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Birth Stories
Lula
Our beautiful Lula has arrived! She was born May 1st at 1:40 a.m. after only 7 hours of labor! She is beautiful, very alert and curious about her new world. She weighed 7 lbs, 12 oz. and was 20 inches long.
As some of you know, our son Theo died of a brain tumor at 9 months old. The tumor was not hereditary, was in fact, extremely rare, but regardless, this pregnancy has been full of very anxious moments and I am all too aware of the many things that can go wrong. Yoga has helped me through much of that. But as 40 weeks and her due date came around, I was worried about going overdue knowing that the chance of stillbirth and other things going wrong increases over 40 weeks. The chances are very small, increasing to about 1 in a 1000 over the normal risk, but when you've been 1 in 30 million (the number of people who have the kind of tumor Theo had), 1 in a 1000 doesn't sound like good odds. So, I really wanted her born. We had been doing all the wive's tale methods all week--walking, cleaning house, eating spicy foods, etc. I had acupuncture on Monday and Tuesday, which I firmly believe really helped get things going in the right direction. After each session, I could feel increasing pressure and a lot of movement. We had an appointment to see Dr. Davis at 3:30 on Wed. April 30 and we decided to then go down to labor and delivery to insert the prostaglandin gel around 6:00 p.m. The gel is used to soften the cervix and hopefully get it to begin to dilate and start labor. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, sometimes only a little. So we were thinking that if nothing happened, we might go home or we might stay and maybe try pitocin, which I really didn't want to do, but I thought we will take a chance with the gel and then make further decisions based on that progress. I was dilated to about 2 centimeters and 30% effaced when she put the gel in.
After the gel was done at about 6:15, around 20 minutes later, I was suddenly in serious labor! I was not allowed to move and had to lay flat for 2 hours to keep the gel in place and it was really excruciating. It reminded me of the pitocin labor from Theo's birth. At about 8:00 I was thankfully able to get up and walk around which I did to keep labor going and help my body to kick in its natural hormones to continue with the contractions. So while Jamie and I were walking around the labor and delivery unit, I was having contractions about every 45 seconds lasting about 30 seconds. Our doula Kathy got there at about 9:30 and provided a lot of support and help with breathing through the contractions, getting through each one as it came. Remembering how long and difficult Theo's birth was, I really wanted her birth to be different, more peaceful. I thought I was going to be laboring all night long as it was, sure that she would be born in the morning after a long night of labor. I decided then to get an epidural so that I could rest some during the night. I got the epidural around 10:30 p.m. I told our doula Kathy that she should go home and come back in the morning when I was sure we would be having a baby. She said, "No way! You're having this baby tonight!" Since there was no changing her mind, I decided to take nap around midnight and about 10 minutes later, just as I had dropped off, I felt a big POP! and a huge gush of warm fluid as my water broke. We had the nurse come and she said, "Let me just check you to see where you are"--and I was at 6 centimeters!! I was totally stunned. I couldn't believe it! It had only been 6 hours! We called Dr. Davis to let her know and she was on her way in. I started feeling a lot of pressure increasing by the minute and so about 10 minutes later the nurse checked again and said, "You're at 10" and I could not believe that she had just said that. 10 centimeters!! Only 9 minutes later, I was at 10 centimeters!! I tried to lie very still and not push. When Dr. Davis got there a few minutes later, I pushed for only 8 minutes and there she was!! Lula was born!
We are very happy. I am really tired and getting very little sleep, but that's ok, it will get better soon. She is doing very well. Breastfeeding is going well. We celebrated her 1 week birthday yesterday!
Best wishes to everyone awaiting the births--My best advice: Remember your breathing! Focusing on breathing through each contraction is the best way to get through each one. You can do it! Here's hoping for healthy, happy babies and beautiful births for you all.