Baby Leona

April 22, 2018

Baby Leona

We had a baby! It really happened!

Leona Ruth joined our family on April 3rd at 1:25 am.

Here's an adorable photo of her a few hours after birth:

And now I'm going to launch into the VERY detailed birth story, so if that's not your thing then carry on with your day, it was nice to see you and all that.

But if you love birth stories (like I do!) then stick around!!

First of all, Leona was a week late! She was due March 27th but didn't come until the wee hours of the morning on April 3rd. I had pretty regular, non-painful/intense contractions off and on for over a week leading up to her birth, which was pretty frustrating. I'd usually time them for a little while, but eventually they'd just stop and I'd go on with my life. By the time I was actually in labor, I definitely did not think it was really labor because it felt the same as all the false labor I'd been having!

The morning of April 2nd I went to the doctor for a non-stress test to make sure Leona was still healthy and happy and doing well on the inside. This is pretty standard as a pregnancy becomes "late," and my midwives had me come in at just shy of 41 weeks to make sure all was well. Leona passed with flying colors, but I was still only 2 cm dilated (same as I was at 39 weeks) so it didn't seem like anything was happening.

I talked to my midwife a lot about our options at that point. They were completely fine with letting my pregnancy take up to 42 weeks (so long as I came in for regular non-stress tests to make sure everything was ok), but since I had had a C-section before that would be the cutoff. And unfortunately, because I'd had a C-section, there wouldn't be a lot of great options for induction at that point. They didn't seem worried, but also offered to strip my membranes (a procedure where they use a finger inserted in the cervix and gently sweep it around the edge of the uterus to separate the bag of waters just enough to release some hormones), as they have a pretty good success rate. I was very hesitant to have any sort of intervention done, because any side-effects of interventions often end up resulting in more interventions--and having had a C-section before, it was more likely that these interventions could add up to a repeat C-section. I had turned them down twice before, but at 41 weeks I decided it was worth talking about it more.

After discussing the potential risks and benefits, I decided to have the midwife do the procedure. Now, I want to say that this isn't for everyone, but that as someone trying for a VBAC with an "overdue" pregnancy (as well as a dilated and very effaced cervix), it made some sense to go ahead and see if a little hormone boost would get labor going while Leona was still healthy inside and we weren't anywhere near needing to be induced.

The midwife was great--it didn't hurt at all (despite research showing that 7/10 women said it hurt a lot)--but it definitely didn't make me go into immediate labor (not that it was supposed it, but you know, I was sort of hoping!) I went home and went about my day, fully expecting to be back at the office for another non-stress test in two days.

Around dinner time, I started having the same contractions I had had for a week, so I started timing them idly. After dinner the kids had loads of energy, so despite that day's random mini snowstorm we headed to a playground.

Miriam drank a lot of melting snow (yeeeach) and Niko and Jesse played pokemon Go, and I timed contractions that I was sure were going nowhere, like every time before.

We went home, I put the kids to bed, and then Jesse and I settled down to play Civilization VI. I kept timing contractions, and they were really close together this time (3-4 minutes apart), but most of them didn't really feel like anything. Jesse, sensing something was up, had me let our friends who would take care of the kids overnight know. I texted them something like "Jesse wants me to let you know that I'm timing contractions but they are fake labor and I'll see you in the morning!"

Around 10 things slowed down a little bit, more like 5-8 minutes apart, but more of these felt like real contractions. However, this had also happened before, so I still didn't think anything of it! However, Jesse's imminent-labor senses were tingling, because he went ahead and finished packing the hospital bag, just in case. We got ready for bed, and I remember having Jesse massage my lower back because it was feeling especially achy and I had a lot of pressure in my pelvis (in retrospect, these were labor signs!)

At 10:45 I laid down to go to sleep, and I felt a tiny gush of water. I wasn't sure if I had just peed my pants (not something that happened a lot this pregnancy, so I was a little suspicious). I went to the bathroom and put on a pad, and from then on my contractions started amping up. They shifted back to 3-4 minutes apart and it felt better to be on my hands and knees, rocking my hips, to make it through them. It was around this time when I finally admitted that I was in labor!

At 11:10 we let our friends know it was real labor and to see if Kevin could come sleep on an air mattress in our house sometime during the night (we still weren't sure how long labor would last or when we'd decide to go to the hospital). I called the midwife shortly thereafter, but she said I sounded much too comfortable to come to the hospital (I could still talk through contractions pretty easily). I didn't want to get to the hospital too early, so I agreed to wait an hour and see how things went.

