LillyAnne's Birth Story

I had gestational diabetes with LillyAnne. Because of that my doctor, Dr. Vance, wanted me to be induced at 39 weeks. When you have ges. diabetes you run a risk of having really fat babies so that increases your risk of a c-section. I had an ultrasound of LillyAnne 10 days before I had her and they said she was 8 lbs. 4 oz. They said that she would probably be about eight and a half to nine pounds. They were WAY off. She wasn't even big.

I was supposed to be induced on St. Patricks Day, March 17th. They told us to call at 4:30am (we had to be there at 5:00) to make sure they had enough room for us. We woke up, although I hadn't really slept AT ALL because of my excitement. And they didn't have room for us. Somehow I knew they wouldn't. I just had a feeling. But I was still really disappointed. I was so ready to meet my new daughter.

So March 17th was a very anti-climatic day. We dressed in green, got shamrock shakes from McDonald's (disgusting) and went to the library and the park. It was nice....but not quite what I had in mind.

The next day was it!!! We woke up (no sleep AGAIN), called the hospital (they said to come on in), got ready and went in. I was so excited. Heath's mother came over to stay with the children until his sister got here around 10:00am to take over. She spent the night here with them.

When I got to the hospital a nurse started to give me an IV. I have really good veins. All nurses say so....every time....they talk about how easy it is to hit my veins and tell me I'm so lucky to have such wonderful easy to hit veins.

This nurse missed my vein.

She had to do it again. I was mad. How could she miss my amazing vein?? She must have been a sorry excuse for a nurse I guess. Heath gets nauseous when he is stressed out. When she missed the vein he got stressed out. He turned all pale and I thought he was going to start throwing up in my labor and delivery room. Weird since it was MY arm that was being mutilated but oh well. They started the pitocin drip and I started having contractions about an hour later. It was 10:00am by this time.

I was having PAINLESS CONTRACTIONS.

Yep, you read that right. I couldn't even tell when I was having them. I have heard people talk about this before but I have always assumed they were telling a bald faced lie. There was no such thing as "painless labor". My friend Lisa lent me a book about how to have painless childbirth and I read it and thought it was a bunch of bunk. But I had decided I was going to go all natural anyway. Well, as far as all natural you can go when you are being induced. All natural with pitocin and ivs and monitors.....so, only no pain meds...you get the picture. I couldn't BELIEVE it. My contractions started about 10:00 and went on all day long. Big painless contractions. I could see them on the monitor so I knew they were big. They looked like mountains. But if Heath didn't tell me I was having one (he could see the monitor and I couldn't without craning my neck around) I didn't even know I was having one. It was AWESOME! I took naps and ate snacks (I had to sneak that part), visited with Heath, dilated very slowly and steadily and went to the bathroom every 15 minutes...ALL DAY LONG. At noon I was 4 cm. The Dr. came in and talked to me about breaking my water. My past experience is that when the water gets broken it really hurts so I asked him if we could just leave it alone. He said that was fine by him. He said there was no need to fix what wasn't broken and he would just come back in later and to call him if we needed him.

Boy, when he said later...he meant later. We didn't see him again until 6:30, after he was done for the day in the office. I had only dilated to a six and a half. Still no pain but I was getting tired of it all and VERY hungry. I told him I was ready to break my water. He was ready too. It took several tries for him to break my water. He said that was strange. He said it was a very strong bag of water. I thought it was DISGUSTING. I hate that part. He talked about putting a internal monitor on LillyAnne. I didn't want to do that. I don't want anything screwed to my babies heads. He said they might have to because she was moving around too much and wouldn't stay on the monitor. She had been moving all day (and the entire pregnancy) and they said it didn't matter before my water was broken but that once my water was broken they wanted to be able to keep an eye on her. Finally he broke my water.

Then it HURT....REALLY BAD.

Remember how I said I didn't want any pain medication? Well after 2 contractions I was asking for an epidural. My hands were shaking, my teeth were chattering and I was miserable. They called the anesthesiologist and it took 40 minutes for him to get there. A very miserable 40 minutes.

I got my epidural and it worked WONDERFULLY. HOORAY!!! I was back to painless labor! I couldn't feel a thing. Although my teeth were chattering uncontrollably and my hands were shaking like crazy. I had never had that happen before. Everyone assured me it was completely normal for laboring women and they said the epidural just added to that. Weird. The nurses were now insisting on that internal monitor and the doctor said he would check me to see how far along I was before he left. He checked me and he looked surprised. He said, "She's 100%." I responded brilliantly and said, "What does that mean?" He said, "You are ready to push." I said, "Now??? Already???" He said, "Yes." I said, "Whoa." So push I did. I'm a good pusher. They always tell me that. I still couldn't feel my contractions so they had to tell me when to push. After my 2nd push I had to blow my nose. I had been sick with a cold. I started to blow my nose and the Dr. said, "This is going to be the first baby every born by a woman blowing her nose." I thought he was joking. Heath said something about it then and I said, "ARE YOU SERIOUS??? I thought you were joking!" Heath said she came down about half an inch every time I would blow my nose! Then she was born.

Healthy, beautiful and perfect. They put her straight on my stomach and I cried. But I hid my tears because I didn't want to seem too mushy. She was born at 9:49pm (my longest labor ever) and weighed 7 lbs. and 4 oz. and was 20 inches long.

I am sooooooo thankful for her. She is the perfect addition to our family.