Seeing as how Liam's was about two sentences long, I've never really written a birth story before. I can still remember every single thing about his birth though because it was so calm and planned out. This birth was SO different from Liam's and has so many more details I don't want to forget. So I'm just going to start from the beginning and write.
*Well I wrote. And it's long. Sorry!*
Liesl's birth was really long and really short at the same time.
If you count from early labor on - it was 40 hours.
If you count from active labor on - it was 10 hours.
I like the second number much better, but for the sake of documenting, we'll start from early labor. Actually the day before.
Wednesday, Sep. 11th
I had my 40 week check up. I was 40 weeks and 3 days. My doctor checked me for the first time and I was 1-2 cm dilated. That was discouraging because I wanted so badly to go into labor on my own and avoid an induction, and that number seemed so far away from that goal to me. He went ahead and stripped my membranes (NOT as bad as I had been mentally preparing for!) and told me I would probably go into labor sometime in the next 4-48 hours.
Thursday, Sep. 12th
Since my appointment I had been having inconsistent contractions and was excited Thursday night when they started becoming more regular! They just felt like cramping and were totally manageable. We started timing them around 9pm and they were 10-12 minutes apart. This was the start of early labor. I knew early labor could last a long time, so we just hung out at home and eventually went to bed. I was able to sleep but every time I woke up I would have one or two. The other times I thought I was having real contractions they would completely go away after I slept, so I was excited they were sticking around!
Friday, Sep. 13th
Friday morning I woke up and they started getting closer together, like 8-9 minutes apart. They weren't intensifying in pain though so I didn't know what to do. Will stayed home from work because we knew this was the real deal we just didn't know when it would become really real. Every once in a while I would get a string of 5-7 minute apart contractions which started to worry us because we live over an hour away from the hospital. But still they weren't getting any more painful, so I was hesitant to go in. Eventually Will and my mom talked me into it, so we dropped Liam off with Will's mom and headed toward the hospital.
We checked in around noon, and I was 3 cm! I was excited to be making progress on my own! My doctor ordered me to walk for an hour so walk we did. The hospital has this sky bridge that connects the main hospital to the women's center. We walked that thing for the entire hour and logged over 2.5 miles! After that I was checked again but had only progressed to an almost 4. Boo.
The nurse said I could stay if I wanted, but that I would probably be more comfortable going home and getting to eat and rest before the big show. She told me things were really happening though and she had a feeling I would be back tomorrow! So we left and headed straight to Chick-fil-a and then to my parent's house. My parents live about 20 minutes away from the hospital as opposed to our hour, so we decided to spend the night there just in case. I'm so glad we did!
Friday night my contractions were not getting much worse or closer together, and I started getting pretty bummed. My family distracted me with mexican food and dominoes, and we eventually went to bed around 11pm.
Saturday, Sep. 14th
I woke up around 3:30am with contractions. I laid in bed trying to decided if they were worth timing because at this point I wasn't sure this baby was EVER going to come out.
At 4 I noticed they were getting more painful because I was having to really concentrate and breathe through them. (Cue active labor! Less than 10 hours until she's here!) I decided to start timing and they were 5 minutes apart. I did this on my own until about 5am I finally woke up Will and told him I think this is it. I was in real pain now and started to get nervous, so I did what any sane person would do and went into denial. I didn't want to go back to the hospital just to be told to go home again, so I refused to take a shower, refused to pack my bags, etc. I just laid in bed while Will and my mom rushed around loading the car and telling me to get up! I managed to brush my teeth, but I ended up going to the hospital with day-old hair and my glasses on which is NOT how I had planned it, haha. I guess that should have been my first clue that I really was in labor! We left my parent's house about 6:15, made it to the hospital, checked in, and got into our room at 7am.
We were sent to room 3. I was checked and at a 5! I got to stay, hooray! At this point it was just me and Will in the room. My mom was on her way a little behind us and said she would wait in the waiting room until we knew what was going to happen. I still feel bad about this, but things started happening so fast that we didn't see her again for a couple hours! The nurse then started asking us all the hospital questions and tried to get some bloodwork done and an iv started. My small crooked veins weren't cooperating and after three blown veins, she left to find smaller needles. While she was gone, at 7:45, I looked at Will and said, "I think I'm leaking."
A few minutes later the nurse came back and my doctor showed up shortly after and confirmed my water had broke! It was such a crazy feeling and definitely not like in the movies. But also not like I thought I was peeing myself or anything. There's a difference! Before my water broke my contractions were painful, but I was able to get through them with lots of deep breaths. After my water broke it was a different story. They got hard, fast! The pain moved to my back as well as my stomach and I was gripping poor Will's hand and the side of the bed and breathing deep/moaning through each of them. At this point also they were coming 2-3 minutes apart, so I was not getting to rest much in between.