Well THAT plan went out the window pretty fast, because in the next 30 minutes things got intense! Contractions became 2-3 minutes apart (and because a contraction lasts for a minute, I only had a minute or so in between contractions) and were much more intense. I walked around the house, helping Jesse pack things, and would periodically lean up against a wall to cope with a contractions (coping meant: relaxing my body completely, breathing slowly and deeply, swaying my hips, and sometimes moaning as needed). I decided that it was worth the risk of getting to the hospital too early, so we called Kevin over and let the midwives know we were coming in.

At 12:05 we got in the car to go to the hospital. I had several contractions in the car, and one of them felt vaguely like I had the urge to push--at which point I thought I might be further along than I had previously thought! While Jesse valet parked the car at the emergency department, I leaned against the hospital building and breathed through a contraction. We checked in at the desk and they loaded me in a wheelchair (hospital policy--I wanted to walk!) and I had several more contractions on the way through twisting hallways up to the labor and delivery wing.

We arrived at triage (where they check to see if you're really in labor) at 12:25 am, and I worked through contractions and joked with the nurse as the midwife checked me. I was fully effaced and 8 cm dilated, with a bulging bag of waters that the midwife thought would pop at any minute. In fact, she offered to go ahead and break my water (saying basically "if you want to have a baby right this minute!") but I declined, wanting to let things run their course.

We got to the delivery room around 12:40, and I worked my way through contractions for a bit. The midwife (and a midwife in training) sat around chatting with us, and I kept thinking that they must have more important things to do than sit around waiting for me to have a baby! Didn't they know this could take all night? (Joke was on me: these trained women knew birth was imminent and weren't about to be in the hallway when the action started!)

Just after 1 I was getting tired of working through contractions on my hands and knees (my legs were getting tired) and we discussed switching to a birthing ball. One of the midwives asked if I needed to use the bathroom before changing positions, and I remembered that I had needed to use the bathroom when we left the house, so I went to the bathroom while the other midwife set up the birthing ball. While on the toilet, my water broke (1:11 am)! The contraction after that was definitely a transition contraction--I felt shaky and had a vague urge to push.

The midwife had noticed my urge to push so she suggested we check and see if I was fully dilated instead of sitting on the birthing ball. She checked, discovered I was completely dilated, and said I could push anytime. The next two contractions after that didn't feel pushy, so I waited while we discussed how I should deliver. By the time I felt the urge to push, I had settled on side-lying, and Jesse stood next to me where I could pull on his hands through contractions.

Pushing both felt like it took forever and no time at all, but it was really just 14 minutes. The midwives were amazing, encouraging me and they and Jesse reminded me to breathe slowly and helped me stay calm. They even rubbed my legs when they cramped up from pushing (ouch!), which was so great of them. Pushing was way harder this time around! I think with Miriam I was so excited to make it happen at all that I just pushed through it, but this time the feeling and pressure of Leona moving down was incredibly intense. The final few pushes were honestly excruciating (like my body was tearing itself apart!) and I screamed twice, which I never do during labor.

But then, she was out! She was gray like all newborns at first, but pinked up pretty quick and we could already tell she looked just like Nikolai and Miriam. I remember her wiggling her tiny toes like a monkey (the big toe was wiggling way far away from the rest of the toes) and that her fingernails seemed impossibly tiny.

Here we are, right after delivery!

(that was my attempt at a smile! I'm always so happy when my babies arrive but I'm always too exhausted to show it with my face)

Delivering the placenta went quickly and I breastfed Leona for the first time (she knew just what to do!) The midwives stitched me up (just minor tearing this time, thankfully!) and before we knew it an entire hour had passed and we were getting ready to move to a recovery room. It was so crazy--the previous three hours had felt so long (from the time I thought I still wasn't in labor until the time Leona was born) but the hour after her birth felt so short! All told, I was probably only in labor for around 6 hours, only realized I was in labor for about 2.5 hours, and we were only at the hospital for an hour!

When they got Leona weighed and measured she was 7 lbs 7 oz, 20 inches long and her head was 13.5 inches around.

The hospital stay wasn't bad--we only stayed for around 30 hours (we wanted to get home to the kids) and the second night Jesse went home to feed the kids and put them to bed so they could have some semblance of normal. Mostly he was able to do this because Leona and I were both doing well, and frankly I thought it was a good idea for at least one of us to get a good night's rest!