Birth Story: Labor and Delivery

November 04, 2015

Birth Story: Labor and Delivery

-- I want to always remember the day we brought our daughter into the world. So for my convenience, here is the detailed birth story and lots of pictures of our sweet Lucy Marie! --

After weeks of hoping I would go into labor naturally and it not happening, induction day finally arrived! Because my cervix was still closed and hard, the doctor had us go into the hospital Wednesday October 28th evening to begin Cytotec, the cervical ripening medicine. Then we would start pitocin in the morning.

We got to the hospital, got to our room, signed some papers, started my IV, then began the first dose of medicine at 1800. We had four hours to wait until the next dose, so Karrissa and my mom went and picked us up some dinner, then once they left, Jess and I watched the republican debate and just hung out. At 2200 the nurse checked me and there was still no change, so she placed the next round of cytotec. Once that had time to settle in, the contractions started coming fast and strong. She offered me pain medicine, which I took, so I could get some sleep before the craziness began. To my surprise, this was a loopy-causing drug... I thought it was tylenol or something at first, haha, but turns out I got all weird and I remember Jesse laughing really hard at me when I was trying to talk to him. The next couple hours were weird ones. The medicine knocked me out, but in a weird way. My eyes and body felt like they were sleeping but I was like wide awake in my head. It was so strange and felt like it took forever for the medicine to wear off. Four hours after the second dose, I was having contractions every like 15 seconds, and baby girl's heartrate was staying the same, a little low, without any decels or accels, which made the nurse a little nervous. She checked me again, and guess what? Still no change! Imagine that. She let the doctor know about the contractions being on top of each other and he ordered to give me a shot of terbutaline to stop the contractions. She gave me the shot in my arm and a few minutes later the contractions spread out a little bit.

To my surprise though, the contractions started getting stronger and stronger. This was the first real labor pain I felt. Jess held my hand and helped me breath, but I was just crying. It was quite painful!! The nurse came in and told me that the CRNA was near by, if I wanted my epidural now, before we start the pitocin in a few hours. I said yes, I mean, why not?! So, I got up to the bathroom one last time, and surprisingly felt a little better. The nurse came back in and told me the CRNA was in a c-section so it might be a little while. I felt a little better, so I was fine with that. Shortly after the contractions got worse and worse, so luckily the CRNA came quick. They sent Jesse out of the room and the epidural was placed around 0530 on Wednesday morning. It wasn't too bad at all. It started working real quick and well on my left side, but for a while I could still feel the contractions in one spot on my right side, it was a strange feeling! Everything about epidural medicine is a strange feeling...I expected it to literally just not be able to feel anything, but it was like having my legs be asleep or numbed like at the dentist. It was quite strange. I couldn't move my left leg at all, but had a bit of control of my right. We then started the pitocin!

Luckily, after a morning of texting my mom, and telling her what was going on (during the bad contractions...it was no good.) she finally got there right after the epidural. It was such a rough night. Jesse was being so sweet though, he would be asleep on the couch, then hear a nurse come in so he would sit up real quick and try to listen. He would ask me if I needed anything and then go back to sleep. I felt bad, because there wasn't much he could do but I was really not feeling well. Plus, the stadol pain medicine they gave me earlier made me so nauseous! Most pain meds make me pretty sick, and this was no different. I hated it. I finally couldn't feel the contractions any more, so I wanted to get some sleep before it was baby time, but I couldn't because I was so nauseous. Plus, I had an O2 mask on to help baby's heartbeat stay up, so that was uncomfortable. My mom sat by my side while Jesse slept, and tried to comfort me.

After a long morning of nausea, flipping from side to side with the peanut ball inbetween my legs, and sipping on chicken broth, the doctor arrived around 0930 and checked my cervix. After being told all night there was no change, (which is extremely discouraging after being in so much pain and having so many medicines put into you), he saved the day! He said there wasn't any dilation change, I was still a 1+, but I was about 80% effaced which was more than he felt at my appointment the day before, so he felt that I had made enough progress that he felt comfortable breaking my water! We were worried it was going to be brown and all meconium like, but luckily it wasn't! What a relief! He then said that we were just gonna wait this out! No need to rush into anything, like a c-section, that he felt comfortable letting my body do the work with the pitocin, and that baby looked good, so he wasn't worried. He also said there wasn't any need to keep checking me, that he would come back in around 2 or 3 to do that.

