felt some pressure and had the nurse check me again. I was at a 10 and baby was ready to come! We had a birth photographer coming so I asked my doctor if we could wait for a while until she could get there. He was so nice and even though I know he was busy, he told us of course we could wait. He wanted our birth to be exactly what we were hoping for. Our photographer, Ashley, ran in at about 8:20 and we got ready to push. After a few pushes, Dr. Hodges said he could see that she had a ton of dark hair! I was so happy because this was our first baby with lots of hair when they were born! At 8:38 am, our beautiful baby Ruby Elizabeth Allen was finally here! I was in absolute heaven finally getting to hold this baby girl that we had been so excited to meet for months.