When my doctor had come in he didn't like the room I was in (it was an older room in the non-renovated area) so he had me switch to a nicer room, room 10. The same room I was in the day before! I also have to add that at some point while we were still in room 3, my nurse Elizabeth from the day before came in to say hi and got all excited that I was already back! It was so sweet, we seriously had the best nurses the whole time.
They got me wheeled to my new room, and my doctor had gone ahead an ordered my epidural after he saw me and saw that my water had broke. He knew I wanted one from previous conversations. Bless him for doing that too because the anesthesiologist was just about to go back for a c-section and would have been gone for an hour, but instead he came to me first! The epidural was...weird. I know a lot of people say they don't even feel it, but I did. It was nothing like contractions and I would have much rather had it done than not, but it was not pleasant. Just being real! I also got the shakes really bad afterwards, but was finally pain free...for a while. I got the epidural sometime around 9:45 and then my mom finally came back at 10am.
Between 10 and 11 there were some issues with my epidural. The box that pumped the medicine to me wasn't working, and like I mentioned before the anesthesiologist went straight into a c-section. Well during that time the initial dose he gave me wore off, and I started slowly feeling everything again. NOT fun. The pressure was SO intense and at one point I'm pretty sure I said something to Will along the lines of, "Ok, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore. Let's go!" So very rational of me, I know. Eventually the anesthesiologist came back with a new box and got it all sorted out. I also had to be sat straight up to get it to even out, so for the next hour or so I was sitting up on my "throne" we called it, haha.
At 11am my nurse checked me, and I was at an 8! I hadn't been checked since I was 5cm at 7am that morning and they say you usually progress about a centimeter an hour, so I'm guessing I went to probably a 7 on my own before I got the epidural.
My doctor came in at 11:55am and I was 9.5! He told me to relax and he would be back in an hour to start pushing. I couldn't believe it was really happening and my body had done it all on it's own! And so fast! At this point I was really missing Liam and wanted to see him before I had Liesl. Will's parents still had him, and the last time we talked to them they were grabbing some lunch and then heading to the hospital. Will called to tell them things were moving quickly and to get Liam up here now. He left the room to meet them in the lobby while my mom and I just hung out. A few minutes later Will showed back up without Liam. There is another hospital close by and his parents had accidentally gone to the wrong one! My hormones almost got the best of me at that point because I was already nervous about pushing and not getting to see Liam before just about pushed me over the edge. However, Will's parents are amazing and managed to get to the hospital with literally ten minutes to spare. Will ran to get Liam from the drive-thru entrance and brought him back to me before his parents had even parked! I was so happy to see him! I got to hug him and kiss him and tell him he was finally going to get to meet "Baby Yeedul" very soon!
At 12:45ish my mom took Liam out to the waiting room. Will and I hung out for a few minutes by ourselves before my doctor, my nurse, and 2 other nurses came in to get started! My doctor explained to me how to push and then my fabulous nurse Marsha would tell me when. Will thought he was just going to be there for "moral support," but then my doctor informed him he would actually be holding my leg and helping deliver this baby! I pushed three times during each contraction and the nurses would count to ten for me during them. Will was a great coach and was telling me how good I was doing after each one. I think I pushed through 3 or 4 contractions when I heard my doctor ask the nurse about Liesl's heart decelerations. That freaked me out. He told me not to listen to him, that it was just doctor talk, but I knew what that meant. They put an oxygen mask on me in between contractions and I pushed as hard as I could through a few more. I could feel her really low, but she wasn't coming out. He ended up using forceps to help her come down. That made me feel bad because I didn't want her to get cuts or bruises from the forceps, and I felt like it was because I wasn't doing enough, but it turns out he just used the forceps to help open me up and didn't actually pull her out with them at all. After one contraction with the forceps her head was right there and they told me to touch it. It felt so weird! Then they brought over a mirror for me to see her, but that didn't last long because I didn't want Will to see and my doctor could tell it kind of grossed me out too, haha. It took one more contraction to get her head out and then she came the rest of the way on her own at 1:25 pm! I fully expected to be pushing for an hour or two since it was my first time, but she was out in less than half an hour!
I watched my doctor suction her out, and after she gave a good cry Will got to cut the cord. I was really happy when he did that because that was something I felt really guilty about that he didn't get to do with Liam. Then they placed her squishy little purple self on my chest! I remember being in awe of what just happened, and I kept saying, "Oh my gosh, she's so cute!" They took her from me for just a minute to clean her, weigh and measure her, and then they gave her right back with a healthy score of 9/10! I got to hold her and nurse her the whole time my doctor worked on me which felt like forever. I ended up with a 2nd degree tear and some bruising from the forceps, but thankfully Liesl walked away totally free of any battle wounds!
There's a lot more from our hospital stay that I want to document, but I think I'll stop here because this is turning into a novel! Thank you all for your congratulations; we are over the moon in love with sweet baby Liesl and her amazing big brother!
