Lilah's birth story

seller8888 · May 2011

Lilah Genevieve birth story

May 4th our "due date" came and it was a doctor's check up day, Dr. R let me know that she would be out of town this weekend but told me who was covering for her on each day and what time she would be back on Monday. We agreed that the following Tuesday if she wasn't here we would make a plan for me to come in and try some interventions to move things along as it looked like she was going to be a big girl.

Of course we should have know since we love Dr. R so much that her being away for Mother's Day meant Lilah would arrive then!

Friday the 6th I woke up with some stronger contractions and they were fairly close together and definitely more painful than any others I had. We went in to triage and after a couple of hours they sent us home but said "we are pretty sure you will be back today"...well they were right...we both went to work briefly as I was determined to save every day off to spend with my little girl and not "waste it" on me. I only made it through two hours of work and Aron made it through even less, We both ended up at home, Aron cleaned and got the house ready for visitors. I called my sister and told her to get on a flight tonight from Phoenix (we wanted her there at the delivery since I was with her for her delivery 5 years ago) and around 1:30pm my contractions were getting stronger and longer. At 2pm we decided to go back to Group Health and the triage nurse welcomed us with open arms however we were extremely discouraged to learn I had only progressed a tiny bit. They kept us in triage though and we walked and walked around the unit until about 5pm when we had a check and had progressed a little more but not a ton....we figured we were bound to triage but an hour later they admitted us to a really great birthing suite that we had mentioned we liked. Our triage nurse Debbie stayed on with us and she was amazing. Then our night nurse Kristy came on, who is a friend of a friend and she helped us as I labored through the night trying to walk as much as possible and slow dancing when needed. I got in the tub a few times which felt great. At 1:45am Saturday my sister arrived from Phoenix and we had our team in place. My sister Michelle really became like a doula for us and was the glue that held us together. We would all walk the halls and when contractions hit I would slow dance with Aron while Michelle rubbed my back or put heat packs on my back (where most of the pain was.) We had the same nurse Debbie Saturday during the day and Kristy again at night.

I continued to labor hard all day Saturday and by about 3pm we were all so exhausted and I had only progressed a small amount. I was so frustrated and discouraged and tired. They were concerned that her head was too big because she just was not coming down and my water still had not broken. Ultimately, although our plan was to avoid it I accepted an epidural and followed by some pitocin. The epidural was key in allowing us all some sleep for a few hours although I woke frequently with all of the checks the nurses and doctors did. However the pitocin did it's job and things were progressing.

I was under the delusion that I wouldn't be able to know when to push or feel much through delivery because of the epidural but I was very wrong. Around 8pm I started feeling the contractions much more again and they were strong. Around 9:30pm we started pushing and I was definitely in pain and feeling every bit of the contractions. I struggled with pushing at first, not feeling like I was pushing "right" but our nurse Kristy was great and despite my protests of pain and not thinking I could get through it, pushed us to change position often to help baby move down---which she still had not done enough of. We did standing, we did side lying, we did squatting, we did tug of war with the sheet and the bar, then I finally started to feel like I was pushing right and around 11pm they said they could see the top of her head right behind my bag of waters. It finally broke and with about 30 more minutes of pushing and crying (by all of us) and thinking I could never do this Lilah Genevieve joined us at 11:25pm, 35 minutes before Mother's Day!

I doubted myself often through the labor and Aron used every thing Penny taught us to keep me on track. He kept saying "I don't know where we are at on the path! You are exhibiting signs of all of the stages of labor!" The hardest part was the pushing when I didn't think I had it in me and was in so much pain and Aron was tearful feeling like he wasn't doing enough to help me. The incredible nurses at Group Health and my sister were key then to keep us going and we couldn't have done it without either of them.

We are still getting the hang of this newborn thing and can't believe how amazing she is.

-Suzanna