October 9, 2017

Elowen Arlene | introducing our daughter!

so we did a thing. we had a baby. and not just any baby… the most perfect and sweet baby girl we could have never dreamed was possible.

throughout our 2017 wedding season, ive been growing this sweet baby in my belly, and we have had the most incredible clients who supported us, were excited for us, let me have an extra donut or two at their reception or even sent us sweet gifts in the mail. you all rock.

because of all this support, and because I have this little blog where I can post about our story, I want to share our journey, so far, with you! I had a whole blog post ready full of pictures of our journey growing her, but then my water broke early and well, now she’s here, so….that post is the past…

full disclosure, this is a REALLY long post, so if you’re into it, grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable.

here my dear friends and family, is Elowen’s birth story + her first 3 weeks.

p.s. her name is pronounced just like it is spelled: “El-O-Wen” :)

my amazing work wife and soul sister Sarah Kathleen took many of the photos you will see here – our maternity photos, Elowen’s B&W birth story photos, and her newborn photos! my life would not be the same without her and I am so grateful to her, and her wicked talent, for all these memories she has captured for us…

so to begin, her nursery. for the 38 weeks +5 days that she was growing in my belly, we didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl! that’s right, we decided to keep it a surprise! and honestly, that was the best decision everrrrr. it was SO worth it. so many people either loved this, or were angry with us, haha, but it ended up being the best surprise in the world.

creating this gender neutral space was so.much.fun. I knew I wanted lots of white and lots of plants! and that’s basically what we ended up creating, with touches of wood here and there. the pictures that are hanging are custom drawings from Trevor’s brother’s really good friend! long story short, Trevor’s brother Alex wrote us this incredible story book a few years ago, dedicated to our future unborn children, called Azlarean Light, and these pictures were illustrations in the book! cool, right?!

so here’s a little glimpse into her nursery! she doesn’t sleep in here quite yet, but this room get’s used more then I expected. most nursing sessions take place in that rocking chair and all diaper changes happen on the dresser!

Trevor and I found this dresser at a little antique store downtown! it was love at first site! after a little help and a few coats of white paint, she was as good as new!

ok, so we’ve got the room all ready, clothes washed and folded, car seat installed… we’re ready for this baby! thankfully she was ready too! and at 38 weeks + 5 days, my water breaks while I was over visiting my best friend one morning! I instantly called Trev, duh, but I wasn’t having any contractions… so we took our time getting to the hospital, even stopping for sandwiches at our favorite deli in SLO. the whole time talking about how excited we were to meet our lil baby, finalizing name choices – she was going to be Elowen for sure, but if we had a boy we were in trouble!! haha.

childbirth. labor. holyyyy molyyyy. this is no joke. I have photographed the birth of 8 of my best friends babies! ive seen it all, from home birth to the hospital, from medication to no medication, and even a few c-sections! I knew what I wanted. I wanted a drug-free hospital birth. that’s right, no meds people. NO MEDS.

now a lot of peeps think I’m crazy… and I even say it, “modern medicine! get the drugs!” buuuuuut, I just didn’t want them. everyone has their reasons for things, and if for no medical reason – I just wanted to experience what we women were designed to experience. the birth of our children. drug fee. in all it’s glory. so that was what I set out to do.

trevor and I took Bradley Method Childbirth classes in town to prep, and I have to say, although it was expensive and a little time consuming, without these classes, I’m pretty certain I couldn’t have done it! the classes focus on “partner coached” childbirth, so they really teach your chosen “coach” how to get you through labor, un-medicated. my lucky chosen coach was Trevor. :) he was the best.coach.ever. and I’m not just saying that because he’s cute and muscly and the father of my child. I’m saying that because he was INCREDIBLE. never leaving my side, always trying something new to make me comfortable, feeding me sips of water, and sacrificing his own comfort for me – cue squeezing my hips as hard as he could for hours, standing next to me while I labored on the toilet, and on a chair in the shower for hourssss he sprayed me down with water while his shoes got soaking wet… this guy, he’s a keeper I tell ya.

the next bit of images are a mixture of Sarah’s incredible eye documenting it all, and a few cell phone/camera snaps on our end!

so without further ado, Elowen’s (un-medicated) Birth Story.

we checked in to the hospital around 5pm on Thursday September 14th, 2017. my family came and brought us some dinner… then we all decided to try and get some sleep!

at 1:30am I had my first, real painful, contraction. it was THE contraction that told me what was coming. the one that made me say, “ohhhh, so THAT’S what this is going to feel like…” I let Trevor keep sleeping because I was able to get through them on my own, and I knew he needed to get some rest for what lied ahead….. so when Sarah arrived at 4:30am, that’s when I let everyone know that I had been in labor for a few hours.

my midwife came and checked me to see how far along I was… and that was almost the end of me… 2 centimeters!! I was like, saaaaay whaaaaat?! :/

so…. I labored a few more hours….

