autumninok: Lily's arrival

We welcomed Lily Beth Norwood into our world on June 10, 2016 at 8:23 PM.

She has been a sweet surprise for us from the minute we found out about her 9 months ago to her 3 week early arrival.

Here's how it all went down.

Monday morning Philip & I went to the doctor for a routine check. At this point Dr. Ford said I was 2cm dilated but not really very effaced so we could plan on a little while longer. I remember commenting to him & Philip "This is the furthest we've ever been at this point" but didn't think much else about it & headed to work.

So I worked as usual Monday through Wednesday & might have felt a little more tired & had some lower back pain but really didn't think much of it because I had worked urgent care over the weekend & just attributed it to not getting a lot of rest.

Then on Thursday I woke up & did not feel very good at all. I was having a lot of back pain & just felt kinda miserable but I only had a 12 hour urgent care shift & a half clinic day between me & the weekend so I got up, got the kids ready & we went about our day.

However, about 4 hours in to work I decided since things were different & I wasn't feeling very good I should check in with my OB. At this point I had no thoughts of her imminent arrival, basically I wanted to check in because I'd never felt like this & I didn't have another appointment until a week from that day (Thursday).

So I give Dr. Ford's office a call, & find out 1) he's out of town & 2) that what is going on may be pre-labor but not to worry because I could do that for a week. Sounded reasonable to me since that is basically what happened with Denver. Since I wasn't feeling any major contractions I just went back to work.

I finished out that day, went home, had started having more & more lower back pain & just felt bad so I decided it might be time to at least plan on her coming in the next week or two. Thus I began doing some laundry to wash her little clothes & partially packed the diaper bag.

I also talked to a couple of couple of OB nurse friends who told me it might be something happening & to keep an eye on things.

Friday morning I woke up & again did not feel well at all but the weekend was so close - only 8 patient visits between me & rest so I powered through & headed to work. At work more than one of my co - workers commented "you don't look like you feel very good" which probably should have set off warning signals to me but really it didn't & probably this was because throughout this whole pregnancy I'd pretty much been in denial anything was going on. 🙄

I finished up at work about noon & headed to Jenny's to get the kids with nothing but napping & rest on my mind. I got home, did not feel like eating lunch & curled up on the couch with Denver as I kept having waves of back pain.

My OB had said multiple times that the contraction pattern with the third baby would be different but I'd never had back labor before so I wasn't sure what was even going on, I just knew I felt bad & was feeling worse as the day went on & rest wasn't helping. So about an hour after being home I called Jenny & had her come over to time the back pain & help me pack to go to the hospital.

I texted Philip & told him I was packing a bag - just FYI texting is probably not the most effective form of communication to tell your husband you are in labor & they should head home, as he really didn't understand the urgency.

Anyway, I got my bag packed, Lily's diaper bag packed, & laid out the kids clothes to wear to the hospital while Jenny helped me out straightening things up & timing the contractions.

Philip made it home & we loaded up & headed to the hospital while Jenny stayed with the kids. When we got there they started us in triage & hooked me up to the monitors - I was 3cm dilated at this time & was having contractions about every 1-2 minutes.

So they monitored me for a couple of hours & Philip did acupressure whenever they were out of the room to promote contractions - see also Denver's birth - it works! Over this time period I progressed to 4cm, they admitted me, the Dr. on call came by & my water broke.

At this point it was 7:30 PM & since delivery was going to occur soon I opted to have an epidural. Previously with Annie I had gotten an epidural & while I felt nothing after that it also slowed my progression & I didn't have her until 10 hours after. With Denver the epidural came too late & I didn't get any of the medication. This time I wanted to reach a happy medium & felt like I would now that my water had broke & things were moving along & become increasingly painful.

The problem is on a Friday evening they have to call anesthesia on call in from home. So even best case scenario you are going to wait a little & at this point in time the pain was the worst I have ever experienced - back labor is no joke folks.

He showed up though about 15 minutes later & got started in the epidural. However, about 3/4 of the way through it though I felt the need to push.

So the nurse told anesthesia to hurry it up & not to worry about setting up any medication because she was sure when I repositioned (turned around & on to my back) I would have the baby.

She was right. I turned around in the bed and began pushing. Which is when anesthesia said "oh my she really is having the baby now!" I will say - I do think I got at least 30 seconds to a minute of a little pain relief this time.

The OB came through the door about a minute later, I pushed again & they could see she had a head full of hair. Between contractions the nurse said "she doesn't have red hair" & I told her "no my babies are generally bald or blonde" & I looked at Philip & he said "she's not bald." Another push later she was here and on my chest & I could see what they were saying.

Sweet swollen, puffy baby.

When the doctor delivered her he said "that's a heavy baby" (side note - he does deliver a lot of smaller babies by the nature of his clientele) & I looked at Philip who looked at me reassuringly that she wasn't a giant - Annie was 7.2 & Denver was 8.9 so I had some concerns because of the increase between those two but little Lily ended up being 7.9 1/2 & 20.5 inches long.

The hospital has a new protocol where the baby stays on the mom & with the parents for 3 hours before they bathe her or do anything else beyond getting Apgar scores & measurements. That was nice because it kept her pretty calm & relaxed & it also meant she was still "fresh" when the kids came to see her.

Annie was precious & sweet just like when Denver was born & oohed & awed over her. She also had quite a few questions as to why her hair was matted & wet & she still had some "baby cheese" on her. 🙂

Denver was so excited when he saw her. He had been laying on my stomach for months feeling her kick & as soon as he saw her he yelled out the door to Jenny & Dustin & their girls "Come in here & see our baby!"

Meeting the crew...

Getting cleaned up

There really are no words for the relief & thankfulness I had after her safe & healthy arrival. This little one had kept me nervous & anxious for nine months but had also increased my faith by bucketloads because I was in a constant prayer asking for a healthy baby.

It's a funny thing when you feel like you have been in control & you realize you aren't. With the other two we had planned them within a month or two from when they were born. I had said many times Denver was my last & turning 35 in 2015 I had put my childbearing years behind me.