Blakely’s Birth Story

Blakely Loren Hardy

Blakely's onesie Letter Board

Now that life has started to seem some what normal again I wanted to share Blakely’s birth story. I was induced with my other 3 children so I figured that I would need to be again with Blakely. My doctor won’t schedule induction until you reach 40 weeks so at my 40 week appointment he scheduled me to be induced the following Tuesday. At that time I was only 1 cm dilated and about 50% effaced so I wasn’t hopeful I would go into labor before hand but I REALLY wanted to go on my own.

Hawthornes Pizza

My doctor had told me about a pizza that moms swear send them into labor within 48 hrs and lucky for me the restaurant was only 20 min from my house. Corey, the kids, my mother in law, sister in law and I all went there on Wednesday and I ordered the pizza which is nicknamed “the inducer”.  It’s a chicken buffalo wing pizza and the sauce on it is what is supposed to do the trick. While it did give me a lot a heart, it didn’t send me into labor. 

Friday morning I got up and took a quick shower and got the girls ready for school. On the way back home from dropping them off I started having contractions. The weren’t strong but they were a little uncomfortable. When I got home I curled my hair and got ready for the day. When I went to the bathroom I realized I had my bloody show so I called Corey and told him not to be away from his phone because I’ve been having contractions and now this. I decided to go for a walk to see if that helped make the contractions more consistent. I walked for about 45 min just up and down my street (my neighbors prob thought I was crazy lol) until it was time to go pick up the girls. While driving the contractions did start to pick up but they weren’t painful and they stayed this way for the remainder of the day.

I made Corey finally pack his hospital bag that night because I had a feeling we weren’t going to be induced after all and I made sure I had everything ready for my mom and mother in law for when we were at the hospital. We spent our Friday evening like we usually do- dinner, change kids, feed/walk dogs and watching movies. We had tilapia rice and veggies for dinner that night and while t is my absolute favorite, I wish we would’ve had something more filling lol.

Corey and I went to bed around 11:00 pm and I woke up to a painful contraction at 1:50 am. I didn’t think too much of it but it was a little odd to me because contractions had never woke me up before. I closed my eyes and started to go back asleep. 15 min later I was woken by another one, it was about the same strength as the first one so I just laid there for a while. Another 15 min passed and I had another one so at this point I get my phone and open up one of the baby apps that I used and started timing them. By 3:00am they were 10 min apart and really starting to hurt. I tried to be quiet because I wanted Corey to be able to sleep but he heard me and would rub my back through each of them. At 5:30am I was in tears and was crying as each contraction came. I made myself get up and went and got in the shower because I was clearly in labor. I called for Corey to come into the bathroom and told him he needed to start getting ready because I was going to call my doctor when I got out.

I texted my mom and told her she needed to get ready to come to NC bc I was pretty sure I was in labor and was about to call my doctor. I called the doctors office and they asked me questions and took all of my info and said they would have the doctor call me back and to keep my phone on me. The doctor called me in about 10 min and I happened to be in the middle of having a contraction when she called. She told me to go ahead and head down to the hospital. Corey called his mom and she was at the house in about 30 min to watch the kids.

We head for the hospital and I was bawling because I was in so much pain and scared that I was either A) going to have the baby in the car or B) going to be too dilated to get an epidural LOL. Corey sped the whole way there because we live 45 min from the hospital and I think he was a little nervous that I would have her in the car too haha. We had never experienced me going into labor before so we had no idea what to expect and I didn’t know how bad I was supposed to be hurting based on how dilated I was if that makes sense. We arrived at the hospital at 8:28am and were sent to triage. The triage nurses checked me and said I was 4-5 cm and that they were going to admit me. I told her ”good because I wasn’t going anywhere anyways”  lol I was in THAT much pain and would've camped out in the hospital lobby if they had tried to send me home.

Gownie

I got up to labor and delivery and that’s where the waiting game really began. My parents were both still on the way from GA so it was just Corey and I at the hospital. At 11:40 the nurse checked me and I was at 8 cm. My dad arrived around 12 pm and my mom got stuck in traffic- of course. I was stressing out she wouldn’t make it in time- she’d been in the room for my other 3 children’s birth and I really wanted her there again. I mentally kept telling myself I could make it until she got there. She arrived at 3:20 pm.

