Lyla's Birth Story!

For those of you who are a bit squeamish with the details, I suggest just scrolling through the few pictures and save yourself from the yuckies by not reading this post!

For everyone who loves to hear a good birth story, here goes:

As many of you know, I had been having mild contractions for about three weeks. Sometimes these contractions would get a little stronger, a little closer together, but they never turned into anything at all. That is, until Thursday night. Was it the Thanksgiving supper, who knows, but late that night my contractions were somewhat strong at about 4-5 minutes apart. We decided to go into the hospital, to play it safe, especially since I need to be on antibiotics during my labor (GBS positive). Anywho, long story short, I was never admitted! The contractions all but petered out at 5-7 minutes apart and my OBGYN gave me the choice to stay and wait, or go home and be a little more comfortable while waiting. Well, to say the least, I am so thankful we made the decision to go back home! My contractions completed stopped, and all that proved to be true was that we received a total of a couple hours of sleep that night.

Friday was a pretty normal day, besides being completely exhausted from lack of sleep and a two year old who has given up naps. My contractions were few and far between, and we went to bed at about 9:30pm excited to get a nice restful sleep...that is until my water broke at 11:30pm. All I could think is, oh my goodness, I am going to have to labor completely exhausted - and - well at least I know they will admit me this time! So, we went to the hospital and my contractions were coming anywhere between 5-10 minutes apart. I tried to get my contractions to pick up by walking around, bouncing on a Fit Ball, etc., but nothing was really causing them to pick up steam. Reluctantly, we decided to go ahead and take the Pitocin (that means induction for all my readers out there). I had been induced with Evelynn, and to say the least, I was not looking forward to this at all. I had labored with induction with Evelynn and had to get the epidural...so I wasn't sure if I even wanted to go down this road again. Anywho, I had the best nurse in the world, and she really helped make it possible for me to not get the epidural. She started my drip at only a 2 and I picked right up, she then backed me down to a 1...where I was able to stay throughout the rest of my delivery. I am not saying it was easy, but it was so much more tolerable than what felt like permanent transition labor when they set my drip at a 7 when I was induced with Evelynn. Wow, this story is getting super long! Anywho, they induced at 5:30am and I had Lyla shortly before 8am! I wish I could say I was a total trooper, but that would not be honest. When I was in transition, I begged for the epidural. The nurse basically told me that she wouldn't be able to get the doctor there fast enough for it to make a difference! She was definitely right, I think my doctor showed up not much later, checked me, and told me to push. I then pushed for a couple contractions and got to see my my blue baby! Yup, that's right kids, the cord was around Lyla's neck! All was great though, she started crying as soon as they cut it, so it probably hadn't been like that for very long. I also have to mention that I am so thankful that I have such a wonderful husband. This was truly a team effort, and there is no way I could have done it without him!

The recovery has been super fast. No tearing, a naturally great nursing baby, etc. We have only run across one little glitch so far, Lyla had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics that they smear across newborns eyes. So, you will see in the pictures that she looks like she has lost a bad bar fight, bless her heart. I wish I could say it looks better, but they are still pretty bad. Her eyes crusted over, and when we used the warm washcloth to reopen them, it basically ripped the skin around her eyes where it is now scabbing over. You can see it a little in the pictures.

Okay enough gory details, on with what you really wanted to see: pictures!

This picture was taken a couple minutes after birth. My OB barely made it in time, but we were so happy that she made this one at all. She was out of town for Evelynn's birth (because she came three weeks early). Can you believe how big Lyla is?!? It's hard to imagine all of her was inside of me!

They let me hold Lyla and nurse her before she had her testing, so that was really nice. She looks so much like Evelynn, it is scary. You should look back at the first blog pictures and take a look for yourself!

My sweet neighbor brought Evelynn up that morning to hold her new baby sister. It was love at first sight! I don't think I have ever seen Evelynn so proud of anything in her life. Jealousy hasn't begun, that probably waits for the newness to wear off a little.

And here is the proud papa with his little papoose. This was taken after her first bath at home. You can see the allergic reaction damage around her eyes in this picture.