Sunday, May 4, 2008

Baby Lockie Has Arrived!!! - July 16, 2007

Leah Miriam was born on Monday, July 16, 2007, her due date!!! She arrived at 9:28 pm, weighed a whopping 9 lbs 12 oz, and measured 21 1/4 inches long. She is one BIG baby :)
My water broke at 5:45am, but it just trickled here and there for over 12 hours. I started having mild contractions around 11am, but they never really picked up. I called the doctor's office around 2pm to see what they wanted me to do since I tested positive for group B strep [the baby can get infected if the amniotic sac is ruptured for a prolonged period of time.]. Dr. B wanted me to get checked at the hospital by 6pm.
We arrived at the hospital at 6pm, and the nurse confirmed that my water had broken, BUT it was just the fore waters. There was still a bulging bag in there. My IV antibiotics started around 6:30, and Dr B arrived at 7pm to break my water. He gave me until 8pm to make some good progress or pitocin would be started.
At 8pm the nurse started the pitocin to increase my contractions even though I'd progressed from 2 cm to almost 5 cm. At that point my contractions were about 5 min apart and quite manageable with my hypnosis. Very quickly the contractions were 2 min apart and getting stronger. I was unable to keep my focus on relaxing at this point. Sometime around 9pm I decided I couldn't do it on my own and asked for an epidural. The nurse called Dr B and the anesthesiologist (who was NOT at the hospital!!!) because she was pretty sure baby was coming quickly. I had Pete help me focus on my hypnosis even though I'd never had him practice with me. That helped a LOT!! He was a great birth partner :) As the tech was setting up for the delivery, I suddenly moaned "PUSHING! I'M PUSHING!!". The response was "DON'T PUSH!!" Ha ha, like I could help it. I was able to gain some control and I "ahhhhed" and moaned to keep from pushing. The nurse looked down, smiled and said "I see LOTS of dark hair". Dr B walked in and I was given the okay to push. She came out quite quickly! One push for the head, a couple for the shoulders, and another for the body. I was totally out of control!!
Pete announced, "I think it's a girl". I responded, "Leah, she's Leah!!" I cut the cord, though at that point I really didn't care. The nurses kept commenting on how chubby she was! My babies have always been small, so that was kind of weird. I did end up with a 2nd degree tear, and getting stitched wasn't too fun.
She nursed like a champ, thank goodness, so that shouldn't be an issue.
I got my natural childbirth even though at the end I really didn't want it anymore!!! I was glad to have some excellent coping tools (HypnoBabies hypnosis) to fall back on.
We are so proud of our newest edition!!!!

0 comments: