Our first family pic...
Little Miss Leila Jade made her debut on July 8, 2009 (07/08/09) at 4:47pm. She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20 inches long. Her birth story isn't anything super exciting, but here it goes...
I was scheduled to be induced at 8pm on July 7, but the hospital had so many women giving birth (possibly due to the full moon?) that we ended up having to wait a few hours which was painful because I was so nervous and excited and just wanted to get the show on the road! So, right around midnight they inserted the first dose of cervical softener (I was only 1 cm dilated), gave me some ambien, and Andy and I attempted to get some sleep. A few hours later I got a second dose of the meds followed by a couple more hours of sleep. Around 6am I woke up with the start of some mild contractions.
After monitoring my contractions for a while, they realized that they were basically coming one right on top of another, so they started me on pitocin to regulate and strengthen them. Once the pitocin kicked in I was not a happy camper. I was however determined to wait as long as I could manage before getting the epidural. When the pain was starting to get unbearable, the nurse checked me and I still was only 1-2 cm dilated! She offered me some IV drugs, but I refused. Then, my water broke. After my water broke the pain became even worse (with strong back labor due to my little princess being face up - we didn't know this yet). Andy was so great at talking me through the contractions and rubbing my back - he's the BEST! I probably only survived a half an hour to an hour after my water broke and then I HAD to have the epidural (even though I wasn't very far dilated).
One word for the epidural... HEAVEN! I couldn't even feel when they did it. After the epidural the exhaustion hit me and I tried to rest for a while. I was doing great for a couple hours, but then I started feeling the worst contraction pain on my left side. Basically the drugs stopped working on that side! Over time it got worse, so the nurse checked me again and I was 10 cm dilated! I went from 1 to 10 cm in just a couple of hours! At that point I was ready to push, but we waited for the anesthesiologist to come and re-dose me. After that I felt 100 times better, but lost ALL movement in my legs which was very strange feeling.
Right before I started pushing we had the fam and friends come in to pump me up (I was very nervous). Then, the nurse came back in and her, Andy, and I got to work pushing my little one out. Overall, pushing was an awesome experience for me even though Leila was a tough one to get out. My legs were so numb that Andy and the nurse had to hold them up for me. It was worth it because I felt absolutely no pain which was great since Leila was in the posterior position (face-up) which would have been extremely painful! I ended up pushing for nearly 2 hours. They had to maneuver me from side to side trying different positions to get her out. When the doctor got there I heard them talking about getting the forceps and vacuum ready, but I was determined to get her out on my own. I ended up getting her out on my first push with the doctor there (with the help of an episiotomy).
Leila Jade was born with a cone head and an enormous bruise due to the pressure of her head on my pubic bone. I am still so grateful that I was able to deliver her vaginally without the use of vacuum or forceps. Overall, I think I had an amazing childbirth experience and can't wait to do it again with this next one! Okay, maybe that is a stretch, but in all honesty I'd rather go through that again than a really bad stomach flu!
Thanks for sharing! That's a really cool birth date. My sister went into labor on 7/6/05 and REALLY wanted that to be her son's bday, but he made his debut just past midnight. Yay for July babies (Aidan and Lorelai are in the club, too)!
ReplyDelete