The epidural kept wearing off on the opposite side that I was laying it which causes excruciating pain (I was 8 cm at this point) so the nurse had me turn on my other side and use a peanut ball. I had never used one before so I wasn’t convinced that it would help relieve the pressure but it did!

Qalo Rings

Around 4:30 they checked me again and said it’s time to have a baby! After several pushes and a very tired momma Blakely Loren was born at 4:48pm weighing 9lbs 9 oz and 21.5 inches long!

I still can’t believe I had a 9lb baby much less pushed her out of me. Ophelia was my biggest before her weighing 7lbs 11oz at birth. Needless to say... I ate good during pregnancy haha. But I had a good idea that she was going to be big just based on how heavy my stomach was when I would try to roll over or get out of bed and the fact that she was 6 days late didn’t help either.

Corey was so supportive through the whole thing and him being calm always helps me be calm. He was on top of everything that day and did such a great job of capturing all of the photos that I wanted captured. He's such a great partner and father and I feel beyond blessed that God chose him for me. Needless to say, we are absolutely in love with our fourth bundle of joy and we cannot imagine life without this sweet angel.

What I’ve purchased in preparation of our 4th child

Since my pregnancy is about to come to an end I figured I’d share some of the main things that I’ve purchased so far in preparation for baby Hardy. We got rid of just about all of our baby products after Scarlett because we just didn’t have the space for it and Corey was convinced we weren’t going to have anymore babies (I knew he’d come around).

I thoroughly researched everything I bought this time around because I didn’t want to buy unnecessary things and I had a pretty good idea of what I would and wouldn’t use. The first thing that I purchased (and I knew I couldn’t live without) was the 4moms mamaroo. Unfortunately I didn’t know about this product when I had Jaiden but I had one with both Ophelia and Scarlett and they LOVED it. Scarlett had acid reflux at first so being at a more upright position seemed to help the best for her. I also had to repurchase the Newborn insert because I feel like it offers more support when they are so small.

The second on my must have list was a new car seat. This was by far my most researched item. I spent hours watching videos on each one that I was interested in and reading multiple forms of reviews from baby forums, to website reviews to even blogs because I feel like it’s one of the biggest and most important safety decisions you make for your child before they are even born. I ended up going with the Nuna Pipa in the color ‘night’ to help hide stains but the other seat that came in a very close second place was the Uppababy Mesa. I truly feel that both of these car seats are excellent and either one of them would be a great choice but I ultimately decided the Pipa is the better choice for me and my baby.

Third is the Medela Breast Pump. I had a Dr. Brown one with the girls and had zero success with it. I have a hard time keeping a steady and sufficient milk supply so I really need a good pump to help me produce more and this one has the best reviews and is hospital recommended so I feel confident it will be a good fit for me. I also purchased a couple of THESE bottles because while I plan to EBF- I haven’t had a great success in the past and don’t want to be in a situation where my baby needs a bottle and I don’t have any. They are silicone which I feel is a much better alternative to using glass bottles because they are heavy and I try to keep my family’s plastic use to a bare minimum.

I can’t forgot get about my diaper bag choice. I’m not really a purse person and never really have been so what I carry now is a Tory Burch back pack purse or just my wristlet if I don’t feel like lugging that around. So it’s a no brainer that I chose a back pack diaper bag. I ended up going with the Skip hop Greenwich diaper bag in the color ‘dusty rose’. It’s VERY spacious and has several pockets that are just the right size and actually make sense. One of the main things that made me choose this bag is the color. I mean it’s so pretty and I’m so excited to start using it. It also has latches so you can attach it to your stroller handle instead of it taking up the oh so valuable basket storage.

For a baby carrier I went with the Lillebaby 6 in 1 child carrier. I had a cheap one with Ophelia so I used it only a handful of times because it was SO uncomfortable for me. After doing research I realized that what I previously used did not offer the support for me or for baby that wasn’t needed for it to be a useful baby product. With having 3 other young kids I feel like I’m going to need this more than ever to have my hands free and I really liked the fact that there was 6 different ways to wear this including on the hip. They offer multiple different patterns and while I did want a really cute feminine one, I decided to go with the ‘mist’ color so Corey would feel comfortable using it too.


What are some of the baby products that you actually use/used? I love hearing about what other moms do to make life easier!