Lauren's Birth Story

Today my baby is 1 ½ years old.

Lauren was born on Friday, January 25, 2008 at 7:26 pm after over 18 hours of labor. 4 days before my due date. I went home on Tuesday a little early from work because I was having contractions and they were pretty regular and getting stronger. I called my mom on the way home and she came over to hang out with Brian and I just in case it was the real thing. She wanted me to go to the hospital but I didn’t feel like it was real labor so we waited. We ate dinner and watched TV. I had regular contractions all the way up until about 11 pm when I went to bed and they just stopped. I didn’t go to work the next day. In fact Brian and my mom and I went and walked around Wal-Mart, then JC Penny where I bought Lauren her Easter dress and then we went to the mall. After all of that walking and nothing was happening we decided to go home.

I went to work Thursday and worked all day and then about 1 am Friday morning I woke up with contractions again. They were pretty close together so I decided to get up and walk around and take a shower to see if they continued. They did so we decided to go ahead and make the 45 minute drive to the hospital. We got to the hospital at about 4 am and I was no more dilated than I was Monday at my last prenatal appointment. They went ahead and hooked me up to the monitors to watch me and see how I was progressing. Even though I was having contractions I was not going any further. We walked and walked and I got in the whirlpool which did not relax me like I was hoping.

Finally the nurse decided to help me relax by moving me to a different room and give me a little something to help. That did the trick and I went to a three. At about 12 the doctor broke my water and then they started pitocin at 2. I got my epidural shortly before they started the pitocin. It was nice because even though I could still feel every contraction it definitely took the edge off. The external monitor wasn’t registering my contractions properly so they had to do the internal monitoring of the contractions and Lauren’s heart rate.

At about 5 my epidural was starting to wear off and the nurse ordered more and then checked me and I was at a 10 and ready to start pushing. We waited for the anesthesiologist to come back in and then I started the long process of pushing. I could still feel every contraction despite the epidural. In fact I knew it was coming before the nurse saw it on the monitor. 2 ½ hours later I was so tired and I just couldn’t get her to come out.

My doctor ordered more epidural medicine to make sure that I was good and numb because he knew that he needed to get Lauren out ASAP. I was tired and she was just not coming out no matter what I did to push. He used the forceps and the next push she came out. Since I ended up having a forcep delivery I ripped which my doctor totally expected and that is why he wanted to make sure my epidural wouldn’t wear off. Thank GOODNESS he did that!! Her head had been tilted slightly which caused her to get stuck. The poor thing came out with a huge knot on her head where she kept hitting my pelvis bone and the right side of her head was flat and misshapen.

She was still the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen! She wasn’t crying at first and I just remember saying over and over. “its ok honey you can cry” and then when she did start crying I just remember thanking God and crying for joy! It was one of the most magical experiences that I have ever had.