Lily's Birth Story

I've been MIA, taking a break from my computer since I had Lily. It's been nice, but now everyone is poking me for pics and the story and all that. But, I finally did it today. So, here is the story and some pics for all of you. Enjoy!

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Let me preface this by saying if I didn’t have to go through pregnancy and all I had to do was go through labor and delivery, I would be a surrogate. It was…well…can you say “fantastic” when you’re talking about pushing a watermelon out of your hoo hoo? Because it was. I’m sure I’m one of the lucky few.
I started getting contractions around 3:30am on March 3rd- a week before my due date. I had been having contractions on and off for days, so I wasn’t too alarmed. I went back to sleep and then woke up again around 5:30, still having contractions. I started timing them, just to see if they were consistent. 19 minutes, 7 minutes, 13 minutes. Oook. So, I went back to bed again. I woke up again around 8 and they were still happening, but they were about every 9 -15 minutes and they weren’t horribly strong. I had tested positive for strep, so I knew the doc wanted me in as soon as my water broke or if my contractions were 5 minutes apart for an hour. I went in to the bathroom and I was beyond relieved when I realized that I was losing my plug. With Ava, I lost my plug and 2 weeks later I had her. But still, it meant that there was an end in sight and that my contractions were actually doing something.
So, Todd and I started getting things ready, started packing and letting a select few know what was going on. I didn’t want to call everyone and be the woman who cried labor…again.
Around 10am, I decided to call the doc. I had my 39 week appointment at 11:30 and I wanted them to know that I was having contractions, but that they weren’t consistent or strong. At this point, they were still 9-15min apart and they hurt, but they weren’t mind numbing and they didn’t take my breath away. I could still talk through them. The nurse on the phone chatted with the doc for a minute and then came back and said to go to the hospital. I told her “Ok, but I just want you guys to know, I don’t dilate really fast.” She said to come in anyway, just in case. I just did not want to go home after going in to the hospital. I’ve done that before and I didn’t want the humiliation again.
Todd and I finished packing, we got ourselves and Ava ready, we dropped Ava off at a friend’s house. We went to the store (he went in, I stayed in the car), we stopped at Borders for a couple books, we went to Quiznos to get some food. And THEN we started driving to the hospital. We were taking our time, just to let the contractions do more, and because we were both nervous that this wasn’t it. We got a call from the hospital at that point, when we were about 2 minutes away. “Christina? Where are you? Are you still coming in? We’re all ready for you!” Heh…oops. My sister is a labor and delivery nurse and she used to work at this hospital. I guess she had called the hospital letting them know I was on my way in. And they didn’t really have any more patients, so they were ready for me. I let them know we’d be right there.
When I finally got in and was ready, the nurse came in and checked me. She said I was about 3-4cm. I told her I loved her. Todd laughed and said “You could wait to tell her that after she was done checking you!” Dr Brusca came in to say hi, and we chatted for a bit and they hooked me up with some antibiotics for the strep. The hospital has a very strict policy on who is allowed into the room on L&D. Only two adults, including the spouse are allowed during delivery. With Ava, I had Todd, my mom, and my sister, Cheryl in the room. Because she worked there at the time, they were a little more lenient with letting Cheryl in the room. She couldn’t be my nurse, but she could be in the room. I wanted that again. Dr Brusca knew my sister (as everyone did- she was well known and well loved at that hospital) and so I, being a little sneaky, asked the nurse with the doc in the room if it was possible to have Cheryl in the room as well as my mom and Todd. She started to shake her head and said “I don’t think it’s possible, you’re only allowed two people in the room.” But Dr Brusca was behind her nodding his head and he winked at me and said “Oh, I don’t have a problem with it. We’ll see what we can do for you.” Oh yea, I rock.
About an hour after they checked me the first time, the doc checked me again and said I was at a 6. He said “Well, if you want that epidural, I would start thinking about it now.” My contractions weren’t hurting that bad. I gave serious thought to not getting the epidural. The thought lasted about 30 seconds. I remembered that I had been in pain with SPD for about 7 months. It was about time to not have pain. Now, with Ava, getting the epidural was awful. It was the worst experience out of the whole thing. I had been stuck like 7 times, and the anesthesiologist didn’t even get it in all the way. So, the epidural was basically just pooling into my lower extremities. I couldn’t move my legs at all and the epi site was killing me. They actually had to give me a local anesthetic just so I wouldn’t feel the epidural. So, needless to say, I wasn’t looking forward to getting the epidural. Well, this anesthesiologist was awesome. It took about 5 minutes total and I only felt a pin prick of the initial local. After he was done, he and the nurse laid me down on my back. I was feeling so good. No pain. I just really, really felt fantastic. I started to fall asleep because I felt so wonderful. I told them “I’m just going to take a nap.” I closed my eyes and let everything fade away. I let out a deep breath and I was so relaxed that I didn’t have the energy to take another breath. I started to wonder why the nurse and the doc seemed panicky. I didn’t really care though, because I was in euphoria. Then I thought “I wonder why I don’t hear Lily’s heartbeat anymore.” I thought about it for a second and then I realized it was probably because I wasn’t breathing. That’s when the nurse put an oxygen mask on my face and started to turn me on my side. It all clicked for me and I woke up and took a deep breath in. I had completely vageled out because I was on my back and Lily was resting on my abdominal aortic artery and was cutting off blood supply. No more lying on my back!
