Lilly's Birth Story

August 5, 2011 I was sitting in my father-in-laws truck and started to get some very hard contractions so I decided to go in to see my doctor. My doctor, Dr. Keorner (my doctor for only a day) checked my cervix and told me that I was already FOUR centimeters dilated and told me to go to the hospital. So I got addmitted to the hospital at 2:13pm. I then called Christopher and told him to come home because my doctor sent me to the hospital to have the baby. At the time, my contractions were about five minutes apart and they weren't really painful. I sat on the bed and watched TV while my parent-in-laws sat on the couch. We just talked about the baby who was being monitored and could hear her heart beat and kicks every time she would move because it would echo in the room. Christopher got to the hospital from work at around 5:00pm. From there it was just a waiting game. Christopher's mom and him stayed with me the entire time. At around 7:pm I started to get rally hungry because I hadn't eaten anything since around 11:ooam that day so I asked the nurse if I could eat something and she said that I was on a strict fluid-diet until I had the baby. So I finally got some jello at around 7:30pm while everyone else ate some nice fast-food. My doctor came in at around 8:30pm and checked my cervix again and to no avail it hadn't changed so he went home for the night. In the meantime, Christopher had fallen asleep and his mom and I stayed up chatting through my contractions. Throughout the night I had only gotten two really, REALLY painful contractions that lasted about two and a half to three minutes each that left me dizzy and weak. I then asked if I could take a bath at around 3 in the morning to relieve pressure. Once I got in the bath, I guess I slept for about an hour and a half because I woke up to a painful contraction. I got out and laid back on the bed. My mother-in-law was asleep now (and Christopher was still asleep. He didn't wake up ONCE throughout the night to help alleviate the pain of my contractions. I guess he figured that if he slept, the baby would come faster. HAHA! RIGHT.) After turning the TV back on for another hour I must have fallen asleep for the next two hours because when I got up, it was almost 6:00am. I had some more jello for breakfast, along with some chicken broth and some water and cranberry juice. My doctor came back in at 8:00am and checked my cervix again. It had gotten to a five!!! WOOT! so all the night gave me was one centimeter. Why was my body so eager to get to four centimeters and then stop?? It was so annoying because it was getting painful. My doctor decided to start me on some petocin (which is a drug that speeds up labor) through the IV. I could taste it when it started going. It was actually kinda painful in my arm. It was like a growing pain sensation but I lived through it because it only lasted about 30 minutes each time the dose was put in. Then, at around 9:00am, my contractions started to get worse so I asked for some pain medicine through my IV. They gave me some welbutrin.. I think that's what it was called. Anyway it helped relieve the pain for a while. (I could also taste this drug which was not a lovely flavor either.) Christopher then got up because he knew that It was all down-hill from then on. The doctor also broke my water which helped speed up the process faster. This went on till about 10:30am when the contractions started to get unbearable. The only thing that I remember next was that I told the nurse the I wanted an epidural and the anesthesiologist came in. At that point I was moaning and groaning so bad that Christopher's dad had to leave the room because he knew that it was getting close. For the epidural, I needed to sit up. It was pretty painful for me to sit up and I needed all the help that I could get to do so. After I got up I felt so weak. My wonderful husband got up and helped hold my into the correct position for the really big, thick needle to go into my spinal cord to numb my body. It took about five minutes from start to finish to get everything prepped, needle to go in and for the medicine to start taking effect. Let me tell you, an epidural it AMAZING!!! I'm not kidding. It's like... one of the best things that you could possibly get when you are in labor. (Christiana if you read this... DEFINITELY get one when you are in labor!!!!) Right after I finished getting my epidural I was told to lie on my back so that the medicine could take quicker effect. I was really doozie but the next thing that I knew the nurse was telling me to turn over onto my stomach and get on my hands and knees and put my butt up in the air because the baby's heart beat dropped to the point that it couldn't be read by the fetal-monitor. They had me roll from side to side to try to get my baby to move and raise her heartbeat. This only lasted for about a minute because the monitor finally picked up Lilly's heartbeat again. She ended up just kicking it off so that's why they couldn't get a reading from her. While my butt was up in the air though, the doctor came in and the honest to gosh only thing that I remember him saying was, "I can't check her cervix when her butt is up in the air like that." I think my face would have turned bright red if it could have, but because of the wonderful drugs I was quite out of it at that point. I laid back down and the doc checked my cervix and announced that I was completely dilated (to a ten) and that she was 100% effaced. This meant that it was time for pushing!!!!
My butt was scooted to the very edge of the bed and my legs were held up on my left side by Christopher and by my right side, by my mother in law. I was told to push with each contraction for starters. I knew she was coming because I could feel a lot of pressure. It felt a lot better when I was allowed to push with each contraction because a contraction is the body's natural way of pushing the baby out. I wish my mother in law would have taken a picture of me pushing, but I probably would have gotten mad. Before I went into labor, I had prepared Christopher to hold my hand and love on me by rubbing my head or pushing the hair off my face or rubbing my arm. It was a totally different experience when I was in labor!! I did NOT want to be touched at all! I don't know why, but I just didn't want to be touched other than the help of each person on my legs. As I was pushing all I could think about was how much I wanted this big, giant poop to come out of my vagina! When Lilly was finally crowning my doctor said that I was going to tear and that I needed an episiotomy (spelling.. I know it's wrong). The next thing I knew he clipped me from the bottom of my vagina down through my butt-hole!! It hurt so bad that Christopher said that I have never screamed any louder. After a few more very hard pushes, Lilly's head popped out! I pushed one more time and I felt the pull of her body being twisted out of my body and the big RELIEF that I had finally gotten what felt like the biggest poop out of me that I could have ever imagined! They put her on my stomach and I immediately started to cry tears of joy. She was only on me for a second because she was four weeks early so they had to make sure everything was ok. As far as I could see, she was perfect!!! Ten toes and Ten fingers. All her limbs were there and she had a FULL head of red curly hair! I kissed Christopher and thanked my mother in law for helping me out. After the doctor stitched up my episiotomy and the room was cleaned up and clear, I passed out for about a half an hour which was probably the best nap that I had ever gotten. After about two hours, the nurse brought in Lillian and I saw my daughter for real and up close for the first time and I fell in love. :-) She was born August 6, 2011. She weighed 6 lbs, 7 oz and was 17 1/2 inches long!!!