I had a very long and tiring labor. We headed to the hospital on the 18th, but Lucy wasn't born until the 20th. I labored for 3 days, and although it was an emotional and stressful few days, I wouldn't change a thing!
On Tuesday, January 18th Jay and I were laying in bed watching the movie Inception when my water broke around 9:15 pm. Even though it was obviously coming, we were shocked! We both looked at each other thinking, "what do we do now??!" I was planning on laboring at home as much as I could before heading to the hospital, but things weren't panning out like we thought they would. Instead of my contractions picking up, they sort of stalled out. I had been having them for weeks prior, so I was surprised that they were not progressing. I could tell Jay was nervous, because he was scurrying around the house trying to keep busy, but would come check on me every few minutes to see how I was feeling. I was actually very calm. We cleaned up Lucy's nursery, picked up around the house, made some food for the hospital, and changed our sheets. We sat on the edge of our bed together and prayed for Lucy, and then finally we reluctantly headed to the hospital to meet my Mom around midnight.
I was checked for progress a few hours after being admitted (they wouldn't let me leave since my water had broken) and I was disappointed to hear I was only dilated to 1 cm. 2 weeks prior at my doctor appointment I was already at 1 cm, and although I was progressing in other ways (her head was engaged and I was 50% effaced) I still felt disappointed. Right away they wanted to start pitocin to speed things up, but we declined. I really wanted to experience a natural labor and not have to medicate myself and potentially harm Lucy. So we continued laboring naturally. I labored through the night Tuesday with no sleep, and all day Wednesday. By Wednesday night they were concerned that it had been 24 hours since my water broke and they were pushing the pitocin again. At that point I hadn't slept in 2 days and had not had much to eat. My doctor said we needed to do something to get things going soon if I wasn't progressing on my own. She offered to give me the night to rest and hopefully progress naturally, or else Thursday morning we would need to intervene for the health of Lucy. We agreed, and we prayed that my body would cooperate through the night.
So I labored through the night Wednesday and contractions became stronger and closer together. By 5 am they checked me and I was only dilated to 2.5 cm. I was devastated! I was 90% effaced but was just not progressing quickly enough on my own. I was handling contractions great and labor was not as bad as I expected, but it wasn't quick enough and they were worried about the risk of infection since my water had broken 3 days prior. I had labored for 2.5 days on my own and was just not progressing enough. So Thursday morning I ran out of options-I had to get pitocin to move things along. Once I started the pitocin labor was complete hell! It was so painful and the contractions were so strong and so close together, and I could feel Lucy squirming around in my belly and I knew she was uncomfortable, it was awful. I labored through 4 hours of pitocin contractions until I thought I was going to die, and I finally got an epidural around 9am. After the epidural life was amazing! I could not feel anything and I progressed very quickly. By 1pm I was 10 cm and started pushing at 1:30, and she was born at 3:03 pm. My mom, sister, and Jay were all there in the delivery room helping me push and encouraging me. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever experienced, and so different than I thought it would be. I was very quiet and calm through the entire experience. I could not wait to meet my baby.
I felt like I had pushed for 5 minutes and then she was born. They placed her on my chest and she looked up at her mama with her beautiful tiny little eyes and we just stared at each other. She didn't cry. She was perfect. She reached out and grabbed my finger and held on for dear life. I looked at Jay and we cried like babies. I just kept saying she is so beautiful, and he kissed me and told me she looked just like her mama.
When she was born the cord was wrapped around her neck twice, so the doctor had to cut it before she was out-pushing her into the traumatic birth category. Jay was later able to cut the cord shorter, but we weren't able to let it stop pulsing like we had hoped. Because of this and the length of time that passed after my water had broken, her blood sugar levels were very low and she had to be closely monitored, having blood drawn every 3 hours after she was born. My milk had not come in yet so she had to be supplemented with high caloric formula to raise her blood sugar level. I was not happy that we had to give her formula-but the positive side was that it gave Jay the chance to feed and bond with her, which I loved watching. We opted to feed her through an SNS tube, which means a small tube is taped to our finger and she sucks from our finger, rather than a bottle. We didn't want her introduced to a bottle until she was successfully breastfeeding. I know Jay really enjoyed those first few feedings of her life. It was a precious sight.
After a few days my milk came in and we were (thankfully) able to stop supplementing with formula, and she is doing great now. She dropped to 7lbs. on day two, but at her 2 week checkup yesterday she was a plump 8lbs. 4 oz! It was an emotional roller coaster, and I absolutely could not have done it without Jay. He was by my side every step of the way, and I'm sure he saw and heard things he never thought he would be able to handle and he was amazing. We have become closer than I ever thought we could be and we just appreciate each other so much. He was so loving and caring and attentive to my needs and he was the best support system I could have asked for. He was my first line of defense when something was not happening as I wanted, and he was my advocate for what I needed and hoped for. We also had an awesome doula who we loved.
Although labor did not go how we had originally hoped, Lucy is here safe and sound and that is all that matters! A few days after she was born, Jay surprised me and my Grandma (who was staying with us) with massages! So we were able to get out and have some relaxing alone time. He also watched Lucy so I could go get my hair done and have some me time. It was awesome. Jay is the best hands on daddy in the world. He takes the initiative with Lucy and just loves being with her. I love that he is comfortable feeding, changing and taking care of her on his own. Life is good at home and we are adjusting to Lucy's schedule really well. She's a really easy going baby and we are very lucky, she is like her daddy in that way. We just love her so much! Here is one of the first pictures taken of her after she was born.
