Lucy's birth was full of little miracles. It couldn't have worked out more perfectly. Over the last few months I've been so stressed and apprehensive about labour. Between her being flipped sideways and them saying she's gonna be 12lbs. It all worked out. Perfectly.
It all started with a phone call from my OB on Thursday night, she was worried about Lucy being sideways. She wanted to flip baby and induce before she could flip back. My OB was working saturday night and told me to come into the hospital. She does inductions on Tuesdays and didn't want me to wait until then. So she told me to say I was in labour and they would book me in and call her to come check me. It was a little uncomfortable to say I was in labour when I didn't think I was. When we were checked in and hooked up to the monitors it turns out I was actually in labour, I didn't know because I've been having contractions for months. I could've been at home laboring and not knowing until its too late and had to rush to the hospital that was an hour away. Then when my OB came to check me, Lucy had flipped and was head down. I can't say how grateful I was to hear that, I was absolutely terrified for her to flip Lucy. I've heard its extremely painful. All the delivery rooms were full so they told us to walk around for awhile, and if contractions got worse to come back sooner. My OB wanted to have that baby tonight before she could flip back!
We came back at midnight and got a delivery room. They broke my water and got things set up to start the pitocin. I was having a lot anxiety and Dave gave me another blessing to calm down. I hadn't been able to eat or drink in 12 hours and I was already physically exhausted. I just couldn't think of how I was gonna be able to go all night when all I wanted already, was to sleep. At 1am the pitocin started and the contractions definitely amped up, I was having to breath through the contractions already. They kept having a hard time to monitoring Lucy's heart rate and my contractions, so after awhile they decided to put a monitor on Lucy's head to better be able to watch it. Her heart rate kept dropping with my contractions. Luckily my nurse was amazing and really watched the heart rate and had me tell her when each contraction was coming so she could see how low it was dropping.
I got an epidural around 3am, and it was awful. BAH! The dude took forever, and missed the first time and had to redo it. I was not impressed and apparently Dave said I let him know it. He didn't refreeze me when he redid the epidural so I felt it all, yikes! After he left my nurse let me know he was a residence, I wasn't too impressed I didn't know that before. I understand that it's a learning hospital but everyone had asked me if it was okay to have a student or resident with them. Once the epidural was working I started to be able to relax, but it seemed Lucy's heart rate was still making my OB and nurse nervous. So they did an amnio infusion, I had never heard of this. Its inserting an IV into your uterus and filling it back up with fluid. To relieve the pressure of Lucy off her umbilical cord. They also started to have me flip from side to side, to help Lucy move and keep her heart rate up. Trying to roll from side to side while pregnant is already a feat, doing that with an epidural.... what a work out! Im so glad the nurse and OB took these precautions instead of just jumping right into a c-section.
My OB's resident checked me again at 6am and I was still only at 5 cms, I was so depressed. That was like 1/2cm in 4 hours. Luckily again my nurse kept me calm and said, "its baby #3 and its gonna go fast when it happens". She wasn't lying. All of a sudden at 6:45am I knew it was go time. Because Lucy's heart rate had been dropping they wanted NICU there for the delivery just in case. So we had to wait for the OB to get there and NICU before I could push. Lucy had been head up the whole time and flipped right at the end to face down. Once the resident was there they let me push and 2 pushes later, Lucy was here. It was absolutely incredible. Soon as they saw she was ok, and didn't need NICU they placed her on my chest. Then the room cleared, it had been so full of people. Im guessing at least 10 people, with all the students and NICU. They've never just placed one of my babies on my chest, its the first time I just wept. Because I didn't tear (YAY!) they delivered the placenta and then left me alone. We were so relieved we didn't need NICU. My OB came in and was shocked she missed the delivery, she said she came soon as she got the page! Its such an amazing experience for Dave and I, he just weeps and loves on me and the baby. I couldn't wait for them to weigh her, she was so little and we knew there was no way she was 9lbs like the ultrasound that week had told us.
Born at 7:03am - Weighing 7lbs 9oz & 20.5" long.
July 26, 2015
I am so grateful for so many things - That she was born 3 weeks early and my mom was able to be here to watch the kids. We kept having a hard time being able to find someone who'd be able to watch the kids when I went into labour. That I have a proactive OB. That my nurse helped me stay calm and focus, even when I started quoting movies and being delirious. That Lucy flipped, and turned face down at the end. That we didn't need a c-section and we were able to keep Lucy's heart rate at a normal rate. That Lucy was healthy and perfect. My recovery has been really good, my body is physically way more sore. I think its from having to flip back and forth, with an epidural I couldn't tell how hard I was flinging myself over. I think I pulled some muscles, its a week later and I'm just starting to feel like I can walk normally. That she wasn't as big as they had been predicating.
Lucy has been an incredible baby, I even had Dave google if she sleeps too much. We rarely hear a peep out of her except for when she's hungry. She is just so cuddly, and we just want to hold her all day and night. She was tongue tied and they snipped it at the hospital, and now nursing is going really well.
