Goodness, gracious! It’s been two delightful months with our little booger, and I am just now forcing myself to sit down and get writing her birth story. I’ve been trying to get this going for months now, and my brainpower just wasn’t there. When Lily was sleeping, I was out in my little zone (sometimes sleeping), and the idea of actually working wasn’t happening. Routines are getting better, though, and she is sleeping through the night. Thank heavens for that sleeping at night; let’s hope it sticks around. So here I am with birth story time, finally, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Sidenote – let’s hope this is just the start of getting back to working and posting more than my Catch the Moment 365 series.
Our birth story begins with our car getting into an accident right in front of our house. Yes, Yes, you read that right. Initially, I was to go into the hospital Friday night on August 14th at 6 pm. Instead, they called and said can you wait, please – we have a lot of births right now, and we’ll contact you later, or you call us by this time to see where we are. Okay. Not a problem.
A few hours later, we get a knock on our door – mind you, it’s like 8 pm, and we are thinking – this is weird. A lady said, hi, is this that your car – we accidentally backed into it. What? Yep, our car is sitting on our side of the street, and they backed into it. Thank goodness they were honest and came to find us to let us know and exchange information. But seriously? Thankfully, their insurance took all blame, and the car is already all fixed up. Seriously though, what a way to start this birth story, right?
Now for the actual birth story. Are you ready for Lily’s birth story time?
Birth Story Time – How Lillian Rose Made Her Way Into Our World
As you read above, I initially set to be induced Friday, August 14th – but that didn’t happen. So I called back in at 9 pm as they asked me to if I hadn’t heard from them before then. I did, and they wanted me to call back at like midnight, and I said, can I wait until morning now. Sure, if you don’t hear from us by 9 am, call in and check. Okay! Jason’s Mom went home; she would stay to watch Roxy and said she’d come back down in the morning. I was thrilled to get another night in bed without pain. At my regular doctor’s appointment earlier that day, my doctor said I was about one dilated and said she felt the head. Okay great!
Surprise, they ended up calling me at 4 am (what?!?) and said can you come in now? Uhm, yeah, sure. So I get Jason up and tell him we have to go. Why they called that early we don’t know. But I wasn’t going to dilly dally around and take our time either. Mind you, I am not feeling any contractions or anything to indicate birth, so there was no pressure on my end to get there now. So we got there and checked in.
Inducing Time
They showed Jason and me into the room that would be ours from now until birth (and it turns out the whole time we were there). Jason went down to grab the things while I tried to get settled and calm my nerves. I couldn’t believe that I was in the hospital and was about to have a baby—something I never imagined happening to me. How did I get here already, I was thinking. Heck, this was my first hospital stay period. It was all new to me and scary.
My first poke and probe happened to be to check my cervix. Holy heck did that hurt – he shoved his fingers way up and felt nothing. No movement. I am like, what? How is that possible? I was at one at my doctor’s appointment yesterday. Ugh, I thought. So they said they couldn’t do the balloon method (thank god!) they first suggested – I read horrible things about that method, but I thought, well, labor’s got to get going someway, so whatever. So instead, they did some pill up my vagina. First, giving something to calm me because I said I wanted all the drugs because I didn’t handle pain well.
I didn’t feel much with the first pill – but things were happening on the monitor. So then they gave me a second dose sometime later, which in turn moved things along even quicker.
I took a bath to help calm the contractions. Boy, did they hurt – but were not god awful pain. Or were they? I don’t honestly remember. I always laughed when someone said that when giving birth, but it is seriously a blur now. They finally checked me, and they were shocked to find out I was already six dilated. They couldn’t believe how quickly I progressed with just the two dosings; rarely do just two dosings move this fast. Finally, I was in active labor, and they didn’t have to do anything more. Did I want the epidural now? Yes, yes.
I was having bad contractions by this time, and getting the contractions to pause so they could poke the needle in me for the epidural was rough. Once they did get it in me, it was only a few minutes when I felt instant relief. It was blissful. I even was able to sleep some. They started the Pitocin slowly after my epidural was active.
Birth Story Time
During this, they decided to recheck me because my contractions were slowing at weird levels. And to their utter surprise, Lily’s head was seen when they went to check me. Oh! They said it was time. Let us get the doctor. Also, they decided to have me push when they went to get the doctor, and they instantly had me stop – nope, the head is coming out. Wait, don’t push! Not that I felt anything, so I didn’t have any desire to try anyway.
Once the doctor was in, they had me sit up to push once, but I didn’t comprehend what they wanted me to do. So they said, wait – and I repeated what they were telling me to do so I could grasp it. It was that push that got Lily out. She needed no help getting out but the doctor’s hands to catch her. I did tear in a couple of different places on her way out. It was a quick birth, especially for a first-timer. I guess Lily was just ready for the world.
They placed her on my tummy, and I didn’t know what to do. I was in utter shock that she came out of me. She was a mix of us. The doctor stitched me up while I just sat there and felt nothing still, which was glorious.
Meet Miss Lillian Rose
Funny enough, when we finally announced her name to the room of nurses and the doctor, one of our nurses was named Lillian as well.
Lillian Rose was born on August 15th, 2021 at 1:38 am. Weighing 7lbs 7oz and 20 inches long.
I was in awe of how pretty she looked, even with all the white stuff on her.
She was perfect.
My Own Problem
Now for something I never read about in all my research for after birth. You hear all the time about losing control of your bladder, but you never hear of not being able to go to the bathroom after. Well, that just happened to be my case; I was sore and couldn’t urinate on my own. I was frustrated but not so much at first because I knew I was already going to be in the hospital, and I was reassured it would happen again soon. They put a catheter back in me, I had one with my epidural, and I didn’t worry too much about it.
But the few times they tried to get me to urinate on my own, it just wasn’t happening. So I was then feeling more frustrated. And the next day, August 16th – the doctor said I was good to go home, and I was thrilled to get back home to my bed and Roxy. Wait, though, I still couldn’t urinate on my own. No matter how much I tried, it just wouldn’t come. And it felt like it was right there.
I cried with my nurse that day and said I wanted to pee so I could go home. We tried everything to get me to go and didn’t think it was going to happen. So they were going to allow me to go home with a catheter bag. Fine, but at least I can go home. Then my lovely nurse thought to try a sitz bath, and finally, finally, I peed. I cried again; I couldn’t believe I had finally gone. We could go home without the stupid catheter.
We were all dressed and packed up. Ready to get discharged. Lily had passed her tests, and she was good to go. We were ready. Oh wait, though, can you go to the bathroom again on your own before you go? What? Why? Ugh!! Of course, I couldn’t go again because of the pressure of having to GO now. I was close to crying again. But finally, I pushed like I had a bowel movement and glorious urine happened. I cried again.
I almost held us upon going home. But finally, we were free and ready to start the road on the family of four!
