Friday, May 11th... it was a toasty afternoon and I was getting showered and dressed to go to the grocery store when I noticed my vision was really blurry. It felt like when you walk into a dark room after being in the bright sun and there was a big half-circle in the right side of my vision that was all wiggly and I had a dull headache. My feet were also more swollen than their normal swollen state, so I was concerned that I might be developing pre-eclampsia. The vision disturbances could be from swelling in my brain so I called my doctor and they told me to go get checked out at the hospital. I checked in to labor and delivery for a "non stress test" at around 3:30 pm. My blood pressure was fine and there was no protein in my urine, so they were about to send me home, but since my doctor wasn't on call they decided to check my cervix before discharging me just to make sure. The nurse felt around and looked increasingly surprised. She said, "If I'm not mistaken, you are dilated to 6 or 7." I was absolutely baffled. How could that be possible? I was in no pain. My contractions had not been timeable or painful. By the time I was at 6 cm with Keira, I was asking for an epidural. Yet, here I was absolutely comfortable. She got another nurse to check me to be sure, and the second nurse confirmed that I was at least 6 cm. I asked if I was going home and they responded sarcastically that yes, I could go home and have my baby at home. They explained that pretty much all that was holding the baby back was my bag of water and that I was really lucky it didn't break at home or I might have had the baby in the car. At my last checkup, my doctor said my cervix was surprisingly soft. I'm guessing that's how I managed to be so far into labor without
knowing it. It was so soft, it just opened with no pain. Now I know how lucky I am that I had the headache and blurred vision that caused me to go to the hospital. God was definitely looking out for me.
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| Here I am dilated to 7 and totally pain free. |
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| 36 minutes before she was born. |
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| Art sleeping between my contractions. I had to hit him every couple minutes to wake up and hold my hand. |
They decided to monitor me for an hour and see if I was dilating any more on my own or if they needed to induce me. An hour later I was at 7 cm, so the doctor broke my water around 8:20 pm to go ahead and speed things up. My contractions started kicking in within about 15 minutes and quickly became very strong and painful. At this point, it was becoming more real that I was in fact in labor and having my baby. My contractions were coming in sets of twos every couple minutes. The nurse came in to see how I was doing at 10 pm and I asked her to check me and give me some good news, because I was in a significant amount of pain and trying to make it without medication. She checked and said that I was at 8 cm and that the baby's head was "well engaged" but not ready to come out yet. 20 minutes later, I felt her head drop into position and felt like I needed to push so I hollered for someone to get the nurse. She came running in just in time to urgently summon the doctor and catch the baby. I desperately shouted for some pain medication in those last moments, but they told me it was too late- she was already coming out.
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| Art cutting the umbilical cord. |
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| Holding my sweet girl for the first time. |
So, much to my disbelief I delivered my nearly 8 pound baby with no pain medication whatsoever. Looking back it makes me extra angry that it took them 5 tries to start an I.V. and I didn't even need it. I may have also set a record for making it to 7 cm without any pain or discomfort. After she was born, Art got to cut the umbilical cord and I got to hold my baby for the first time. Then they took her to clean her up while the doctor painfully fished out a piece of tissue that was stuck in my uterus and stitched up a tear. It would have been nice to have an epidural at that point so I didn't have to endure that pain. Liana LOVED her first bath. It totally relaxes her to have her hair washed. Then they put her on the warmer for a few minutes then back to mommy. She was so alert and trying to suck on my fingers, so I decided to nurse her and she latched on within a minute and nursed very well from the start.
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| Her first bath at the hospital. |
A couple hours later, they transferred us to another room and Art went home to get some sleep (since he was the only one who looked like he could possibly get any sleep) and my mom stayed with me overnight. She went home the next morning and Art came back. We were bummed because Keira wasn't able to come visit me at the hospital because of the flu-watch no children under 12 could come in. But when Dr. Jones came to examine Liana, he brought Keira back to our room for just a quick minute to see her sister saying, "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than get permission." Dr. Jones deemed Liana perfect, and we were able to go home around 12:30 that afternoon.
Keira instantly fell in love with her baby sister. She loves to kiss
her and "pet" her head and hold her. In fact, it's hard to get her to
leave her alone. It took a little convincing to get Keira to believe
that Sister was no longer in my belly. She had to conduct her own
investigation by pushing on my tummy and glancing back and forth between
me and Liana.
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| Her first bath at home. |
Liana is one week old now and doing fantastic. She had her checkup with Dr. Jones on Wednesday and she weighed 7 lb 1 oz, which the doctor says in bare minimum weight loss. This was excellent news to know that she is succeeding at breastfeeding since Keira wasn't able to breastfeed. We also learned that Liana has a big head like Keira- 95th percentile. Somehow I'm not surprised. Big heads seem to run in the family.
This week has gone relatively smoothly considering we are adjusting to having a newborn in the house. The biggest obstacles have been Keira acting up and the emotional rollercoaster of hormones I have been dealing with as is typical after delivery. Liana, however, has been a perfect baby. She eats well, she sleeps well, and is very content all the time. We are very grateful and blessed to have her in our lives.
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