Lauren's Birthstory
Lauren's Birth
Beginning the Monday before my due date, my blood pressure had started to rise. The Midwives were concerned enough at our home visit that day to send me into the hospital to have a NST and some bloodwork done that evening. Everything was fine and I was sent home. I met Carolynn at the clinic Tuesday morning where my blood pressure was normal, however I was sent for an ultrasound on Tuesday afternoon where Lauren scored 8/8 on the healthy scale. Thursday morning I was back at the clinic to have a re-check of blood pressure and it was elevated - so Thursday night I was back in L&D doing another NST and bloodwork - everything was perfect! Friday morning I had another ultrasound where baby scored 8/8 again szo we decided to slowly try to induce labour through natural methods to get her here. I tried everything over the weekend to get things started, but once I'd stop stimulating labour it would stop - so Saturday night decided she just wasn't ready and went to bed.
Sunday morning I woke up at 7:30a with a really bad headache, I knew it was a sign something wasn't right (a sign of PIH getting worse is a headache) so after taking two tylenol and having a little cry - I paged my midwife and we agreed to meet at the hospital and run her strip again. My Mom came out to watch the boys and I took all my bags just in case. Bloodwork and strip came back normal, so my midwife said she'd run everything by the OB on call and we were free to go home - easy right? Nope!
OB decided because the headache wasn't normal for me that even though the bloodwork looked okay now, it didn't mean things weren't going to get worse, and they certainly wouldn't get better until she was born - Lauren was better outside than in. Of course, he had to check my cervix again - after my midwife had done it a few minutes prior - and decided just to break my waters because my cervix was ready. So at 2:15pm my water was broken, I had to stay in bed for 30 minutes on a strip checking out baby and then I began to walk. I walked the halls of the hospital for hours, stopped at 5:30p for dinner and then resumed walking. Contractions were every 5 minutes or so but not painful yet. By 9pm I was pretty tired of walking, with no change to the contractions except they were getting longer, closer to a minute apart. I had a little chat with the midwives who said maybe I should get some 'rest' in bed for a while, she called it the "watched pot syndrome" where things move faster when left alone - everyone left the room (midwives, my Mom, Gary's Mom and my Poppa) for us to have some quiet time. They checked my cervix at 9:30pm and I was only at 5cms and 60% effaced. I was pretty crushed - as I went into this being 3cms so I thought I'd be getting some pitocin to help me out.
We sat the bed up and watched the last half hour of desperate housewives, during that time my contractions changed. They became painful where I had to breathe through them, even more frequent and by 10:30pm I was begging the student midwife for some drugs. Contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasting over a minute each. I knew it was close to the end - my midwife to checked me - where she declared I was 9cms and they began to set up the room for delivery. Around 11pm I began to feel pushy, so Carolynn said to go ahead, that she was ready. Not long after that, my contractions stopped completely and so did the pressure - it was the oddest feeling and I could feel Lauren slowly moving under the bone, but it didn't hurt. I rested for a few minutes before gearing up to push and made sure someone had the camera ready to take pictures. I pushed 2 times and Lauren's head was out, the cord was loosely wrapped around her neck so it took a few seconds to lift it over. One more push and at 11:15pm Lauren was delivered into her Daddy's hands, she had more of the cord wrapped under her arm, so they had to wiggle her out of that too. Gary knew how badly I wanted him to be the one to deliver her, so when I wasn't looking he put on gloves and caught his baby girl. She was put right on my chest and we were covered up, not long after that Lauren began to nurse and she's amazing at it! She weighed 5 pounds, 11 ounces like her big brother Kevin. We went home 3 hours after her birth where we got to snuggle up with our baby girl for the night.
She's now 6 days old and the most wonderful baby ever, she's quiet when awake and sleeps great. The boys love their little sister and think she's the sweetest thing :)
Beginning the Monday before my due date, my blood pressure had started to rise. The Midwives were concerned enough at our home visit that day to send me into the hospital to have a NST and some bloodwork done that evening. Everything was fine and I was sent home. I met Carolynn at the clinic Tuesday morning where my blood pressure was normal, however I was sent for an ultrasound on Tuesday afternoon where Lauren scored 8/8 on the healthy scale. Thursday morning I was back at the clinic to have a re-check of blood pressure and it was elevated - so Thursday night I was back in L&D doing another NST and bloodwork - everything was perfect! Friday morning I had another ultrasound where baby scored 8/8 again szo we decided to slowly try to induce labour through natural methods to get her here. I tried everything over the weekend to get things started, but once I'd stop stimulating labour it would stop - so Saturday night decided she just wasn't ready and went to bed.
Sunday morning I woke up at 7:30a with a really bad headache, I knew it was a sign something wasn't right (a sign of PIH getting worse is a headache) so after taking two tylenol and having a little cry - I paged my midwife and we agreed to meet at the hospital and run her strip again. My Mom came out to watch the boys and I took all my bags just in case. Bloodwork and strip came back normal, so my midwife said she'd run everything by the OB on call and we were free to go home - easy right? Nope!
OB decided because the headache wasn't normal for me that even though the bloodwork looked okay now, it didn't mean things weren't going to get worse, and they certainly wouldn't get better until she was born - Lauren was better outside than in. Of course, he had to check my cervix again - after my midwife had done it a few minutes prior - and decided just to break my waters because my cervix was ready. So at 2:15pm my water was broken, I had to stay in bed for 30 minutes on a strip checking out baby and then I began to walk. I walked the halls of the hospital for hours, stopped at 5:30p for dinner and then resumed walking. Contractions were every 5 minutes or so but not painful yet. By 9pm I was pretty tired of walking, with no change to the contractions except they were getting longer, closer to a minute apart. I had a little chat with the midwives who said maybe I should get some 'rest' in bed for a while, she called it the "watched pot syndrome" where things move faster when left alone - everyone left the room (midwives, my Mom, Gary's Mom and my Poppa) for us to have some quiet time. They checked my cervix at 9:30pm and I was only at 5cms and 60% effaced. I was pretty crushed - as I went into this being 3cms so I thought I'd be getting some pitocin to help me out.
We sat the bed up and watched the last half hour of desperate housewives, during that time my contractions changed. They became painful where I had to breathe through them, even more frequent and by 10:30pm I was begging the student midwife for some drugs. Contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasting over a minute each. I knew it was close to the end - my midwife to checked me - where she declared I was 9cms and they began to set up the room for delivery. Around 11pm I began to feel pushy, so Carolynn said to go ahead, that she was ready. Not long after that, my contractions stopped completely and so did the pressure - it was the oddest feeling and I could feel Lauren slowly moving under the bone, but it didn't hurt. I rested for a few minutes before gearing up to push and made sure someone had the camera ready to take pictures. I pushed 2 times and Lauren's head was out, the cord was loosely wrapped around her neck so it took a few seconds to lift it over. One more push and at 11:15pm Lauren was delivered into her Daddy's hands, she had more of the cord wrapped under her arm, so they had to wiggle her out of that too. Gary knew how badly I wanted him to be the one to deliver her, so when I wasn't looking he put on gloves and caught his baby girl. She was put right on my chest and we were covered up, not long after that Lauren began to nurse and she's amazing at it! She weighed 5 pounds, 11 ounces like her big brother Kevin. We went home 3 hours after her birth where we got to snuggle up with our baby girl for the night.
She's now 6 days old and the most wonderful baby ever, she's quiet when awake and sleeps great. The boys love their little sister and think she's the sweetest thing :)
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