Thursday, February 28, 2013

How It Happened: Birth of Lilah Annette

Sorry this post has been delayed. Adjusting to life with a newborn has been rough, but wonderful :)
I wanted to write down what happened last week and how Lilah made her arrival (more for my sake).

I went to the doctor on Feb 18 (my due date and 40w) and they performed a non-stress test and an ultrasound to see how Lilah was doing since I was full term. On the NST I was contracting every 4-8mins. When I went in for the ultrasound, my amniotic fluid was VERY low. I didnt even see the doctor. They sent me straight to L&D. I of course had to go home and grab my bags and my husband, so we arrived in L&D about an hour or so after my appt. When we arrived, they checked me and I was 1/2cm dilated and maybe 25% effaced (very little was happening basically). They decided to insert a bulb into my cervix to manually dilate me to 3-4cm. It was around 2:15p when the induction started. (They insert the bulb inside the cervix and then fill it up with saline and wait until it opens enough to fall out.) They said it could take up to 12hrs. It was very uncomfortable and the cramps/contractions were awful. I could not get comfortable! About 3.5hrs later, the bulb fell out. When they checked me, I was only at 2cm. I was a little frustrated. I was contracting on my own every 4-5mins so they decided to let me contract and see if my body would naturally go into active labor before starting me on pitocin. It did not. So around 10pm they started me on pitocin. They started me off around 2cc and would go up as needed every 15min. The highest I got was 7cc and then they had to taper it down to 4 or 5cc b/c my body was contracting harder and more often then it needed to. I got the epidural around midnight because the pain was just to much and I knew it was going to be a long labor process. At that point I was still 2cm. They checked me again around 4:30am and I had progressed to 4-5cm and my water had broken on its own. Again at 7am and I was still at 4-5cm. During this time my epidural was not cooperating. The anesthesiologist came back in 2 or 3 times to give me an extra boost and it would only last a couple hours before I was in intense pain again. Around 10:30am the anesthesiologist decided we needed to redo the epidural since it was functioning properly. I was so thankful! The new one worked like a charm! They checked me again at 11am and I was fully dilated and 100% effaced! Lilah was only at a 0 station and she needed to be at a 2 before pushing could begin. They told me I needed to "labor down" until she dropped low enough into the birth canal. I made it to maybe a 1 before the urge to push was overwhelming, so they let me start pushing. it was around 12:10p when I actually started pushing. Almost 2hrs later, she made her debut at 1:58pm Tuesday afternoon! The NICU team had to be there because of the low fluid situation. So I didnt get to hold her right away. They checked her out, cleaned her off, and took her vitals. She was 7lbs 6oz and 20in long. She was perfect :)

She developed jaundice (levels were at a 8 at 2days old, went up to 11.2 by Friday morning). Her weight was down to 6lbs 9oz on Friday as well. We had to supplement some formula over the weekend to try and get her weight up and the poop coming! lol! On Monday morning her levels were down to 4.6 and she had gained 4oz! (The dr said they like to see a little less than an ounce a day of weight gain so she was doing FANTASTIC, 4oz in 3days!!) No more doctor visits or formula supplements!!! Everyone is excited about that! My milk came in Friday/Saturday so I think that had a huge impact on her weight gain. She hated the formula and we could barely get her to eat it.

Overall everyone is doing well and adjusting! We have had a few bad nights and a few great nights! We are thankful for the sleep we get whenever we get it! We could not be happier though! She is amazing and we are both head over heals in love with her!