Leah's Birth Story:
It all started Tuesday (Dec. 2) when I had a doctors appointment; he checked me and said I was dilated 3cm. After that appointment I had tons of contractions for the rest of that day and all day Wednesday. I worked Wednesday afternoon; which surprisingly not that many patients/family members/other staff asked me about being pregnant and how I was feeling. I think at this point I was just so pregnant and must have looked like I had just about had it no one dared asked how I was doing or was feeling. Overall though the shift went fine; I was contracting the entire shift just like I had been the last 2 days, but nothing painful or regular. I did think to myself though this was probably the start of the real thing.
39 weeks pregnant and off to work! Don't mess with me...
Wednesday night after work I slept amazing; first time in probably 6 weeks. I almost was bummed I slept so well, I was kind of hoping I would kick into real labor in the night. Woke up the Thursday morning and almost right away started noticing 'different' feeling contractions. These ones were more uncomfortable and far more regular. I would sit and time them for a period of time and they would be very regular, but then would taper off. I called Alec at work and gave him a heads up; I said I think it will be today but I don't know when... I also called my brother, Bryant, and gave him a heads up; he and his wife, Kaitlin, were our childcare for when we will have to go in to the hospital. All day it was on and off consistent contractions. Alec's sister, Lauren, came over and helped me clean and then took Brie to her house for a couple hours that afternoon. I was able to nap for a short period of time thankfully. After dinner I started timing contractions, and they were more painful than before and staying pretty consistent. We figured we were probably going to be going in sometime that night so started prepping. We put Brie to bed, showered, got some stuff together and then I decided I would sit down and time the contractions for 2 hours just to make sure. So I sat in the rocker from 8pm-10pm timing contractions. Alec sat with me and watched some TV. Finally at 10pm I called the on-call doctor, he said sounds like I am in labor and to head to OB triage. We called Bryant and Kaitlin next and had them head our way.
We left for the hospital around 11pm. I was so hoping to avoid an all night/over night labor but......oh well. No sleep here we come! From there it was pretty smooth sailing. Arrived to OB triage around 11:30pm, confirmed that I was indeed in labor and making progress, and then up to labor and delivery around 1am.
About to head to the hospital:
In OB triage, at this point I was terrified they were going to make me go home....
I got my epidural around 3am (way better experience than getting my epidural with Brie, and a way way better epidural this time around!) and they broke my water right after that. They did run pitocin for a short period of time to try and make the contractions I was having more intense; but that didn't really work so they turned it off after a couple hours. After they turned off the pitocin the nurse checked to see what progress I was making (6am). I was so surprised when she said the head was right there and I was complete at 10cm! She went and paged the doctor, who arrived 10min later. I pushed for 10min and there was Leah! Born at 6:20am!
9lb 6oz & 21.5in
Spectrum Health is considered 'baby friendly', apparently it is this new thing. This includes putting the baby right on mama's stomach after birth, then doing skin to skin for 1 hour before doing anything else with the baby, nursing within the first hour, and not sending the baby to the nursery at night (rooming in).
I loved doing skin to skin right away, I wasn't able to do that with Brie because she was having some heart tone issues towards the end of delivery
I cannot emphasize how much smoother this delivery was (especially the pushing!) than Brie's!! I pushed for almost 2hours with Brie.....it was brutal. This was easy! The epidural I had was perfect, I was pain free but could still feel pressure where to push and could even tell when I was having a contraction. Amen for modern medicine!
Everyone in the delivery room couldn't get enough of her cheeks and how much hair she has!
We just feel so so so blessed that she is here and healthy and doing well. We are all adjusting pretty well I'd say. She loves to eat (gotta maintain that 9lb figure!), loooooves to be held (especially at night), and is just so precious. We have been so blessed this past week with visitors, gifts, and food. It is such a different experience this time around living in Michigan near all the family; I absolutely love it.
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