around 8:30am – my midwife came to check me again… you guys… this is 7 hours into labor… im at 4 CENTIMETERS! FOUR! in 4 hours I managed to dilate 2 centimeters. I seriously almost cried. but she followed up with that I was 100% fully effaced and at 0 station (for those that don’t know what that means, it means every other part of my body was ready for this baby, I just had to dilate 6 more centimeters.) and with the pain I was feeling, getting those 6 more centimeters dilated seemed literally impossible.

but. I did it. somehow. with the help of that incredible coach I told you about, the nurses at French Hospital (who are amazing) and my best friends & mom who were all in the room with me.

remember when I told you about the shower? yeah. this was almost my breaking point. in between the shower I labored sitting on the toilet, which my midwife said is the sure fire place to make progress happen. and she was not kidding.

when I think back to labor, I know I was in the room, but my mind was definitely not. I went into some other place. a place where I focused on my breath, focused on each contraction, tried to visualize what was happening, and trying to remind myself why I was enduring this ridiculous amount of pain.

I kept thinking about how nice it was every time I came back to bed from the bathroom because my bed was always remade with fresh sheets and my pillows were always fluffed!! I thought it was the nurses…. until I saw these photos… you guys, my best friends asked for fresh sheets constantly and were always re-making my bed for me… melt. I think ill keep them too. :)

ok. so. 2 hours pass from the time I was told I was 4 centimeters. I spend the majority of that time writhing in pain on the bed, or on the toilet or in the shower… and I started to reallyyy doubt myself. I just remember saying over and over, “I CAN’T DO IT.” & screaming “NOOOOO!!!” yeah. I was at my breaking point.

a little story. before my water broke at my best friends house the morning before, we were talking about how many kids we wanted to have.. I said I liked the idea of 3! well, during this awful painful transition of labor, my best friend asks, “so Lindsey, how many kids do you want?” haha. in agony I reply, “ZERO! I want ZERO kids!!!” hahaha. I’m sorry Elowen and any future children we have. mama didn’t mean it…I was just pretty sure you were ripping my insides apart.

THIS moment above. Trevor’s face say’s it all as I’m getting prepped to start pushing our baby out…

wait, rewind, we’re at the point where I’m pushing?! here’s how that happened…

its now 10:45am and I am in a…place. I had been told to let my midwife know when the urge to push was un-stoppable. but, based on my experience before and how slow I had been dilating, I didn’t trust this pushing feeling I was having… but I was definitelyyyy pushing, and I couldn’t help it.

my midwife comes in to find me on the toilet making these deep, guttural, un-mistakable sounds of pushing. she says she wants to check me and I say no. hahaha. I tell her how afraid I am because I don’t think I can do this much longer and if I’m any less then 8cm I don’t know what that will do to me. she says, “well you don’t want to have your baby on the toilet do you?!” I laugh and then say “no…” haha, and then another contraction overtakes me and she’s like, “yeah, I’m checking you!” she can’t even check to see how dilated I am before exclaiming, “oh your baby is RIGHT THERE. that’s the head! your fully dilated and ready to go, let’s get you to the bed, you’re having this baby.”

you guys, in 2 hours, I dilated those 6 centimeters! it was like a miracle! all in all, I labored for 10 hours before heading to the pushing stage of labor. which for your first baby, is pretty darn good.

then, I only pushed for an hour before our little baby made her appearance.

just as she was born, our midwife said, “well daddy, what is it?!” her cord was wrapped around her neck and her leg, so after trevor moved the cord from her thigh, I heard him say, “it’s a girrrrrrl!” and my heart melted then and there.

being born was also quite the journey for her, and she had a little heart arrhythmia, and was also a little stunned and not crying enough for the nurses and doctors in the room to feel comfortable, so after a quick kiss from me, they whisked her off to the nursery for oxygen and monitoring. we are so grateful to the staff at the hospital for how they took care of our Elowen. they only did what was necessary, and as soon as she was showing signs of hunger, they brought her right back to me.

this is one happy and proud daddy. :)

a few images we took during our first few days with her… :)

Elowen Arlene Gomes was born on Friday September 15th at 12:07pm weighing in at 8lbs 3oz and 20 inches long.

we made home with her, and it was so surreal to have her with us. here’s some images from our cameras and our iPhones from her first 3 weeks with her at home!! :)

first ‘cousins’ photo. hahaha

ONE WEEK OLD!!!

September 24th, her due date. :)

our second week…

trevor on the left, elowen on the right…. she’s such a little mini-daddy!

our third week:

I’m ending this post with our newborn session with Sarah!

if you made it this far, kuddos to you! and thank you so much for checking out the pictures and perhaps reading our little story of Elowen’s birth and first few weeks! :) we are absolutely obsessed with our little girl and still can’t believe that we have a daughter!!!

even if life looks a little different now – less sleep, lot’s of poop, haha, we are enjoying every.single.moment.