Let's go back to the day my mom, the ever wonderful and fabulous, Christine Matthews arrived in town with my adorable little brother John in tow. She arrived on the 25th of September, a Wednesday, which was two days after my due date, and I still hadn't delivered. I was starting to get worried, as well as increasingly uncomfortable. My thought process was as follows, "what if the baby doesn't come while my mom is here?! I want my mom to meet her! She's only in town for six days! Come on baby! I really don't want to make it to my Dr's appointment on Friday! I want you out!!!" On top of those worries, my sweet husband was attempting to finish up his finals. In the mean time, my mom, my husband and I were doing everything in our power to get Lily to make her grand entrance. We started out by going to "Scalini's" which is an Italian restaurant that is notorious for sending women into labor with their eggplant parmesan. It had been recommended to me by several other momma's who had had babies. So, off we went to Scalini's with high hopes, and hungry bellies.
After dinner, we sat around and waited to see if anything would happen. It didn't. We had an uneventful night, and went to bed. Thursday morning was also uneventful, as was the afternoon. We waited patiently for my husband to finish with his finals so that we could go on a walk. Once Vincent got done, we all went over to Mud Creek Soccer Complex, and started to walk around their half mile walking trail. Well, during one of the laps, I started to have some contractions. They got to a point where they were any where from two to six minutes apart and pretty painful, so after walking two miles, we decided to head home, hydrate, and keep counting contractions. Disclaimer- I had been having contraction on and off since labor day, and had gone to the hospital the week before with false labor, so we were hopeful, but cautious. After counting contractions for several hours, I was getting hungry and had to pee. Yes, that is important to the story. I got up, had a snack, used the restroom, and shortly there after, my contractions stopped. Done. Gone. Like nothing had ever happened. We all went to bed, a little disappointed, but hopeful about the next day.
Friday morning came, and we went back to Mud Creek Soccer Complex to walk again. I met my friend there, and we walked a couple of laps together. I was having some contractions on and off, but nothing regular or consistent enough to mean anything. Disappointed again, we went home and got ready for my doctor's appointment. I went in hoping to hear some good news, but to my dismay, there wasn't much change from my previous appointment. The midwife I met with set an induction date for the following Tuesday, stripped my membranes (for the third time), and told me to go have a baby. Seriously? Like I wasn't trying already... The membrane stripping led to some pretty painful contractions. We went to Chick-fil-A for dinner, and I would have to stop and breathe through a contraction every few minutes. These contractions were more consistent, and lasted longer; some of them as long as a minute and half to two minutes! I was in some serious pain! We went home and kept counting contractions, but they started to slow down again. I was pretty tired by this point, having walked so much the past few days and not sleeping much either, but I ventured outside with my husband, in the middle of the night to try to keep the contractions going. It didn't work. Tired and frustrated we all went to bed again. (My mom had been up with us, counting contractions).
Saturday morning dawned, and with it came more contractions. They were few and far between, but very painful. I contracted about every time I stood up, which made doing anything very difficult. I was really starting to worry that the pain would never end, and that my poor mom and brother would have to go home with nothing to report. It was very upsetting. Well, I was pretty tired Saturday, so the only exciting thing we did was go grocery shopping, stopping every so often for a contraction. Once we got home, the contractions started to pick up again. With low hopes, and feeling like I would be pregnant forever, we started to count contractions again. This was time was different though. The contractions were painful to the point of tears, so around midnight my mom suggested that we go to the hospital. So we did. We got checked in, and found out that even though I was having really painful contractions, I hadn't progressed at all! I was so mad! I seriously felt like Lily was never coming, and that I would be in pain for the rest of my life! Well, they kept me for two hours to see if things would move along at all, and by the end of the second hour I was still in a lot of pain, but hadn't progressed much. The nurse offered me a shot of Demerol, which I didn't take, and discharged us. I was contracting so badly, that I had to be wheeled out of the hospital in a wheel chair to go home (This was around three in the morning). I had had it. I cried. I was so disappointed, frustrated, and in the worst pain of life that I got down on all fours in front of my house and just balled. How could I be in so much pain and not have it amount to anything! After crawling inside, and crying to my mom, I took some Tylenol pm, like the nurse had suggested, and tried to sleep.
I couldn't stay asleep. I kept waking up in excruciating pain, and panicking because the Tylenol wasn't even touching the contractions and only made me sleepy. My husband was trying to put pressure on my tailbone to help the pain, but it wasn't helping anymore. I was at my wits end, and trembling in pain. Thank goodness for my mom. She suggested we call the hospital and see if I could still get that shot of Demerol that was originally prescribed, so I called them and they told me, to my dismay, that we would have to re-check in, and go through entire process over again. I was upset, but willing to go just to get some relief. So near six o'clock in the morning, we checked back into the hospital. We went over to triage and I grabbed onto the railing and crouched down to get through a contraction as the nurse asks me, "so what brings you in tonight?" You'd think it would be obvious to these people... It was different nurse than the one who checked me in originally. I told her I was having some really painful contractions, and they got me set up in one of the rooms. The nurse checked me, as I was praying like crazy that I had actually progressed, and told me I was at a five (cm) and having a baby. I couldn't be more relieved! This was it! The big moment we had been waiting for. It was finally here!
The nurses gave me a little pain medication through my IV that made me very dizzy and wheeled me to a delivery room. After a short time the pain medication wore off, and I decided to go with the epidural. I was against it at first, but after being in pain for so long, it was a welcome relief. After the epidural was in, they checked me again. This part gets a little fuzzy but my husband thinks I was at an eight, so they broke my water and decided to give me a little pitocin to move things along. After finally sleeping for a couple of hours, I felt the need to push. The midwife came in, and after three pushes, my husband was able to help deliver our beautiful baby girl Lily. She was born at 11:48 am, weighing 7 lbs, 1 oz, and measuring 19.5 inches long. We had done it! She was finally here! I couldn't believe it! It was finally over!
After 24 hours, some birthday cake, and a couple of visitors we were discharged from the hospital. The nurse was concerned about Lily's bilirubin levels. For those who don't know, that is what they look for when determining if a baby has jaundice aside from yellowy skin. Her bilirubin levels were still a little high at her last check up, and we are waiting to see if they have gone down enough this next time. She has a slight cold right now, but hopefully that will clear up in the next day or so. After a nasty encounter with mastitis and a bad case of croup (Nate), we are finally on the mend and trying to get back to some semblance of a routine.
We love our little Lilybug so much! She is just too precious and sweet for words. She is a pretty good natured baby, but a little more fussy than her big brother was. Nathaniel is a sweet, albeit jealous at times, big brother, who loves to run over and help the baby when she cries, or hug and hold her when he can. Life is sweet my friends. Life is sweet.
