Good morning friends and happy Monday! I hope you all had a nice summer-y weekend. My birthday was last Thursday so we had a weekend filled with birthday celebrations and playing at the Whitewater Center. The perfect weekend if you ask me!
Today the Not Just a Mom crew are telling the stories of how we became moms. I love reading people’s birth stories! I searched back through this blog and realized I have told the story of how Liam came to join our family, but not LG. Today is the perfect opportunity to do that!
Fun fact: the week before LG was born I was featured on Good Morning America for eating a "labor inducing pizza" haha! The pizza did not work... LG stuck around in there for another week!
As far as LG's birth goes, let me start by saying that I had all these plans of how I wanted her birth to go. I’d go to the hospital, get the epidural, and all would be smooth sailing. Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately, that was not the case for LG’s birth story.
Lily Grace was on her own timetable for joining us on this side of the womb. Our sweet girl was 6 days late, which as I’m sure you all know, felt like an eternity when you’re waiting on a baby! On the evening of May 4th, my contractions started. At the birthing class I had taken before she was born, they told me when my contractions were 5 minutes apart I was supposed to head to the hospital. Well, at around 2:45 am my contractions were 5 minutes apart. Devin and I headed to the hospital only for them to tell me I was only dilated to 1 cm and "you have a long way to go." They also said “you’ll be more comfortable at home, go back home and come back when the contractions are so painful you can hardly breathe.” In hindsight, I cannot believe that was the advice I was given!! I remember thinking “if I’m in that much pain, shouldn’t I have the epidural?” Also, what if I had dilated more? My now experienced, 36 year old self would be like “heck no! I’m staying where the meds and the professionals are!” But new-mom me didn't know any better, so back home I went.
Anyway, so we went back home so I could “be more comfortable” (what a joke, I was miserable no matter where I was). We made a nice warm bath and I labored in the bath for as long as I could. Finally, around 1 pm on May 5th, I was ready to get admitted to the hospital. At this point I was ready for that epidural! My doctor broke my water, and then sent in the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist came in, attempted to do the epidural, only for the epidural to not work. I didn’t know the epidural not working was a possibility. Did you know that? Sometimes epidurals don't work?? The anesthesiologist came back again, tried to do it again, only for it to not work again. At this point the nurses said I had progressed too far, we were going to have to give birth without the epidural. Yikes! That was not my plan!!
All that to say, when LG was finally ready to join us, she came quickly. I only pushed for 18 minutes before our little angel joined us.
Look at all that hair!! We used to joke that our sweet girl was born with a wig.
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Liam’s birth story could not have been more opposite of LG’s. He was my easy peasy delivery: water broke, went to the hospital, epidural worked and he was here with no problems! If only they were all that easy!
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I can not believe that was the advice you were given either! That's crazy. I found that all 3 of my labors/deliveries were quite different as well.
ReplyDeleteIf you're read my birth story (which I linked to today), I absolutely would have made different decisions with my first child. It's so easy to know in retrospect what the right decision is, but as a new mom, you trust your medical providers. And yes, my friend's epidural didn't work either.
ReplyDeleteI love reading these stories. LG had so much hair!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday for last Thursday! I loved reading your birth stories and how cool to be on Good Morning America!
ReplyDeleteRuth@playworkeatrepeat
Aw, so fun to look back at those newborn photos. What was so special about that pizza that it was supposed to induce labour? Was it a spicy sauce?
ReplyDeleteI don't enjoy birth stories because they make me jealous! I'm glad your births went well!
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe her dark hair!!! Going to read about Liam's now!
ReplyDeleteBTW - mine didn't work either. they tried to give it again and it still didn't do much for me. I had third degree tears and they had to numb me because i could feel EVERYTHING. Who knew!!!
Aww! I love reading birth stories.
ReplyDeletehehehe! That did make me chuckle, you'll be more comfortable at home. I don't think I would have been. I probably would have gone home when I was younger but now I would be no way!!
Yep, I know epidurals don't work, mine started to wear off half way through me having a c-section with my youngest. That was no fun.
What beautiful photos.
That's really strange advice, especially for a first-time mom! Waiting until you're in pain is definitely not a good idea! I went overdue with three of mine, and except for my first baby, I waited as long as I possibly could to do to the hospital because I didn't want any interventions. But that was after I'd done it once! LOL Love the photos!
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy the advice that you hear. Glad everything worked out and you only had to push for 18 minutes.
ReplyDeleteOne of my daughters had so much hair too! All three of mine I had an issue where the epidural only took in half of my body. Luckily after waiting around for the doctor to return, the second attempt (each time), took. I remember telling one anesthesiologist about my previous experience and he was very sure it wouldn't be the case that time. It was. It was so much pain just being in labor. I cannot imagine not having an epidural during birth!
ReplyDelete