The next couple hours were more of the same....waiting around, upping the pitocin dose, being nauseous, trying to sleep, watching tv, watching the contractions on the monitor but not being able to feel them, and talking with mom, Jess, and Karrissa. A little before noon, I started being able to feel the contractions again, so I asked my nurse to increase the epidural medicine. I was confused why I started feeling them! Then, right when my mom and sister were about to go get some lunch, the doctor stopped by! He said he was in the building and thought he might as well check and see if there had been any cervical change. I was hoping for something, like a 3 or 4 maybe. Then, all of a sudden I hear him say, "Alright, 2+ station, and completely dilated! Let's have this baby!" I was in shock, seriously. I was all, wait what?! I first heard him say the 2+, so I thought he was talking about my cervix, not baby's head position! Ahh! I asked him if he was joking and he said "Of course not. I joke around a lot with my patients, but not about this. I would get smacked!" Haha. Which is true. All I remember saying was "are you serious?!" and "wait, can I put my contacts in? And brush my hair?" Haha! Frantically we told him my sister needed to run Addi to my friends house to be babysat. He said he was totally fine with that, that I had time, and he would run back to the office to get things switched around for the afternoon then would be back. Karrissa hurry and drove Addi to have Elise watch her, then got back real quick! Mom and Jess helped me brush my teeth, put my contacts in, put some makeup on, and brush my hair. I was planning on being able to shower and everything this morning but after the night we had, and having to get the epidural early, that definitely wasn't happening.

The nurse got my legs in the stirrups, set up the doctor table, had the baby warmer on, and got everything ready. While we waited for Dr. Lamar to get back, we just hung out...with my legs in stirrups, everything just hanging out. Haha. My mom, Karrissa, and Jesse gathered around me. I was like freaking out, the shivers started and I couldn't control them. I was so nervous, but so excited. I remember Karrissa was making me laugh a lot, which helped me relax a little bit. The nurse had me do two practice pushes, and said that was good enough! Because we saw baby's head! Jess and Karrissa looked and said "Oh my she has so much dark hair!" Crazy huh?!

Dr. Lamar showed up and it was go time! After literally three pushes, and Dr. Lamar telling me "stop, stop, stop!" during the fourth, our little baby girl arrived at 2:03 pm on October 29th, 2015! Everything happened so fast. Lamar said "yep! It's definitely a girl!", then had Jesse cut the cord. They quickly put her on my chest and wrapped her in blankets. The first thing I noticed were her big hands! I kept saying how big they were haha! And her dark hair, so much dark hair! And a big mouth. A big crying mouth. Such a wonderful noise to hear. The nurses took her off me after a minute because she was still a little purple. Jess and Karrissa went over with her and mom stayed by my side. Dr. Lamar stitched me up and told me that I did great. I watched as Jesse stayed by the side of our new daughter! She weighed 8lbs 2 oz and was 21 inches long. 8 lbs?! My goodness, no wonder I was so uncomfortable ;) They had to do some suctioning and oxygen because baby girl took a biiiigg drink on her way out. They got quite a bit of fluid out of her stomach, but they kept reassuring me she was okay. I asked Karrissa if she looked like a Lucy and she said, "yes! Definitely yes!" While the nurses worked on the fluid and her O2 sat, Jess and Karrissa came back to show me pictures of her, and watch the placenta be pulled out. Karrissa gagged and Jesse asked if it was a jelly fish. Haha. So funny.

I finally got to hold her again and try breast feeding. She literally latched right on and started sucking. I was so surprised! She did so good! We had to keep checking her O2 sat to make sure she could eat and breath at the same time.

After staring at her, Jess and I decided that she was definitely Lucy Marie Lanham. Our sweet baby girl.

The next little while was full of getting cleaned up, letting my legs get some feeling back in them, eating as many graham crackers and apple juice as I could, and holding our little angel.

The pictures do a lot of the talking... accurately shows how we were feeling and the joy we felt to have our daughter here safe and sound. But I'll add a few thoughts too: the whole thing was surreal -- it was this moment we have dreamt about for a very long time, and it just happened! It came and went. But in a good way. I loved having Jesse by my side through it all. He was kind, loving, and supportive. Every woman deserves a man like him. Especially during very unattractive labor...;) I honestly was in shock I think for a while. Was she ours? Was this real? The little girl we've been thinking of for 9 months was finally here? And we get to take care of her forever? So many thoughts running through my head. But holding her with Jesse just felt right. It took me a while to feel like she was mine. Which sounds bad, and I felt kind of sad at the time that I felt that way, but soon realized that my body and brain had just been through a lot. And I hadn't slept in over 24 hours. So, I shouldn't be too hard on myself. And every minute that passed, she became more and more mine. Ours. She was perfect and beautiful in every way. What a blessing she is to our lives.

A car full of fun! Not sure what was in store for us... haha