Dr. Watts started me with some Cervidil at about 7pm on the 29th. I'd already been having a few contractions, but after about an hour, this was getting them coming on much more regularly. I was able to sleep some through the night. I could feel the contractions but the pain wasn't super terrible. By 6am, I was worn out. I had been contracting all night but was only dilated to about a 2. It was time to start the pitocin. By the time my nurse got that started, I was ready for something to take an edge off the pain. She gave me some nubane. It helped, but didn't take it completely away. Nubane only works for 1 to 2 hours, but it did help. A little after 8, Chancho arrived (having taken the kids to school and leaving mom w Miles). I continued to make some progress and felt no need to deal with any more pain, so I asked for the anesthesiologist. I don't remember his name, but he did the best job ever. He took a total of about 12 minutes. It would have been faster but he had a student with him so he was explaining everything as he went. The epidural was so perfect because I could still move my legs the entire time, I could feel when a big contraction was starting, I could feel when it was time for me to push, and I could feel how I was pushing, but it didn't cause me any pain. How cool is that? Perfect epidural, I'd say. Before long I was dilated to a 5 and Dr. Watts came to break my water. I knew it would go quickly after that so we called Vicki. She went to the house to be with Finn. Allison went to pick up Mom and come over the hospital. I was at an 8 fairly quickly and I was worried Mom and Allie would miss the delivery. But they got there and by the time Dr. Watts arrived, I was dilated to a 10 and ready to go. Assuming all would continue very quickly, especially since this was my fourth delivery, she called for the nursery to come down and quickly got ready.
Then it was time to push. I pushed and pushed and pushed. And pushed. Her head would just not slide down over the pubic bone like it is supposed to. I felt bad and I tried to hard to focus every bit of strength into pushing right where I needed to. I even started trying to get in four 10-count-pushes per contraction instead of 3. She would come down a little bit, then slide back. This went on for nearly 2 hours. With SC I maybe pushed for an hour at most. With Deedle it was only about 20 minutes or so. Finn took one contraction to push through. And here I was, fourth delivery, pushing with all I had, and nothing was happening. I had the oxygen on the whole time because I kept feeling like I was going to black out. I started to wonder if I was going to be able to do it. What if I now needed a c-section after all of this??? I started praying harder. I asked for help. I started thinking of my new daughter's great-grandmothers, after whom she is named. Whenever I thought of Lila and Pearl, I felt them close and would think about them in between contractions. Finally I was getting really exhausted so I said outloud: "I think I am going to have to call on this baby's namesakes. I'm going to need Grandmothers Lila and Pearl to help me. Lila Pearl." Just then another contraction started. I began to push and immediately Lila's head moved over the pelvic bone and she came right down. By the end of that contraction she was out!
Allison did a great job documenting everything with video and photos for me. She also did a fun surprise for my friends and family at home. She basically did a play by play on facebook. Reading over it afterwards was really touching. Many people that I don't even know were encouraging me and praying for me throughout my labor, with out me even knowing it. I'm going to try to copy and paste what she did here:
Chancho and Mom reassure me that I can do it.
And she is here!!!
Getting checked out by the nursery and cleaned off a tiny bit.
Getting weighed.
Much happier now that she is wrapped and in Dad's arms.
I can't believe she's here. I can't wait to have things calm down so I can spend hours staring at her and getting to know her.
My awesome team who helped me get Lila here. Chancho of course. My Dr is Dr. Watts. I really love her. She is super cool and a great doctor, too. My nurse was Gail. I really loved her.
Allison holds Lila and gives her loves after doing all the documenting.
Chancho went with Lila to the nursery to have a bath. He took these beautiful photos. I love her rosey lips!
Then I was moved to a Post-Partum room and Lila was brought to me from her bath.
Vicki came to visit after spending the day with Miles. Here are a few pics of the 3 hour old baby.
And...of course...I've taken about 400 photos since then. More to come!
3 comments:
Sheer awesomeness! We adore Lila, an her momma, and her super cool angels who were ready to help out!
oh, CONGRATS!she is beautiful! she looks just like her sisters ... what a lucky little minute to be born into your family! enjoy the newborn hugs and snuggles and smell!! :) congrats, congrats, congrats!!
Love this!!! Me and Livy up late so happy to see these! Love you!
Allison
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