Birth Story

Tenley's birth story is something I will remember all my life. I think God took me literal when I said I wanted a natural, spontaneous labor. And boy did I. There might be too much TMI but this is my story and I don't know anyway else to put it so sorry if theres to much TMI. But here it is, my little girls birth story.

July 16th 2am I wake up with bad cramps. As most of you know I went to L&D on the 12th with bad cramps and they could have cared less. So I thought it was "normal". I laid in bed with bad cramps from 2-4 watching Say Yes To The Dress. Then right at 4 I started getting contractions. Not bad contractions and not consistent contractions but contractions. So I lay in bed for about another 45 mins and realize that they are coming about every 5-7 mins. Maybe finally something is going to happen. So I get up and go lay in the living room waiting to see if they get closer. Around 530 they start to get pretty painful, but I still wasn't sure if I was in labor. Everyone always tells you that contractions make your whole stomach hard. So everytime I "felt" one I would feel my belly. The top part was hard but the bottom was still soft but my back felt like it was on fire. I was so lost as to weather this was it or not. Then at 530 I got hit with the worst pain of my life and started bawling my eyes out and went and got my mom. She started asking me all kinds of questions and finally said "Lay on the couch and lets see how far apart they are and if they stay for an hour." My hospital always says come in once they are 5 mins apart for 2 hours or if your water breaks or if you have bleeding. So we knew by now that we needed to wait at least an hour also my water hadn't broken so we knew if I were in Labor I was at the beginning stages. So I laid back on the couch my mom but on some show for me and she went and made coffee and took a shower. At 615 I felt like I needed to pee so I went to the bathroom and when I wiped there was blood. I was so excited to see the blood because that meant I was really in Labor and we could go in right then and there. I figured I lost my mucus plug and that's what the light bleeding was from. So I went and told my mom we needed to leave so we got into the car at 630. It took me a little to get to the car because I was in so much pain. My back was on fire I could hardly move. Marcus was screaming cause he had never seen mommy in so much pain. I tried so hard to not scream or cry while I was having a contraction but it was so hard and as we are walking out the door I fell to the floor and Marcus lost it. He was screaming and freaking out and it made it really hard to leave but I knew we needed to. So it took me 15 mins to get to the car from the time I started bleeding.
Once we are in the car my mom tells me that she is going to speed and that the bumps and turns and everything will hurt and that she was sorry in advance. Let me tell you she wasn't kidding. She speed out of the neighborhood at 40 miles an hour and everytime she turned or stoped it hurt. At one point I look at the MPH and she was going 70 in a 45. haha. She was freaking out a little. My contractions were still coming about 3-4 mins apart and I was still talking in between them so I thought we had time...
We got to seventy 1st school rd and raeford rd when I first had an urge to push and I told my mom and she goes "Don't you dare push Ashley". haha easier said then done. We make it through that light and go about a mile and I have a contraction and during the contraction my body starts to naturally push. I tell my mom and she says "Your water hasn't even broken yet, you cant push, we are about half way there just wait!" Then I have another contraction about .5 miles later and once again my body naturally pushes and this time something kinda comes out and I reach down and feel and there is something there and I scream at my mom to pull over and call 911 because I was having a baby. She pulls into the Seventy 1st School Rd and Cliffdale Rd gas station and calls 911.
It was actually kinda funny her calling 911 cause my car is a smart car, Prius, and has the blue tooth and she cant work it so I'm sitting there about to have a baby telling her how to work my car. Even then I was laughing. So she gets the operator on the phone and tells her whats happening and where we are. Then the lady starts asking if we have towels and blankets and shoe ties and I start wigging out cause that's when it hit me that I was about to have a baby IN MY CAR!! The operator says to not push and try to wait and so I did. I waited for 5 mins. It was the longest 5 mins of my life and I did not push. Even though I wanted to so badly.
