Introducing Ms. Lily: Lily's Birth Story

All the fun and excitement began on Monday, July 5th. Our due date had come and gone and I was convinced that Punkin was never going to come and that we would have to be induced on July 8th. The day before, July 4th I had had a few "real" contractions, but they were few and FAR between, like several hours apart, so I didn't think anything of it and didn't tell anyone about it. I didn't want to get my hopes up and it turn up to be nothing so I thought nothing of it. The previous week Tom and I had walked miles around our the little town we live in and every evening I would come home and would then have contractions for a few hours, but they always went away, which was very irritating.

Tom's parents came to visit us Sunday night and were planning on going home Monday evening. We stayed up late playing cards and the guys made plans to cut down two dead trees in our yard the next day. Well I woke up at about 7am on Monday morning and noticed that I was feeling kind of crampy. I went to the bathroom for about the 5th time already and then laid back down to try to get a couple more hours of sleep. I hadn't slept very well that night. I never went back to sleep. I started noticing that these "cramps" were taking on noticable pattern. So I decided to time them with my niftly Iphone app. After about 30 min of timing I determined that I was having contractions that were about 2-3 min apart and were lasting about 35 seconds. Tom woke up and was getting ready to go chop down trees, so I let him know what was going on. We weren't sure what to do. They tell you to go to the hospital when your contractions are 3-5 min apart and lasting about a minute. Mine weren't lasting that long so we decided to wait a while. Tom went and let his parents know that maybe today wouldn't be a good day to chop down trees, so instead we got the house all cleaned up. By we I mean everybody else while I delegated jobs. We then played cards. At about 11am my contractions were getting pretty uncomfortable and were lasting about 45 sec, so I decided to call the on call dr. My dr's office was closed that day for a holiday. That dr told me to go to the hospital to get checked out...so away we went.

Once at the hospital, we were put in triage and found out that I was 1cm 80% effaced. It was about noon. I was told you had to be 3-4 cm to be admitted. They monitored me for an hour and came back. I was still the same. We were then sent to go walk the halls for an hour. We came back and they checked me and I was still the same. By this time I was definetly uncomfortable, so they gave me some percosets and told me to go home and take a nap. When I woke up if my contractions were gone then it was false labor. If not and they were stronger and took my breath away then come back. Contractions were still 2-3 min apart.

We went home and got home at about 5pm. I tried to take a nap. I think I only slept like 45 min. We finished up a few more things I thought of around the house. At about 9pm the medicine had worn off and the contractions were taking my breath away so we headed back off to the hospital. When we got there we found out that I was the SAME! I had made no progress. I cried. By this time I was feeling lousy and to find out I had made no progress at all was disheartening. So, we went through the same routine. They kept me for an hour. We walked the halls for an hour and I still hadn't made any progress. We were sent home a second time. This time I was told to go home take a warm bath and come back when the contractions made me cry. This is not exactly what I was wanting to hear. At this point all I could think about was that I couldn't wait to get an epidural.

We went home at midnight and I followed the instructions. At one point I told Tom I was spending the night in the tub because it helped take the pain away, but after about an hour it wasn't helping anymore. I got out and went to bed. I just remember laying there with Tom and crying because it hurt so bad. He kept telling me ok lets go back and I kept telling him I didn't want to because I couldn't handle getting sent home again. Finally at about 3am we decided to go back. That was the longest car ride of my life. I could feel every bump in the road. The only way for me to handle the pain was to breath very loudly through my contractions. We finally made it there and got checked and I was 2 1/2cm!! The dr had told the nurses that if I had made any progress at all that they could admit me! So we were admitted to the hospital at 4am!!!

The nurse came back and checked me at 8am and I was only 3cm. It had been 4 hours and I had only progressed 1/2 a cm! I had to get to 4cm to get my epidural. At this point I thought I was going to die. There was no way I could last another 4 hours to get another cm. Then the nurse told me they were going to start me on Pitocin so that my contractions would be even stronger so that I would progress. When she left the room I lost it. The contractions were coming one on top of the other and I was getting NO relief inbetween. The top of my utereus felt like it was in a constant knot. At 9am the nurse came back in and told me they were going to go ahead and give me the epidural and just hope that I had progressed because a lady down the hall was going in for a c-section and the anesthesiologist was going to be gone for quite a while. This was glorious news to my ears!

I got my epidural and life was good!!!!!! I couldn't even tell when I was having contractions anymore. The epi didn't hurt at all. All I felt was a little pinch like a shot you would get a the dentist. I was still only 3cm. An hour later the dr came in to break my water and I was 4cm. I then decided it was time for a nap since I hadn't slept since Sunday night and it was now Tuesday morning.

I slept for about an hour and then woke up because I was feeling an urge that felt like I needed to go to the bathroom with every contraction. We called the nurse in and she checked me and I was 8cm! I had progressed 4cm in an hour! I guess my body just needed to relax to be able to do its job. (I had told Tom weeks before that I was afraid that this was going to happen. I don't handle pain very well.) The nurse said she would come back in 30 min to check again. 30 min later I was 9 1/2! 15 min later it was time to push!!!!

Tom and the nurse were the only ones in there for the majority of the pushing. I pushed for about an hour. At one point Tom asked if the dr was going to be there for the delivery. The nurse told him that we had to get to a certain point and then she would make the call for delivery and then a bunch of people would be coming in. I could tell that we were getting close and then all of a sudden I saw the nurse with the phone calling for delivery. She then came back and told me that the dr was in helping with a c-section and would be there in 5 min. I was told not to push until she got there. AHHHHH!!!!!! Do you know how hard it is not to push! We found out later that the dr literally came running down the hall. Once she got there I pushed once and Punkin's head was out! Then the rest of her followed and our beautiful Lily Mae was born at 12:41pm July 6th! She weighed 8lbs 2 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. She scored 9/9 on her apgars and from the very start has been beautiful and healthy. We went for her two week check up and they said she is absolutely perfect. She weighed 8lbs 13 oz and was 22 inches long. She is growing like a weed!

We are totally in love with her and can not imagine life without her! It has been an amazing, life changing, challenging 2 1/2 weeks.

(PS: any of my pregnant friends that plan on breastfeeding I have some tips for you for the first couple of weeks! Just ask me!)