lauren’s birth story

lauren had her two week appointment today.  little girl’s been doing some good growing- she’s now 6 lbs 11 oz and 18 1/2 inches long.  not bad considering she was only 5 1/2 lbs when we left the hospital.  yesterday was her due date.  which makes me wonder how big she would have been if she hadn’t come sixteen days early.

but we are so glad she’s here and growing well- sleeping great, eating great, and pooping great!

and here is her birth story:

so like i posted earlier, we headed for the hospital on friday.  phil was post-call that morning and called on his way home to see how i was doing.  i had been having contractions on and off for the past week and was up most of the previous night with them and thinking it was time.  i was hoping against hope that i’d make it to the morning.  i had called my dad wednesday morning since i had a feeling the baby would come soon.  thankfully, he jumped into the car, drove here and stayed with us through the weekend.  it was sooo good to have him here especially since i wasn’t able to move around too well with the big belly and it was getting increasingly harder to take care of mikey and allie.  and it spared me the extra stress of having to find someone to watch the kids while we were in the hospital.  we are so thankful that the Lord worked out all the details, even down to having phil get home to take me to the hospital.

so i scrambled between contractions to get my bag packed and the presents for the kids wrapped on friday morning.  by the time phil had the car vacuumed out (he always goes into crazy cleaning mode just before we have to leave– he’s done this with each child!  must be his version of “nesting”), infant carseat installed, and our stuff loaded, my contractions had subsided once again.  so that’s why we ended up deciding to catch a movie first before going to the hospital.  we ended up seeing “hancock”.  not bad, but not great either.  but definitely fun to slip in a date anyway!  (this was originally my surprise anniversary gift to phil– a movie date.  i even had a babysitter all set for the 20th, but alas, God and lauren had different plans for us).

since the contractions hadn’t started up again, we decided to head back home and pick everyone up to go have lunch.  the rest of the day passed like any other day.  contractions finally started up again as we were finishing up dinner (crab from the redondo crab place!) and getting the kids ready for bed.  after we got the kids down, i decided we should head for the hospital since waiting too long could very well result in having the baby in the car (one of my fears with this pregnancy.  the other was having the baby at home while phil was stuck at work.  again, so thankful the Lord worked out all the details!).

we got to the hospital at around 10:30 friday night.  contractions were starting to go away again, making me worry that they’d send us home after all.  the triage nurse got me hooked up to the monitors and said they’d watch for an hour and see what progress there was.  she checked me when we first got there and i was about 3.5 cm dilated.  so things had progressed since my tuesday appointment when i was 2-3 cm.  the contractions were very mild for the hour and i was sure we’d be sent home.  the nurse checked me at 11:30 and i was 4 cm.  so a little progress was made!  and isn’t 4 cm the start of active labor anyway?!

the nurse said she’d call my doctor for the verdict.  now, i have to say that i have the world’s laziest doctor (that’s another long story) and i was pretty sure he’d say i should go home.  it was friday night after all, and i knew he’d be very reluctant to come to the hospital.  apparently the nurse convinced him that i should stay since i’d very likely be back later in the night in very active labor with the baby just about to come out.  apparently she understood that third babies come rather quickly.  especially since my first two came super fast as well.  something my doctor wasn’t too interested in hearing about when i tried to tell him at my last clinic visit.

so i ended up getting admitted that night.  but the doctor had said not to give me anything (iv, or pitocin) for the night.  i guess he wanted a full night’s sleep before coming in.  so i tried my best to get some rest that night.  not too successful with the nurse coming in and out and feeling too excited and nervous.  phil conked out though.  my contractions remained irregular, but began to feel pretty bad around 2 am.  mostly because i was feeling a lot of back labor just like i had with mikey.  so phil said i should call the nurse to ask for an epidural.  turned out right then was when they had two emergencies going on and both my nurse and the anesthesiologist were busy in operating rooms.  just like with mikey– which resulted in me missing the opportunity to get an epidural then because i was pretty much fully dilated.  but the nurse (who happened to look a lot like courteney cox) came back around 3 am and said the anesthesiologist was on his way.  but then my contractions had again subsided so i felt silly getting an epidural since i was in no pain again.

