Another birth adventure begins! My official due date based on last menses was January 5th and my ultrasound due date was January 1st. I was hopeful that this baby girl, being the 4th child, might come a little early. Alas, January 5th came and went and the 6th and the 7th... I swam my mile at the pool that night, and then walked a couple miles at the mall the next day, and again the next day. On Saturday the 10th after my walk, we decided that spicy food might push me over the edge. Hubby went to pick up some delicious Thai food. I gave the kids their baths.
I should explain that I had group B strep for the first time this pregnancy. To protect the baby they wanted to give me 2 doses of antibiotics, the first to be administered 4 hours before delivery. Since my last 2 labors were each less than 2 hours start to finish, the midwives were anxious that I come to the hospital the minute that I felt it might be the start of real labor. I was constantly praying to know when was the right time to go into the hospital.
For several days, I had been having contractions about 10-20 minutes apart, but nothing serious or regular. While I was bathing the kids, I had 3 hard contractions about 5 minutes apart and walked out to call hubby, but he was already back. So much for my yummy dinner! I was not having tons of contractions, but I felt like we should go to the hospital. We called in our helpers to watch the kiddos and they arrived within about 15 minutes. We got out stuff together and texted my sister-in-law who happily was working that night as was my favorite of the midwives.
The contractions continued about every 7 minutes or so, but not super strong. We checked into Labor and Delivery at around 8:30pm. They unofficially "admitted" me while we tried to see if things were going to pick up. I got my antibiotics and started walking the hall. Things were still slow and I was not super dialated, so the midwife did a membrane sweep, and contractions got a little harder after that, but I was still only about 5 cm dialated at 12:30pm. We had a little pow-wow about whether I should just go home or let the midwife break my water. The midwife advised that it was our choice, but that she would lean toward going ahead with water breaking, just because of the group B strep and my tendency for speedy deliveries when things get going. Hubby was okay with either choice. My sister-in-law nurse was super helpful, since she had just had a similar experience with her most recent delivery. She had opted to wait in the hospital to see if things picked up overnight and then finally broke her water in the morning. She thought in hindsight, that she should have just let them go ahead and break her water earlier and get it over with. There were also the factors of being a week overdue already, and the placenta starting to get tired out as time passed as well as the baby gaining another pound. I decided to go ahead with breaking my water.
The midwife broke my water at 1am and I made myself walk through the much harder contractions - to try to keep things going as quick as possible. By 2am I was not able to walk anymore and did my laboring on all fours or leaning on hubby or the bed. At 3:06am our beautiful baby girl was born.
She was about to come out brow first, SIL and midwife said they saw her eyes for a second and then at the last minute she twisted around in the birth canal to the right position (all this is a painful blur and I had to ask about it later). Then she was out! Sweet relief. She only laid on my tummy for a few seconds though because she was a little blue- had not cried loudly yet. My SIL told me that she had to flick her foot to get her to make a loud cry and clear her lungs out. That seems typical of this baby girl. She is a peaceful little spirit.
We had to stay 2 nights in the hospital since she was a little jaundiced (this has been a problem for all of our babies, some more than others). Hubby had to stay with the older kids mostly since the flu is epidemic this year and they were not allowing any children under 12 to visit the hospital. The pediatrician gave me a strong warning not to take Baby L out or let her have any visitors for the first 6 weeks. She said that if she gets anything serious before 6 weeks that she would likely be hospitalized. Baby L has all my immunities from nursing, but neither of us are immune to this year's flu, RSV, or croup. Hubby has been doing all the shopping and ladies from church and our neighbors have brought us dinner for about 10 nights now. I have only left the house to go to the chiropractor, get a massage, and visit the pediatrician. It has been nice and cozy, with a special "new baby" peaceful spirit in our house.
One of the first big yells
Daddy is growing his traditional baby beard while he is at home with us.
Baby L had her first bottle (breast milk) while I was having my 60 minute massage. I know, I am so spoiled. My back and hips are finally starting to feel normal again. Right after the birth they were more sore than ever (bruised from the birth I think). AND then there were all the painful afterbirth contractions. Ugh. But all that is better now and I think by the time I get the okay to swim again (6 week check) my hips/back will have recovered from this painful pregnancy. Of course it is all worth it! Baby L is a little angel and we are so happy to have her in our family.
She is a cutie! I'm so glad all went well with the labor. It looks like you will have lots of help with the baby this time too from big siblings :)
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