The fire truck arrives 1st before the paramedics and run over to me and asses the situation and at this point my pants are still on and hes like ok lets see where you are and we take my pants off which hurt so badly and looks down to see a white eye. It sounds strange but that's what it was. I started freaking out and he explains to me that I was delivering the baby still in the amniotic sack. When your water breaks it breaks the sack but because she decided to come so fast it never broke. So he asked me to wait and not push until the paramedics arrived and I told him no that I was told to wait till help arrived and I did and I needed to push now and he said okay lets have a baby.
I'm still sitting in the front seat of my tiny prius and the seat cant go back all the way cause Marcus car seat is in the way so the fireman pulls one leg up and my mom who is in the drivers seat pulls my other leg up and her head pretty much falls out. Its still in the sack so the fireman asks for a scapal and I about freak out thinking he's going to cut me and I scream "No! Don't cut me!" He kinda laughs and says "I'm just breaking the sack so we can get her to breath." haha silly me. So he breaks the sack and tells me to push and she just falls out onto the seat with one push. I look down and there's my little girl.
I hear someone in the background say 655. My little girl was born in a car at 655 in the morning. They got her breathing and cut the cord and laid her on my chest and I started crying. I kept saying "Is she okay? I just had a baby... in a car... in a prius" I couldn't say anything else. I was in too much shock. I just kept looking at her and thinking about how amazing she was and how much I loved her and how crazy this was.
While I was in my la la land they gave her an Apgar score of a 9 and said she was beautiful and her color was amazing and that no one could believe how great we were doing with what just happened. They firemen all took a long sheet and wrapped it around the stretcher and car so that I could get up on the stretcher without anyone seeing my naked bottom. I got on the stretcher with Miss Tenley and we were taken to the hospital.
Once we got to the hospital things got pretty normal. We were taken straight to a room and hooked up to monitors. She was taken from me and they started testing her. I was giving pitocin and morphine right away and kinda went into a happy place. Tenley was tested for a good hour. I had GBS which meant as soon as my water broke I needed to be put on antibiotics because GBS can be harmful to the baby so they had to take extra precautions because of that and then they had to take extra care cause she was born outside the hospital so they ran a million test on her and everything came back negative. She is healthy as can be. They checked me and I checked out great no tearing or anything and all my blood work came back great. So they moved us to a mother birthing room and that's where we stayed for the next 48 hours.
The whole thing was absolutely CRAZY. No one knows how I went that fast. They think I was in active labor from about 4 on, so I went from 0 to 10 in 2 hours and 55 mins. I didnt even know you could go that fast, I didn't know you could have a baby without your water breaking first, I didn't know that natural birth hurt THAT bad, I also didn't know that back labor is the WORST form of labor ever! I learned a lot from this experience. I also know if I ever decide to have another baby I will be camping out in the hospital from 39 weeks on. haha. I am just so grateful that she is ok. I am so grateful to the amazing fire station that delivered my baby and kept me sane. I am so grateful to my amazing mom for keeping me calm and being there to experience that with me. I am just so grateful and so happy that she is here and we are both healthy. I honestly believe God had her come this way so that I wouldn't have to think about Chris missing her birth. I was really upset about that and while I was in that car the only thing I cared about was her and that she was going to be okay. 
 Many of you have been asking about her name and yes we did change her name from Tenley Grace to Tenley Prius. I had to somehow document her birth and I figure the best way was to put Prius in her name. I mean come on she was born in a PRIUS! haha. Also if you look up Prius it means to come before. And she definitely came before. So that is her name and I love it. =) The nurses at the hospital kept asking me if I was going to name her Prius and I kept saying I needed to talk to my husband so as soon as Chris and I had decided I got a new nurse who wanted me so badly to name her Prius and when I told her that her name would be Tenley Prius she was so happy. She wrote it on the dry earse board and then told everyone. We seriously had the best care in the world at the hospital. I know GASP! I said we had good care at WOMACK. haha. But we did. I am forever grateful to the nurses there and the firemen that helped delivered Tenley.
So there it is. Miss Tenley's birth story. It is something I will remember forever. I look at her and think I cant believe how you entered into this world. I cant believe you are here. I cant believe I am a mother of 2 amazing kids. I just feel so blessed and am completely in love with them.