the birth story & maggie rose's first week!

*This post was submitted by DanceFIT Studio's owner Gina Fay.

It was Friday, August 14th and I was 3 days overdue....not a fun feeling. I had tried all the natural remedies ...walked for days, ate more pineapple than possible, dumped loads of hot sauce on all my meals, ate eggplant, had acupuncture, relaxed, nested and spent quality time with hubby ;) I was ready.  No contractions, no weird feelings, nothing. Every morning I felt "too good" for labor to happen. I even taught some classes!

It was Friday night and I was starting to feel tightening in my belly.  It didn't hurt, but my stomach was starting to contract.  Since I could barely feel them I didn't time them,  and of course ordered thai food for a late night dinner. I clicked "extra spicy" hoping to speed things up.  By midnight I was starting to feel and time contractions. They were about 10 minutes apart.  I knew I should go to sleep to save some energy, but instead started binge watching on netflix.  The contractions started getting more aggressive and I was excited.   Thennnnnnn, my water broke! This never happened at home with the boys so I wasn't expecting it. I was so excited. Phone calls were made, bags were put in the car, my sister in law sped over in the middle of the night and we were off to Newton Wellesley to have a baby.  Thank you Vournie for watching the boys!!!

Once we were in the car contractions came about 3 minutes apart, and they HURT! Chris definitely ran a few lights in fear I was going to have a minivan baby! I was a little worried too, ha! We checked in, got hooked up to the monitors and I had reached 5 cm (for those of you without kids, this means you are halfway there to delivery!).  I opted for the epidural. After a natural birth with my first son, an epidural with my second son, I knew the difference and had a much more peaceful delivery with the drugs pumped in me ;)

Epidural was given and all was good.  Chris and I even got a little snooze in.  I got checked again by the doctor and by 7:30 AM I was 10 cm and it was time to have a baby. I got so excited, started tearing up and pushed once and voila at 7:41 AM baby Margaret Rose Fay was here! I got to grab her as she arrived and she went right on my bare skin for cuddles.  It was incredible!  She was a healthy 8 pounds 5 ounces with beautiful glowing skin and nice loud screams.

My mother, Maggie passed away 11 years ago and this is a special way to keep her memory alive. I love that I get to say her name 1,000x a day! Maggie's middle name is Rose in honor of my amazing Grandmother! Grandma Rose lives in California and will be visiting her namesake this October- Pictures will definitely be posted when they meet!

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The boys came to visit in the afternoon, and these pictures show all the love! <3

On Saturday afternoon the pediatrician came to give Maggie her first exam.  Of course based on the looks of her she was a healthy, perfect little baby.  After moving all her limbs, checking her heart, tongue, ears etc, the doctor said everything is perfect except her hips.  What could possibly be wrong, I thought? Apparently her hip flexors are extremely loose and a bit out of the socket.  Oww! The doctor explained it as they were out of alignment and could potentially affect walking, movement, etc. This is called hip dysplasia. 

The next morning she had an ultrasound to confirm these findings and we met with the orthopedic surgeon. He calmed our nerves and said most likely this can be fixed in the first 6-8 weeks of life.  He put her in a contraption/ harness that basically holds her legs into place. I thought it would bother her, but she is a champion with it.  She has to wear it 23.5 hours a day.  With many studies showing a very high success rate since it was detected early, we just pray it works because the next step would be a full body cast, which is super scary! Here is little Maggie with her harness on.  We are joking that her body is in a permanent second position grand plie ;) (The boys put the tiara on, not me!)

And some more cute pictures of our princess!

 We are home, adjusting to life as a family of 5---FIVE---I still can't believe it! Maggie Rose is doing great and loves to be awake during the hours of 1-5 AM. Hopefully that eventually changes!

Thanks to my amazing staff right now, DanceFIT has been incredibly busy with Princess Camps, fitness classes, a full virtual schedule and more studios booking trainings with my new business bvirtual. We are gearing up for a very busy September!

While I am on my maternity leave, I will continue blogging on returning to exercise/ dancing, my post partum challenges, and of course more pictures of the baby. Stay tuned for more posts!