We Got Our Girl!!

As most people know we've really wanted to have a little girl. We were super excited when we found out we were expecting one. Of course there was always a little fear that the ultrasound person was wrong and the baby would be a boy. Here's how it happened... Two days before my due date I woke up having irregular contractions. I got up and waited to see what would happen. After a couple of hours they were still coming, but at random times. I thought that they might lead to something so I decided to wake Cade up and we started packing. (You would think we would be ready to go this close to the due date since we have a drive to make, but we live on the edge and don't get ready ahead of time.) But since the contractions still weren't regular and Conner's primary program was just a couple of hours away, we decided to wait a little longer. When we got home I was still having irregular contractions so we decided to drive to Mesa to be on the safe side. By the time we arrived, everything had stopped.

My due date came and went. At my last doctor's appointment, I was 2.5 centimeters dilated. On another night, I woke up having contractions regularly about every 5 minutes but they only lasted about 30 seconds. So once again I got up and got ready in case this was it. They continued a couple of hours and then fizzled out again. It was getting really annoying to lose so much sleep for all this false labor.

Three days past my due date I started having contractions every half hour and they were pretty strong. We decided to take the boys over to Carol Ann's house to play and then if we needed to go to the hospital they could just stay and spend the night. By bedtime, I hadn't had any contractions for an hour and a half so we went back to my mom's house for the night. But of course, soon after getting there the contractions started again. I didn't tell Cade anything because I didn't want to be the girl who cried wolf all the time so he went to bed, but I stayed up to see what would happen.. After an hour of contractions every 10-12 minutes that lasted about a minute or more, I decided to wake up Cade. He seemed slightly annoyed that we were doing this again, but I can't control these things. After a few more contractions we decided we better have Carol Ann come over since it would still be about an hour before we would get to the hospital. Carol Ann arrived at 2 am and we were in triage at 2:30.

In her first moments...

I was hooked up to the monitors and after awhile the nurse reported that I was having contractions about every 8 minutes. I could tell she thought it was still going to be awhile from her lack of attention and interest, but I knew it wouldn't be that much longer because the contractions were really strong and painful. Then she checked and said I was dilated to 8 or 9 centimeters and called for the doctor. Unfortunately, they thought my actual doctor wouldn't have time to get there so I just got the on call doctor. A few minutes later I started feeling the pressure to push. I told Cade that the baby was coming. I didn't mean right this second, just that it was starting, but the nurse overheard me and immediately said she wasn't having a baby back in triage and I was getting a room now.

At about 3:30 I arrived in the delivery room with lots of nurses and the doctor and started pushing. Everyone immediately got down to business and was telling me how to push and helping me along. I thought the baby was right there because of the way the doctor was working around inside me. But then someone came and told the doctor another patient was about to deliver so he left, and the nurses stopped guiding me. For the next while, this continued. Everyone would be helping me, really pushing me to push her out, and then all of a sudden just stop. Then Cade would be left alone to help me, because even though the professionals would stop, the need to push did not. I don't know how many times I asked Cade if he could see the head, but he always said no. I was getting really confused because when people were helping me it seemed like I was just a few pushes away from being done, but then they stopped like I wasn't close. But I was too into what I was doing to ask what was going on. I was also wondering why it was taking so long since this was my third baby. I had planned on not having to push for very long this time, so why was I still going?!

After about 2 hours of pushing the doctor mentioned that the baby was face up instead of down. I've heard how it can be much more difficult to push out a baby when they are face up so I started to understand why it was taking so long, but I still expected it to be over soon. The triage nurse came in to see the baby and I heard the other nurses tell her how it hadn't come yet. At some point, one of my nurses said how I needed to have the baby before their shift was over in two hours, and then responds to herself saying that "of course you'll have her by then." The nurses started having me push in every way possible. I tried being on my side, on all fours, sitting on the exercise ball, using the squat bar. Nothing helped and it was like torture trying to get into every new position and I could tell that I couldn't push as hard in these other positions so I kept going back to just sitting on the bed.

My nurses left and new ones arrived, the sun came up, I watched many hours pass by on the clock, and I was still pushing. The doctor started mentioning getting an epidural and possibly needing a C-section, but said I could keep trying to push for now because the baby was doing fine and not distressed at all. When the nurse started mentioning those things too I asked what good an epidural would do. She explained to me that the baby's head was tilted and that the top of her head just keeps running into some pelvic bone and that doctor keeps trying but hasn't been able to move it. (That explains what he's been doing up there every time he comes around.) The epidural will relax my muscles and "might" get her to move just enough to come out. It was pretty depressing to hear that after over 4 hours of pushing the baby hadn't moved, but I was at least glad to finally understand what the heck was going on.

The nurse didn't seem at all confident that the epidural would do the trick and I knew if I got an epidural and it didn't work then I would definitely get a C-section. The only good thing about a C-section is avoiding labor, but since I had already done that I REALLY didn't want a C-section. I also didn't want to get an epidural after having gone through that much, but I was wishing that I had known what was coming so I would have gotten an epidural to begin with. After a while I said I would get an epidural, but the nurse started saying how she didn't want me to do anything I didn't want to do and that we could just keep trying different positions. So she brought in the peanut ball and told me to use it, but just relax and not push so I could rest for a few minutes. Everyone left so I could "relax". I tried not to push but it hurt more not too.

So peaceful...

Things are a little fuzzy at this point, but I think I got rid of the peanut ball and was just laying on my side. Suddenly I had some super strong urges to push and they were NOT stopping. Cade was telling me to push with it, but I was getting panicked with no professionals in the room. I was trying to tell Cade to call for help while pushing hard enough to get through it without actually pushing the baby out. Thankfully my nurses started trickling back in. The first one didn't seem to know what to do and the second probably didn't really believe that it was time. But soon everyone was back in the room and ready to go, but then for just a minute the pressure stopped :) I'm sure they all thought I was just full of it. But in no time the pressure was back and the baby was moving! The head was finally coming out but I just didn't feel like I could finish it off. The doctor told me I could just rest a minute and stop pushing if I needed to. After about 3 seconds of that I realized the doctor must be insane to think it would be better to let the baby be half out. That's a pain that I cannot describe :) and I forced myself to finish it off. And it really was a girl!! Lucy Elizabeth was born at 9:11 am weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces, after almost 6 hours of pushing. I had no idea that was even possible, I've never heard of such a thing and might not believe it if I hadn't been there.

Her bruised head

Later I found out that Cade had sent out a text to a couple of people asking for prayers when I was starting to falter and give up, and it wasn't much longer before Lucy came out. So thank you to all those who helped with that. I also learned that sometimes you really get what you pray for so be careful :) Leading up to the delivery I just wasn't feeling ready or able to push the baby out. I figured I could deal with the labor, its just enduring pain after all, but I just didn't feel like I had it in me to push out the baby (probably because I never forgot how much I hated the pushing phase with Caleb). So I had been praying for the strength to do it naturally. Well I was given the strength and energy to do it, but I was really pushed to my limit!

Caleb loves her!

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