Lily's Birth Story

Our birth story starts on Thursday, February 9th.  I went to bed in the guest room by myself like I had been doing for the past couple of weeks.  I was able to sleep better that way and so was Dave.  Lawson had figured out where I had been sleeping, so he often came down first thing in the morning to crawl into bed with me.  Thursday night around 1:00am I woke up with a hard contraction.  I was in the middle of breathing through it when Lawson came into my room.  He crawled into bed, and I tried to adjust him as best I could while still working through the contraction.  He quickly went to sleep while I had a few more contractions.  I remember thinking, "I sure hope this isn't "it" because I don't want to have to wake up my family and get them to the hospital in the middle of the night!"  We had Lawson at 2:00am, and it is not the easiest way to start off with a little one.  I wound up getting out of bed and walking around a little, and I started feeling better.  I got back in bed, and although I continued to have some contractions, I was able to sleep most of the night (even with Lawson's feet in my back.)  I woke up about 5:30am, and I was still having mild contractions.  By this time, I was sure the contractions would pick up and be stronger and more consistent.  This didn't really happen though.  They were more sporadic throughout the morning.  About 10:00am, however, I had several contractions in a row with some being stronger than before.  This lasted about 30 minutes or so, and then the contractions slowed down again.  I called the doctor's office about 11:00am to describe my symptoms just to see what they said.  The nurse I spoke with wasn't concerned.  She said to wait to call again once my contractions were 5 minutes apart for 1 hour and last 1 minute each.  She also noted that it could be "today or another 2 weeks before I went into labor."  She did ask me to eat lunch and drink a soda to make sure the baby was still moving good.  I followed her instructions and sure enough the baby started moving for me.  Around 12:00, the contractions started up again, but they were mild and very short.. lasting just seconds.  We decided the whole family would go for a walk around the block. 

The contractions continued and even got a little stronger, but still only lasted a few seconds.  By the time we walked a second lap I had a couple of pretty strong contractions, but all were still short.  It was about 1:30pm, and we decided to head home.  I got in the shower to get ready for the hospital, but I still waited to call the doctor to see how the contractions would progress.  I got out and then put on my makeup and fixed my hair and then called the doctor.  By this time, the contractions were still consistent at about 5 minutes apart and were strong, although still only about 15 seconds each.  I had a contraction while on the phone with the nurse, and she said to come on into the hospital for monitoring. 

By this time, Dave's parents had arrived at our house and were able to help us get out the door.  I actually had one very strong contraction while Dave was pulling the car out, and I handed my drink and purse to Ellen and hung onto Mel until the pain passed.  They took a quick picture of us before we left and then we were off! 