sidenote: one hazard of being married to a resident physician is that it’s likely that he’ll know the doctor who is going to do my epidural.  and that doctor will offer to let said husband do my epidural.  except that my one rule when delivering babies is that i want my husband to be a husband and not a doctor at that particular point in time.  not that i don’t trust him to do it, but i think i handle pain better when a stranger is inflicting it instead of phil.  so it was a little odd to have the anesthesiologist and phil shooting the breeze while i was getting the epidural.  at 3:15 am.

so after i got comfortable with the epidural (as much as i could anyway– turns out i’m extremely sensitive to narcotics so i started itching an hour later.  and i promptly threw up twice right after lauren was born.  same thing with allie.  thankfully this time i only had water to drink for the last 12 hours, so my stomach was pretty empty.  phil says most people feel itchy a day or two later, if at all, and it’s pretty rare to have nausea and vomiting from it.  i’m just special like that), the nurse checked me at 4 am and said i was around 5 cm.  she returned an hour later with a bag of pitocin saying my doctor finally said we should get things started since my contractions had faded to nothing once i got the epidural.

it was fascinating to watch the contractions come in regular waves and peak pretty high on the screen and yet feel nothing except some tightness around my mid-section.   very nice to not feel the back labor anymore.

the nurse checked me again at 7 am and i was still about 5-6 cm.  i wondered when the doctor would make his appearance and break my water since that is what really made things go fast with mikey and allie.  meanwhile, phil called his work to let them know he’d have to miss the test scheduled for that morning since he was with me in the hospital.  his fellow residents couldn’t believe his stroke of luck.  practically the ONLY excuse to get out of the test and he had it!  so he took a picture of me hooked up to the monitors and iv with his camera phone and sent it to them.

more time passed, the nurse came in periodically and at one point told us that ten babies had been born that night.  and all were girls!  she checked me again at 11:15 am, and i was still stuck at 6 cm.  with pictocin running all that time!  and my lazy doctor, you ask?  he still hadn’t made an appearance yet.  the nurse called him from my room and suggested he come in to break my water.  to which he responds to her, “can’t you do it?”  argh!!  what am i paying this guy for??  phil agreed this guy wasn’t very good.  but it just so happened that my water did break at the last check.  just when phil had stepped out to get something for breakfast.  the nurse calls the doctor again to say he really should come in because now she’s seeing some blood and a couple of clots in the amniotic fluid.  which is making me pretty nervous since i have no idea where it’s coming from.  the nurse checks me again and i’ve jumped to 10 cm!  i get even more nervous thinking phil is going to miss the birth.  the nurse leaves to call the doctor again.

thankfully, phil walks in and i quickly catch him up on what’s happening.  then i start feeling the need to push.  except, no one is there but me and phil!  so i say, “great, you’re going to have to deliver me after all.”  i ask phil twice where everyone went since i’m really feeling like i need to push.

the doctor finally comes in at 11:45 and i push through two contractions.  he stops me at that point to get his delivery gear on, and then i push one more time and our precious little lauren is born at 11:54 am.  5 minutes of pushing and she’s here!  and i had no tearing at all this time- yahoo!  except cynical phil points out that maybe i did but my lazy doctor didn’t want to do any stitches.  heh.  heh.  wait…  what?!

some crazy similarities between all three kids:  they were each born at 6 lbs 1 oz, even though they all came at different times.  mikey was two days early, allie was eleven days early, and lauren was sixteen days early.  and they were all born on a saturday morning.  strange, but true!

and now, some pictures!

one thing i’ll miss about being pregnant– that handy little shelf to keep drinks and bowls of ice cream on.  this is my 37 week belly.  four days before lauren was born.

being wheeled out from the hospital:

finally back at home.  i was given the option to come home on sunday, but both phil and i wanted to stay in the hospital an extra day since it was kinda a mini-vacation for both of us.  hee hee.

mikey, an old pro at being a big brother:

it’ll be so fun to watch allie and lauren grow as sisters.  allie’s already soooo excited about her baby sister!