Ardrey Kalinau Singh

Ardrey Kalinau Singh (AR-DRE KA-LEE-NOW SING)

Aaron and I had a feeling she would come early (Avery came 6 days early) but I didn’t want to convince myself of it because I knew it was very possible for her to go a week late. But every doctor’s appointment I was hoping to hear that I was in labor. I was 38 weeks and 5 days and I knew I wanted to try and induce the labor as naturally as possible. I was DONE being pregnant. I had way more contractions earlier on this pregnancy than I did with my first and I was hoping it would lead to labor. So I decided to get my membranes stripped which was way simpler than I expected and took about 30 seconds.  At this point I was at 4 centimeters and 100% effaced. I got up and walked out, hoping to go into labor on my way home haha.

I tried to be as active as I could be that day. But as each hour passed and no consistent contractions I was discouraged that the stripping didn’t work. Aaron was on edge every day, wondering if I was going to go into labor. He had guessed she was going to be born on this day so I think he was even more on edge.

It was around 10 pm when I started to realize that my contractions were coming more consistently. Without saying anything to Aaron, I just started to breathe through them and tried to time them as best I could. I took a shower and was surprised to see that they were coming pretty fast. I then wondered if it was just in my head and thought there was no way they were coming this fast and that I was still at home. So I laid in bed breathing and finally told Aaron. He was shocked and told me that he was proud of me because he had thought I was practicing my breathing (he always talked to me about practicing and was a little upset when I told him I hadn’t).

Aaron then started getting all of our stuff together. I told him not to jump the gun because I didn’t want to get to the hospital and then have them turn me away. We also needed to call someone that could come and stay the night and I didn’t want to do that until I knew for sure. Aaron felt like we should call his sister and let her know. I told him he could but she can only come if she wont be mad in case we came home from the hospital because contractions stopped haha.

Aaron’s sister got to our house around 1130 and we chatted for a few minutes as I stood and had about 5 more contractions. I figured since they were only about 2 min apart, I was probably in labor…

So we headed to the hospital.

We got checked in and I think the nurses were a little iffy about me because I wasn’t in a ton of pain and once they hooked me up, they couldn’t really see the contractions (this was a probably with Avery too, for some reason my contractions don’t show up as well).  Once she checked my dilation and saw that I was a 6, we all knew I was ready to be checked in.

The check in took way longer than expected because of the new computer system so we weren’t settled until about 1pm. Once we were settled we talked about drugs and everyone kept telling me, if I didn’t get them NOW I would most likely be pushing without an epidural. I really wanted to do most the labor without the epidural. I just knew that I didn’t want to push without it. And since I wasn’t in a ton of pain, I wasn’t ready to get it.

After convincing from Aaron, the nurses and the drug doctor, I decided to get it.  I just didn’t want to see the needle or anything he was doing to me. Thankfully it goes in the back haha.

Around 2 am I got the epidural, they broke my water, and then we rested as best we could and just waited.

The nurse checked me at 3 am and I was at an 8. Then 4 am I was a 9.5 and ready. At first she thought was should wait a few minutes but because my first labor was fairly short for a first baby she felt like I was ready to go. They called the doctor and I guess he was a little annoyed because she didn’t do a push check with me first (you could tell he was tired, he had been waiting there because he had just delivered another baby and knew that I was close behind, I guess he was taking a nap and got woken up). Quickly she did a push check and knew I was ready to go.

At 4:26 am and in just 2.5 pushes Ardrey came into the world.

It was so seamless, almost didn’t feel real. I really have been so lucky with my labors and am so grateful that everything went so well.

They told us she was 6lbs 9 ounces and 18 inches. We and since learned that the nurses were a little tired at 4:30 am and did not weigh or measure her correctly. The next day, they had weighed her at 7lbs 5 ounces. So we are guessing her actual weight was 7lbs 9 ounces.

Then it was time to nurse and hang out for a bit, Ardrey latched right away which was so different than my experience with Avery. So we hung out, eating and chatting more about what her middle name was going to be.

Now I want to explain her name and the pronunciation because it is very special to me. I swore I would never give my kids names that are not phonetic. I had to correct people my whole life that my name was BriAWnna and not BriAnna. Then I substitute taught here in Utah (I have never seen so many ridiculous spellings to very normal names) so I just told myself I wasn’t going to be that person. And here we are three weeks in and I have to correct the pronunciation to her name even to myself sometimes ;).

Ardrey is my middle name and a family name it is pronounced AR-DRE (think Dr. Dre or Mac Dre which holds a special place in my heart from my high school dance days haha). I have said since I was a little girl that my first daughter would Ardrey and told Aaron he had no say in the matter ;). The name is actually a surname of my family that dates back to the 1700’s. Hopefully one day I will get more involved in my family history and find more Ardrey’s.

Kalinau (Kalinaw) is Filipino and means peaceful or calm. It is pronounced KA-LEE-NOW. I knew that I wanted to give her a middle name that represented her father’s side and since he served his mission in the Philippines is part Filipino, we thought a Filipino name would suite her well. It was a big debate as I was stuck on another family name of his that I wanted, we just knew after she was born this was it for her. As they were cleaning me up and getting me ready to go downstairs, Aaron was holding Ardrey and said to me “I think her middle name needs to be Kalinau, she is just so calm and peaceful, I think it’s going to fit her. “