After that, everything seemed to go pretty well. They checked me again shortly after the epidural and I was already at 8! Unfortunately, I stayed at 8 for about 5 hours or so. My sister kept turning me on either side to try to get things moving. It seemed I wasn’t going anywhere. So, they gave me pitocin to speed up the process. At one point, my step-father in law came in to see how I was doing, which I thought was very nice. My mom and my sister and Todd were all in the room too and we were all talking. I was sitting up at the time because I was tired of lying down. I was staring at my sister and she was talking to my mom and I just felt funny. I said “Um…I think I’m passing out again.” She took one look at me and said “Yep, I think so too!” and jumped up to lay me back on my side again. Apparently I was white as my sheets. So, she got me on my side, and I noticed my step-father in law had moved back against the wall to get out of the way and I was facing him. That’s when I realized I was going to throw up. And I did. Just a tip: when they tell you not to eat before you come in, it’s for a reason. Like 5 or 6 of those little (why are they so little?) puke bins later, I realized I had just puked the entire contents of my stomach in front of my father in law. Awesome.
I guess throwing up during labor means that the baby is on its way out and I was told several times that it was a good thing. They checked me again about a half hour after that and I had just the anterior lip. They got that out of the way and then as the nurse went to go get the doc, my sister said “Lets do some practice pushes!” Ok. So she had one leg, and Todd had the other and I “practiced” pushing. By the time the doc got there, the room had exploded in blue paper and lights and machines and people. She was already crowning. I concentrated on the little wallet sized picture of Ava on the TV in my room with every push. I gave it my all. They wanted 10 seconds each push, I gave them 12. I know now that the epidural was not working when I was giving birth to Ava. Because with this one, I didn’t feel pain. I felt everything and I could do everything, but I felt no pain. I just felt the need to push. I was able to be calm and concentrate and I had no problems. It was, in a word, easy. After 10 minutes of pushing, she was out. Just like with Ava, no crying at first. I looked at Todd and he looked concerned. Just like with Ava. He said “Exactly the same as with Ava.” Meaning, the cord was wrapped around her neck. But again, just as with Ava, there was so much slack it went around her arm and her torso as well. She was blue though. They got her loose and she started crying. I love that sound! Todd cut the cord and they handed her to me. I cuddled with her for a minute and they took her away to stimulate her a little bit and do all their tests. Meanwhile, I delivered the placenta and then Dr Brusca said “Hey, who delivered your other daughter?” I told him Dr Mar, one of the other doctors in the practice. “Did you have any stitches then?” I said “No episiotomy but I did have two stitches.” He said jokingly “See? I’m better than him! No stitches!” Thank God for that!
So after everything was said and done, Lily was born and she was perfect. She latched on immediately when I started to breastfeed her. It took a while with Ava- like a week or two before things worked with Ava. So, that was nice. Ava got to meet her new sister. At first, she wasn’t too sure about her. She didn’t want to kiss her and she kept away for a few minutes. Then she warmed up and held her and gave her kisses. She’s a great big sister and she helps me out so much! I’m so proud of her!
Unfortunately, when they brought Lily in to me Thursday morning (I had her on Tuesday), she was a little yellow. Apparently, her biliruben levels were slightly elevated. She was extremely lethargic. They put her under the biliruben lights for the whole day. Poor thing. But she seemed to enjoy it. She got to sleep and get a tan. So we tried to keep upbeat about it. As a nod to my sister, Jessica, we drew little eyes on Lily’s mask. (Jessica had eye surgery when she was little and Cheryl used to draw eyes on her eye patch.) But, I was just upset because I wanted to hold her. It was hard, because I had to feed her a lot (the toxins are released in their poop, so you have to feed them a lot), and because she was so lethargic, I had to stimulate her to get her to eat. That meant flicking her foot, rubbing her shoulder hard, sternum rubbing, cold wet washcloths. It was hard and heartbreaking. Because of insurance, they had to discharge me that night, but they were awesome and they let me “nest” overnight. Meaning, they let me stay in the room while she was under the lights overnight so I didn’t have to go home without her. The next morning, she tested fine and they let us go home!
So, all in all, it was a great experience! Lily is doing great now. She seems to be constantly making room for more food. We’ve had a couple hard nights, but she’s been very good overall. Ava is a great big sister and a great help. We’re all doing well and so far, I’m taking life with two daughters pretty well! So, that’s the story!

And some pics for you:

Hospital Pics
My pics