Lilliana Faith's Birth Story

It's true! Baby number 8 is here! We evened things out a little bit by adding a third girl to the mix, and what a delight she is! Even though I was labeled high risk due to "advanced maternal age" and having had so many pregnancies, my pregnancy went off without a hitch. Once I got over my sickness, things went along just great. I had minimal swelling and very little pain. They kept a close eye on her and checked her heart out a couple of times. All exams declared her healthy. I am used to being induced early for various reasons, and naturally assumed I would be induced early this time as well. I had a new doctor, though, and he said he wouldn't let me go past my due date, but didn't really want to induce me early. My due date was April 30, I was scheduled to be induced April 29. For weeks, I had very regular contractions. There were several nights that I thought for sure this was it and we would be heading to the hospital. I was excited because I have never gone into labor on my own. As my due date neared, I got worried. I know cord accidents are more common in the late part of pregnancy, and honestly, I just wanted her out, safe and sound. She would slow way down for awhile and give me many scares. I'm sure she was just sleeping, but nevertheless, it kept me kind of nervous. At 37 weeks I was checked and was 3-4 centimeters dilated, but she was pretty high still. With all the contractions though, I was sure she would come down on her own. Alas, it wasn't to be, and at 5 am on April 29, we headed to the hospital for my induction. Because she was so high up, the plan was to start pit to bring her down then break my water. The doctor had explained that because I had had so many babies, we had a higher chance of cord prolapse, or of her putting her hand above her head if we broke my water before she dropped. They took us to our room and started all the paperwork, while another nurse started trying to place my IV. The first two blew right away. Let me tell you, they were the most painful IVs I've ever had, and one of them caused me pain for days and throbbed through my whole labor. Finally, the third IV was in to stay. After the two hurt so bad, I was near tears telling the nurse I wasn't ready for an IV. I have a terrible fear of needles and have always said the IV is the worst part of childbirth, this wasn't helping at all! After the IV was finally placed, the nurse started running fluids so if I decided to get an epidural right away, I would have my bag of fluid in. All of this took until about 6:30. At 6:30 the nurse was ready to check me to see what I was starting out at. She checked me, said I was still about 3-4 cm. At that point, we heard a big commotion in my belly as the baby swam away from her. We all joked that she didn't like being messed with. As we were laughing, the nurse proceeded to try and find her heart beat again. It wasn't where it had been. Suddenly, we were hearing the most bizarre, almost hollow beating. I thought it was my heart beat, but it didn't even sound right for mine. I asked what was in my belly and what was happening. About the time I was asking, the nurse was grabbing my wrist to feel my pulse. Suddenly, she was pushing the call button asking for help. Another nurse rushed in. The first nurse asked her to check my pulse. As the nurse was checking my pulse, nurse A was putting oxygen on me. Nurse B said, "about 80". Nurse A said that's what she thought and pushed the call button again. Things were suddenly a bit frantic. Nurse A put her hand inside me and was rubbing baby's head, nurse B was rubbing my belly. Nurses were filing in like crazy. Nurse A said she couldn't safely break my water. All I could do was look at Matt, with tears streaming down my face. He was white as a ghost, so while they were working on me, I was telling him to go sit down so he didn't faint. He didn't want to leave me, but I made him. Finally, after what seemed like ages, the doctor on call came in. That was when I realized exactly what had just happened. Her heart rate had dropped into the 50s for at least 5 minutes. All of their manipulation stimulated her enough to bring it back up. The doctor said he would be breaking my water then, and putting a monitor on her head so they could watch her closer. At this point I was so scared we were going to lose her. They assured me they would be watching us very closely and that it would be okay. She asked about an epidural. Normally, to get an epidural, I need to be in quite a bit of pain. Remember that fear of needles? Yeah, that comes into play here. However, I was afraid we would have another decal and I would need an emergency c section. The nurse had told me that if that happened, they would give me a general, but I wanted to be ready and numb already, so I opted for the epidural then. By this time, having my water broken had started contractions. They weren't registering on the monitor, and that would continue the entire labor. I didn't get credit for a single contraction! The anesthesiologist arrived pretty quickly. He started my epidural pretty easily. However, I still had tons of pain on my right side. It never went away. The plan was to roll on either side every 5 minutes to keep me numb on both sides. We figured once I rolled, my right side would go numb. Instead, when I rolled, the baby had another big decal into the 50s. At that point, my blood pressure plummeted. I didn't know it though, until the anesthesiologist was back putting something in my IV. I asked what it was. I can't remember what he said, but it was something to bring my blood pressure back up. I also don't remember what it was, but the bottom number was 30. It didn't take long, and I was shivering and feeling like I was going to throw up. Matt told the nurse that meant it was baby time. About that time, my doctor finally came in to check on me. He checked me and said I was 8 centimeters, and that I needed to try and push because she really needed to come out. I was so happy to be getting her out. I kept telling them their job was to get her out safely. The nurse said her job was to make sure I was ok, I said no, she needed to make sure my baby was ok, she was more important than me. I took a breath and pushed. She was coming. Two more pushes and she was completely out, crying away. I was so relieved. She was born at 8:35 am. So 2 hours after her big decal, and about an hour and a half after my water was broken. After she was born, I felt great. Her apgars were 9 and 9. She weighed 9lbs 1.5oz and was 21 inches long. She had trouble with her sugars in the beginning and had lots and lots of heel sticks, poor baby. It was definitely a labor I never want to forget. I assume she was compressing her cord. What scares me is that when her decels happened, I wasn't having a contraction, it makes me wonder how many decels she had when she wasn't on the monitors. We are just so thankful she is here safe and sound!

It's been way too long

Whoa! It's been forever since I blogged. Mainly due to smart phones that cause me never to be on an actual computer, but I just learned I can blog from my phone! Not real sure how pictures will work, I will have to explore more. So much has happened since I last blogged! We have now had Emily's diabetic alert dog for over a year. She has been such a blessing to us. We are wrapping up another school year. It's a big one! Matthew's last! He graduates this year. How is this even possible?? And finally, biggest news of all, we've welcomed our third sweet baby girl. Her name is Lilliana Faith and as of this post, she is 2 weeks and 2 days old. I think I will start my first real blog post with her birth story. I will try to get to that tonight, it's something I don't want to forget. I wonder if I have any readers left out there. I doubt it, but I will blog for me! Writing is great therapy! If you are still out there, thanks for hanging out for so long! I can't wait to get back into the groove!