Yay I go here (long birth story with pips)

chloebeth930 · May 2012

Hey ladies... Lilliana is hanging out in her Rock & Play (the only thing she seems to like to lay in) so I have 2 free hands to type!!

I went into my routine OB appointment on Tuesday the 8th. I had been having fluid leaks for the previous 4 days but honestly just thought I was peeing myself. My midwife did a swab check and it came back negative for AF. She looked at it and said that she thought it was me losing my MP over the past few days. She did a cervical check (ouch) and I was 3 cm and 50% effaced (at 37 weeks I was 2 cm an 20%). I hadn't felt any contractions so I really thought I was going to go to term or even over. We discussed inductions and I started complaining to her when she told me that they wouldn't schedule one until I was 41 weeks. I went home and was having some spotting but I blamed it on the rough internal. I thought that I should start cleaning my messy house because I was running out of time before baby would be here.

About 9:30 pm I was laying in bed and I heard this pop. I got up and went and sat on the toilet and a gush of fluid came out. I went and stood in the shower and I was still leaking and it had a glob of blood. I still wasn't having contractions so I paged my OB to see if they thought I should come in and get checked out. About 20 mins later I started to feel the contractions. It was the first time I had any so I honestly didn't know if this was it. They were coming every 5-6 mins so I thought I better play it safe so I grabbed my bag, drove to the hospital, and went into L&D. They wheeled me up and when they asked me to stand up to get on the scale all hell broke loose. What I thought was my water breaking earlier was a joke. Earlier about 2 ounces of fluid came out and when I stood up a huge gush came pouring out. It soaked through my pad, underwear, pants, and was dripping down my leg. It was probably like 12 ounces of fluid. I just stood in the hallway of L&D laughing as the doctors and nurse grabbed some towels for me.

I called my mom who started jumped in the car and started the drive from IN to NC. I also called my labor buddy (a wife from my husband's unit) and she headed over to the hospital. I changed and was all hooked up to the monitors and IV by 11 pm. I was still contracting about every 3-4 mins and was 3-4 cm dilated. I kept gaining a cm each hour but by the time 3 pm came around I tried some IV pain meds but those did nothing for my contractions. They just made me feel drunk. I told them I wanted the epi and 45 minutes later it was in and I was in heaven. I was scared to get it but honestly them putting the IV in my hand hurt worse than the epi. Around that time my husband called me on my cell phone. I thought wonderful it only took them about 4 hours to find my husband over there. He was all upbeat and asked me how I was doing. I told him I was doing ok. He asked what I was up to. I was confused and asked him if his commanding officer has got a hold of him yet. He told me no so I laughed and told him that I was in the hospital having his baby. He didn't believe me and told me that it wasn't funny and I shouldn't joke around with him about being labor. It took me 5 minutes to convince him and then he was so cute and all panicked and excited. I got off the phone with him (he couldn't stay on the whole time but would call me every hour to check in on me). Around 9 am I was at 9 cms and they told me I should be ready to push within the hour. I started having a lot of pain/pressure but I stalled out at 9.5 cms. They gave me some pitocin and I laid down in hopes that the baby would move down and I could get that last .5 cms. About 2 hours later DH called and told me that he was going to have to get on a helicopter in about 3 hours and head out to a different location where he wouldn't have access to a phone or Internet. He told me he could call me in about 45 mins to check but then after that he probably wouldn't be able to call again until tomorrow. I got off the phone with him devastated that we were so close but that he was going to miss it. The nurse came in checked me and I was a 10 and she said we could start pushing. I sat up and started pushing. About 25 mins later DH called and the nurse said I was making progress and the baby's head was staying showing when I wasn't pushing so we kept him on speaker phone. I kept pushing and the doctors and nurses came in and got everything ready and put on their gowns. I pushed for 20 more minutes and out she came (nothing like your husband only having 2 hours to motivate you to get a baby out quickly). She burst into tears and they handed her to me and it was amazing. DH was able to hear everything including her 1st cries. He hung up with me and went to go jump on skype so he could see her. I ended up with a 3rd degree tear (ouch) so I just held LO while they stitched me up (again thank God for the epi). We skyped with DH for about 45 mins and then he had to go. They took DD to the nursery area to get all her vitals and measurements and to wash her off (they don't do any of that in the room). She was 8 lbs 3 oz and 21 inches long. She scored a 9 and 9 and after about 2 hours of hanging out in the nursery area (they had to make sure she could regulate her temp before giving her back to me) I was moved to a PP room and back she came. We had to stay in the hospital 2 extra days because she was having issues with jaundice and we have had to supplement with formula because we are having latch issues, but a lactation consultant is coming by to help me soon.

Giving birth was the most surreal/amazing/scary/wonderful thing I have ever done in my whole life. Lilliana is perfect and gets to skype with her dad for about 20 mins every day. I'm exhausted and in a bit of pain from the tear still but overall recovering nicely. I still can't believe that she is here. She is worth every sleepless night, every second that I worried, and every tear that was shed.

Don't mind how tired I look....

Sleeping

even though she is so mad it is so cute...