Lily's Birthday Story

It has taken me awhile to post, I am amazed at how busy a little baby can keep you. She is the sweetest thing, but demands all of my time...and now that she's napping I'd like to tell you a little bit about her birthday. On August 25th at 11:30pm as Eric and I were settling in for bed, my water broke. I felt a big kick and then all of a sudden as I sat up a gush of 'water' and I knew what it was. I said the infamous, "honey, I think my water just broke" and thus it began. I didn't feel any contractions right away which worried me a bit. I kept thinking, does my body know how to go into labor? Why don't I feel anything. I was worried because once your water breaks you have somewhat of a limited time to have your baby. Though I found out later that your body continues to resupply the water that the baby needs. Anyhow, we called the doc and our doula, and both said to try to get rest or go for a walk to get things started. We tried to sleep but we were way too anxious and excited. So at 1am Eric and I took a walk around our apartment complex and the contractions started. We didn't know then that we were in for a long haul and probably should've kept trying to sleep. So my contractions started at 5 minutes apart which is when all the books say you should go to the hospital. They weren't too intense yet. Then they were 3 1/2 minutes apart and lasting fairly long. Eric was keeping track, I was just trying to focus on what I was feeling. We went to the hospital at 3:45am. We called in the troops...our doula, my sister and my mom. We also called the Weigands and Konyas to pray for us. We arrived at the hospital and I went into triage where they monitored me and the baby and checked to see how far along I was. I was not very far, only 4 cm dialated...but since my water broke they wouldn't send me home as it was obvious I'd go into labor soon. It wasn't long after that labor got more intense. I paced the hospital hallways, I tried to relax during the contractions which is really hard to do, and did everything I could to focus on what was happening. Things were moving slowly though. And even though I was in active labor for a long time, our little baby wasn't progressing as much as we'd hoped. Though she and I were both still healthy and fine. We were there through many nurse shift changes and our doctor checked in on me periodically. Eric was an awesome coach, he was really calm. And my mom and sister were great too. Each contraction would take it's toll, and I've never done something where I had to use all of my mind, body, and heart to get through a situation. Not like this. It is an all encompassing experience. It was hard. It wasn't until late afternoon on Friday that I went through transition...where I progress from 7 to 10 centimeters. This is also the hardest part of labor. However it also means you are closer to the end. When I thought it was time, which I'm not exactly sure if it was, I started to push. I was using all the strength I had left, and with no sleep I was nodding off during each contraction. But they weren't coming often enough...and so they had to give me pitocin to speed things up...everyone was afraid that I would be too tired to keep going... so after 19 hours of labor, our little girl was brought into the world. It was the most amazing moment. To actually see this little baby who'd been inside me all this time. Her eyes were wide open and alert, and she nestled into me right away...and she turned her head when she heard mine or Eric's voice. We fell in love. We couldn't believe she was here...all 6 pounds and 14 ounces of her. We could see right away she had her daddy's long legs and dimpled chin. My nose and my eyes. And the room was filled with tears, relief, joy and excitement. Lily Joy was born on 8.26.06 at 7:26pm. After that she was bathed and bundled up for us to hold to our hearts content. I was attended to by the nurses and we were moved into the recovery room...our little family. We spent the next day and night in the hospital, figuring how to take care of Lily. She slept most of the time, I learned how to nurse, Eric learned how to change and swaddle her...and on Monday night we brought her home.