Lawson wanted to ride with us, so we let him.  I wanted him to feel very much a part of everything that was happening, so while logistically this probably seems like a silly thing to do, I felt like it was important for him to be with us if that's what he wanted.  Unfortunately, my contractions only got harder and harder and began to come every 2-3 minutes.  I was in horrible, horrific, God-awful pain.  I wasn't screaming or anything though - just panting and begging Dave to run red-lights.  He did manage to weave through traffic somewhat, but in hindsight, we should have called 911 while we were en route.  It took about 20 minutes to get to the hospital.  When we arrived, I couldn't walk.  Contractions were coming every minute and were agonizing.  There was no one around when we arrived in the L&D entrance and no wheelchairs.  Dave left me and Lawson in the car while we tried to find someone.  Lawson was so good the whole time.  He was watching a movie on his DVD player, but a couple of times he said nice things to me in the car - although I can't remember what they were.  While we were waiting on Dave, Lawson did climb up in the front seat with me and put the DVD player in my lap and said, "Here Mommy, watch a movie.  That will make you feel better."  About this time, Dave came around with a nurse who was dropping off another patient.  She was able to take me up to L&D while Dave parked the car with Lawson.  When I got up to L&D, she stopped me at the Registration desk and they tried to get me to fill out some registration papers.  I scribbled my name, but that's all I could do.  Dave came running in about this time, and completed the rest.  Finally, someone took me to my room (keep in mind, I'm contracting in horrible pain every 60 seconds.)  The wheelchair lady, who was not even an L&D person, and another nurse took my clothes off of me and in the process of doing so my body involuntarily gave a big push.  The nurse yelled, "No, don't push yet!"  In an agonizing moment, I managed to get on the bed, and the nurse checked me.  She said I was 8cm dilated.  I begged her for an epidural or a shot.  She said she didn't know if they would be able to do anything for me since I was so far along.  She, or someone, kept yelling out the door, "I need help in here NOW!"  This happened 2 or 3 times.  She checked me again, and I was fully dilated.  Another nurse came in and was holding my hand.  I think I will forever remember her eyes.  I started into her eyes the whole time.  She said, "This is going to be very  hard to hear, but you can't have any medication right now.  This is about to be over.  You're going to push 3 times, and this baby will be out.  You can do it.."  At this point, I yelled to Dave in all seriousness, "Pray for me Dave."  I also began calling on the Lord Jesus to please help me.  I said it over and over.  I think we waited on a doctor for a few more minutes, and I continued to hold tightly to nurses hand and look into her eyes.  She coached me on how to breathe.  Once the doctor arrived the nurse said to put my hands around my legs and push.  From the time we arrived to the point I started pushing was about 10 minutes.  Once I started pushing, it was like everything went white-hot.  I pushed 3 times back to back, and they said I was making good progress.  They stopped after the third push and did something to lubricate the baby's head - they said because she had so much hair she was slipping through as easily.  On the fourth push, I felt my skin rip (although it didn't really hurt at the time) and then her head was out, and then another second later I felt the baby literally gush out of my body.  I heard her cry, but I kept my eyes closed through the whole process.  I didn't see her come out or even when they held her up (apparently Dave took a picture at this point.)  I heard him clamoring around for the camera, and I still had my eyes closed.  I was still in a lot pain and shock and was shaking profusely.  It seems the situation was so intense, they didn't even offer Dave the opportunity to cut the umbilical cord.  Although I had forgotten about the delivery of the placenta, that came next.  I begged again for some pain medication.  Now that the baby was out, they discussed what to do, and decided to give me an IV with some sort of pain medication.  I remember the doctor saying something about me being all clenched up. I think it was at this time that a nurse said she had put me in their system as Jane Doe because there was no time to get my information (apparently, the Registration system and the clinical systems don't talk, so the nursing staff had no idea who I was.)  I think my Mom arrived about this time -  I'm not sure.  Anyway, the medication helped relax me a little bit, but the placenta delivery was still painful.  Apparently, it didn't release like it should have, and they had to do extensive massaging on my stomach.  At one point, I had to get back into a pushing position and push again.  Fortunately, this finally got resolved, but then came the stitches.  The doctor used some kind of numbing shots so that really helped.  I only had four stitches total, so I got off very lucky there!  I think they gave me even more medication after the stitches, so I was very woozy.  Someone brought the baby over to me to hold, but I couldn't hold her I was still in such shock and then the meds were also taking over.  I asked the nurse to let my Mom hold her.  I think Mom held her before Dave even - sorry Dave!  I don't know where you were during this time...like I said, my eyes were closed for most of this.  The timeline for me begins to get fuzzy, but I think pretty soon after I was stitched up, my body began to relax and I was calming down.  Someone asked me if I wanted to nurse the baby, so I was able to do that pretty quickly after she was born. 

At some point, my sister-in-law, Kim Lawson came into the room and was taking pictures (thank goodness!)  She was supposed to have been at the birth, but of course she wasn't able to make it in time.  I remember my Dad coming in at some point too - he seemed real proud.  Lawson came in too, and he crawled in bed with me while I was holding the baby.  He was smitten right away!  He was one proud big brother!  Mel and Ellen were there too.  They had been with Lawson in the waiting room.  And about an hour or so after she was born, my little brother Josh arrived from Arkansas with his girlfriend Meredith.  I was in a blissful, medicated state by this time!  It's all a little foggy!  Everyone visited for a couple of hours, and we had a great time.  Once it got time to settle in for the night, I asked the nurses to keep Lily - an excellent decision!  We actually got a reasonable amount of sleep that night. We did the same the next night too with the same results.  We really enjoyed our stay in the hospital.  We had many friends and family that stopped by, and we really appreciated seeing everyone.

It was quite an experience.  I've always wondered if I had what it took for natural childbirth, and I guess now I know!  I do know, if given the option, I would have taken meds in a heartbeat!  I don't think I could voluntarily gone through that.  I also know that when I cried out to the Lord, he was with me.  Thank you, Lord!