Apr
Welcome to the world!
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »Welcome to the world, Leila Louise!
Leila’s birth was nothing like I thought it was going to be. As a matter of fact, as you all know, I was supposed to be induced at 5:30 am on April 20th, 2010. I went to bed on Monday night expecting to wake up at 4:30 to get ready to go to the hospital. At around 12:30, Jim woke me up because he was restless. I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn’t get comfortable. At around 1:15 or so, I felt this sudden pain in my stomach. I’d had a similar pain the night before– and figured it was the same thing. (Gas pain.) I got up and figured I’d try to take care of the situation. The pains would go away but come back just a few moments later. At around 1:45 I finally woke my mom up. I made the decision to head to the hospital cause the pains were getting worse and happening more often. I wanted to have the pain taken care of so when I was induced, I actually had the energy to push. I didn’t think they were contractions cause I’ve heard your entire stomach tightens up.. but my stomach wasn’t tightening. There was just this intense pain (like I had to poop!) We told Jim that we were going to head to the hospital and we’d call him when he needed to be there. Before we even left the house, I’d had 3 of these pains. In the 3 minute car ride there, I had another. As I was in the ER being admitted, I had another. By the time I was up in the labor and delivery room, I’d had 3 more. They were intensifying. I changed into the gown and got hooked up to the machine to monitor her heartrate and if I was having contractions. (This was at 2:39am) I had another pain and asked the nurse “So, whats going on here? Are these just gas pains?” The nurse told me what I was feeling were contractions. I had another contraction and she said she needed to check me. Before she could even get her hands in there, I had another.
After that pain, she went in to check me. She said “Amy, dont do this to me. Dont you do this to me!” I was confused and asked what. She said “I think you’re at a 7 right now. I have my fingers spread as far apart as I can.” I had my mom call Jim to have him get down there. The nurse turned her hand and all of a sudden there was a big gush of water and Leila crowned. The nurse had one hand down there and the other hand on the phone calling the ER staff. She yelled for another nurse to call my doctor to get him there immediately to deliver Leila. A minute later, the entire ER staff was there. Everyone was rushing around trying to get an IV in me (I was supposed to be on antibiotics for Leila because I had tested positive during my Group B strep test), get my bracelets on, get everything taken care of. I asked the ER doctor if I could have my epidural (fully knowing it was far to late for that.. but still.. I had to try!) He chuckled and told me it was too late for that. All of a sudden I felt the urge to push and so I told them that. They were like “You need to wait!” I still didn’t have the IV in me. I tried talking through the contractions I was having. I was apologizing to everyone. “I’m so sorry! I really want you to be able to get this IV in me. I’m so sorry doctor, I really think I need to push. I’m so sorry you cant get the bracelets on.” Finally I was like, I cant hold this anymore. I screamed out in pain and pushed. Leila’s head came out. More apologizing to the staff. “I’m so sorry, I wish I could wait. My husband isn’t even here yet!” I felt another urge and apologized to the doctor about the urge to push. They told me to go ahead and push. I did. She came right out. It was 2:59am. I got to see her for the first time and she was so beautiful. The doctor cut the cord and they took her over to the heater. My doctor walked in and his first words were “Aww man! I always get the after birth!” I told him, “Hey! You beat my husband!” He came and started to check me out and in walked Jim. My mom told him where his daughter was and he looked at me, then over to where she was and said “No shit?!” He walked over to her and said “Amy, she’s beautiful! She’s got your nose.. and red hair!” My doctor delivered the placenta and checked me out to see if I needed stitches. Apparently I had torn ever so slightly and he said it would hurt worse to stitch it up. Jim came over to me and asked how I was doing. I felt fine.
Honestly, labor was nothing like I expected. I’m sure if I had been in labor longer it would have been a lot different. The few contractions I had sucked. I felt like I was constipated and all I wanted to do was poop. The urge to push contractions were probably the worst. And even they weren’t too horrible. When she came out, it didn’t hurt. I actually said to everyone in the room “I thought they said this was the worst pain you’re ever supposed to feel?” Haha. The pain that I’d had in previous weeks in my groin hurt worse.. heck, I’ve had charlie horses that hurt worse! I’m sure I lucked out though.
Leila was 5 lbs, 12 oz and 18 1/4 inches long. She has a head full of red hair. Since I wasn’t technically able to do the antibiotics during labor, they had to test Leila for infection. The test came back positive so they started her on antibiotics. She also has jaundice. Her initial score was 11, and went up to 12 by the next day. She spent about 36 hours under the belly lights. When they redid the blood test for the infection, it came back negative so the doctor figured it was just a contaminate in the petri dish. And at that point, they checked her jaundice and it had gone down to a 9. We spent 3 full days in the hospital and we were finally released yesterday about noon.
Leila is amazing. I love her to pieces.
I asked the massage lady if she’d press any labor inducing pressure points she knew of, LOL! She did and she showed me a couple. But alas, no labor for me! 