As most of you know, labor was induced on Thursday morning due to the gestational diabetes I had. They were worried the baby would get too big if they let me go past 38 weeks, even though I kept my blood sugars almost completely controlled the whole pregnancy (go me!!).
So, the pitocin was started and my water was broken by 8:00AM, and I was already 4cm dilated by this time. The contractions I started to have were really bad... way worse than what I thought contractions would be... so I wimped out pretty quickly and got an epidural, which I later learned it was so painful because I was having back labor (more on this later). My epidural was in by 10:00am and by about 11:00am I was "6 or 7cm and completely effaced." They were supposed to check me again around 1:00pm but apparently the flood gates opened and a bunch of women came into the hospital in labor and they were short staffed. They didn't check me again until 3:00pm and I was 10cm, but the baby was still up pretty high at +1, so they repositioned me to try and get gravity to help bring her down, and after calling my doctor to let her know I was ready, they had me start pushing.
My doctor was supposed to be there in 30 minutes, but she didn't get there for about an hour, and I had been pushing this whole time. I pushed a total of 2 hours (1 hour with the nurse and 1 hour with my doctor) to no avail before my doctor decided to check how Lauryn was positioned. This was about the time that my epidural STOPPED WORKING! I can't even begin to tell you the pain that took over my body. Nothing mattered anymore. I was cussing at everyone and screaming for them to just get "it" out, lol. I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack. I was begging for a c-section by this time. The anesthesiologist came in and put a bolus of lidocaine into my epidural, but it didn't help at all. Turns out Lauryn was face up and her nose was caught on my pubic bone, and this was causing so much trauma that even the epidural couldn't mask the pain. My doctor quickly decided that she needed to use the vacuum to turn her head so she could come out. This worked great, and after about another 20 minutes of me pushing and the doctor using the vacuum, Lauryn came into the world weighing 7lb 1oz. and 20 inches long (so glad she was a normal size!)
Unfortunately, the vacuum not only gave her the typical red swollen area on her head, but it gave her a good sized laceration, which looked MUCH worse directly after being born than it did after the swelling went down. I am only posting one picture of Lauryn directly after she was born because it breaks my heart to look at and she is perfectly fine now! She had to spend the first night in the NICU to make sure she wasn't bleeding in her head, and they are still watching her bilirubin levels closely, but she is in perfect shape!
Anyway, it was one of the most painful and traumatizing things I have ever had to do, and though I would have told you otherwise in those moments, it was SO worth it. I would do it all over again for this little baby. I will end this story by saying: if you have ever doubted that God exists, just experience pregnancy and childbirth. It is amazing, surreal, life changing... there just isn't a word appropriate to describe it. Jimmy and I are so happy and content! Thank you to everyone who prayed for us!
Without further adieu, Lauryn Irene:
The laceration and her swollen right eye. Poor baby girl!
And of course, what birth story is complete without a shot of the post-pregnancy belly. I am amazed at how much it went down so fast.
Welcome to the world beautiful girl!!!! Well done mommy! xx
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