I am going to start with my last midwife visit on Tuesday, May 19th at 3:30pm. Actually the appointment was at 4:15PM because the midwife for my appointment was called out to deliver a baby. I met with Julie who did the usual exam letting Charlie help. She ended up checking me and I was 1cm and a wiggle dilated, 40% effaced, -1 station and could feel the baby’s head so she is really low. While checking me she stripped my membranes. I heard that it hurts to have your membranes stripped but it didn’t hurt for me at all. I had some cramping for about 2 hours afterwards but nothing else for the rest of the day. 

MAY 20th

At about 10:15 AM I went to the bathroom and noticed gooey mucus streaked with blood. Which means I am loosing my Mucus Plug. It’s been leaking out occasionally all day. Charlie and I then joined some friends over at J’s house. I had some cramping for a couple hours I assume from stripping my membranes but nothing big to be bothered about. No other signs of labor.

MAY 21st

I woke up at 4:30am with some mild cramping. I had decided to sleep downstairs on the couch so that I could sleep sitting up to help with my heartburn as well as to ease my hip aches by not laying completely on my sides. I was able to sleep in between the cramping but it still hasn’t stopped at 9:30am. Once again, it’s like with Charlie where it is just the lower abdomen cramping like a bad period. It’s funny, if I weren’t pregnant I would have taken Midol hours ago and now I plan on going through labor without any medicine! Will I be able to do this? So I sent C to work today on the account that he has to be on the ready! Not sure when the real contractions are going to start but I’ll wait until then to call the midwife since I know from last time that I have quite awhile if it’s just the lower contractions. So baby will be here soon! Yea!

  3:14 PM: Still having mild contractions. They are getting stronger but are still so sporadic.  I put on a pad since I am still leaking the yucky mucus stuff slowly. C came home early for lunch and we all walked to Poor Phils for lunch and then back home. It was funny being in labor yet out and about eating. It was like walking around with a big secret! Hehehe I’m in labor! I had quite a few contractions while eating lunch. It was nice to get out of the house and try not to think about labor. I am getting ready to try to nap and rest and take it easy while I can. C is taking great care of Charlie and spending time outside playing and working on the yard. She’s loving the attention and being able to help out, C is loving being occupied, and I’m loving the relaxing break and enjoying still being pregnant while I can. It’s still so neat to feel her moving inside but sad to know it will all be over soon. I’m also excited to go through labor again and to try to not get any pain medicine.

 9:15 PM: We all napped for about an hour. C made a yummy dinner and we ate outside in the back yard. The whole time the contractions are getting stronger.  So I decided to try a bath upstairs. Well our tub sucks for baths so I ended up lying on my side to get part of my belly covered. I did get some more relaxing in. I think the whole tub and water thing would be very nice if you have the right tub to soak in! Then I took a shower and cleaned up the bedroom a little. The contractions got worse so now I am sitting down trying to rest and time them. Looks like they are getting close and getting pretty painful! But still bearable. They are about 2 –6 minutes apart.

9:30pm: Called J to let her know we are putting Charlie to bed at her house and then going to call the midwife. My contractions were getting stronger and were about 3 minutes apart. I could tell it was still early labor but I was getting nervous about getting in the antibiotics in time for GBS.

10:15pm: C put Charlie to bed at J and K’s house while J came over to talk and keep my mind off of things. It was nice to have other conversations to keep my mind off the contractions but I had to stop during each contraction to concentrate on the pain. C and K hung out for a little bit making sure Charlie was really sleeping and after awhile C came back home and hung with J and I.

11:13pm: Called midwife on call, Amy, and we decided to go in and get checked out since we live so close to the hospital. We went through the ER since it was so late and the regular entrance was closed. I didn’t really need to sit in the wheelchair but they made me sit anyways. I was wheeled upstairs and checked into triage. I was hooked up to the monitors and checked for dilation. I was definitely having contractions but still at 1 1/2 cm dilated and now 50% effaced from 40% on Tuesday. They said I was a –3 station which had to be wrong since I was –1 on Tuesday. I asked about it with Amy and she said it can differ among people if their hand sizes are different so not to pay too much attention to the station. Not much progression, which meant I had awhile still. I was repeating what happened with Charlie but this time around I knew what to expect and I was determined to not cave in! So we decided to go back home and try to rest. I took some Tylenol PM recommended by the midwife and slept off and on until 6:45AM on the couch downstairs while C got some rest upstairs.

May 22nd

6:45am: Contractions are getting strong again, I’m guessing Tylenol PM is wearing off. Also I have been leaking a lot more gooey/bloody stuff. Not sure if it was from the exam at the hospital? 

The rest is from after delivery that I am trying to remember ;)… 

C and I hung around the house all day while I was contracting. We ate breakfast at home and left Charlie with J and K since we knew it would probably be today that I deliver and it was nice to not have to worry about taking care of her. Around 9AM I took another bath, this time downstairs in the bigger tub. But once again it was too small for enough water so I took a cup and kept filling it up to pour over my belly during contractions. It felt so good even though I wasn’t immersed in the water enough. I was told if I take a bath and the contractions don’t stop that I was in real labor so this made me reassured I was in real labor. When I got out, the contractions picked up even more! The only comfortable position was to stand up and lean against something and rock my hips.  C would get up and rub my back to help me through. It felt good. I knew that I needed to get checked out and had a feling I was finally in Active Labor so we called the midwife office and asked to come in to be checked. I didn’t want to have to go to the hospital again without knowing if I was dilating or not. Julie was on call and said come on in. By this time I knew I was getting close and if I wasn’t dilating then I was going to need some help or to somehow get some rest to make it through. I had to stop several times from the house to the car and from the parking lot to the office for contractions. In the office I had to stand and lean and rock through the contractions! There were a few patients in the office but I couldn’t sit down. Kind of embarrassing ha! One woman with her newborn told us that the pressure on her back from her husband was the best help. Carl started to try and it felt good for a little bit but rubbing my back felt the best. The nurse called me in and led me to the back room to be monitored but I had to stop and lean against the wall in the hall to get through a contraction. She then realized they didn’t need to monitor me that I was definitely having very strong contractions and they would just have Julie check me. Julie finished with a patient and came in and checked me. I was 5cm dilated!!! Woohoo. I was so relieved to be dilating on my own and felt better knowing that I CAN do this without pain meds! A little bit of a pick me up. So she sent me on over to the hospital to get through triage and settled into the ABC room since it takes awhile to be monitored. We all assumed I had another 4 hours at least to dilate completely since I was only half way there. So she finished up with another couple patients while I got checked in. I had to stop again several times on the way back to the car and everyone was wishing me good luck. So nice! C asked if I wanted to go through the ER or regular entrance. I assumed I had awhile to go so we could take our time and valet the car and go in the regular entrance. Well as soon as I step out of the car I had a contraction and had to hold on to the door of the car so a stranger brought me a wheelchair. So nice and a good thing he did because it would have taken forever to get upstairs otherwise. The contractions were coming too fast and too strong. So C pushes me upstairs to triage and the nurse is busy with another patient so we sit waiting while I moan through some contractions. But another woman who wasn’t even working at the time saw how fast and hard I was contracting and got my charts ready and got another nurse for me. Nice again! I get to the Triage room and had to stop several times for contractions while trying to pee in that damn tiny cup (Don’t get me started!), get undressed, get into the gown, and finally sit on the bed to be monitored. This process to get onto the bed took much longer than it should but I was having too many contractions ha! By this time I am moaning through my contractions. I asked if I could lie on my side for the monitoring because I knew from the earlier triage visit that I could not handle laying on my back! Another reason I wanted to go natural so I could move around, so I was annoyed I had to lie on my back or lie down at all!!! It felt much better to stand! But I appeased them to try to get it over with and laid on my right side. The poor nurse was rushing to get everything done and all the paperwork together since she saw how fast I was contracting and knew she had to get me into the room ASAP. Triage took forever since we had to keep waiting for my contractions to stop to talk and sign papers etc. She had the antibiotic order ready for when I got to the room. Well they didn’t get the 20 minutes of monitoring in yet but knew they had to get me to the room and try to start the IV for antibiotics for the GBS so they moved me with the monitor cords. When we got in the room, 627, they hooked me back up while I laid on my left side to look at the monitor. By this time I am really moaning and yelling during my contractions. Yelling isn’t the right word but I can’t think of anything better right now. I really was in so much pain! C and I watched the monitor and could see that the contractions were off the top of the chart! hahaha Um yeah I could tell you that without the machine! C rubbed my back and tried to do the back pressure point and it hurt so I asked him to stop. C kept asking if he should get the bags and camera now. I told him no. I had a feeling he’d miss it if he did and I was right! The nurse kept looking at the monitor and writing things down. She asked me if I was feeling pain or pressure? I said a little bit of both. She immediately wanted to check me and said that when the contractions have a dip at the top that normally means I’m ready to push! Um what!?!?!?! Ready to push? I was just 5 cm 45 minutes ago! Julie isn’t here yet! I’m not pushing! She checked me and I was complete and my water bag was bulging out!!!!!! She only told me about the water bag part and nothing about how dilated I was. She rushed to the phone to try to get a hold of Julie! Julie was on her way already. I then figured that I was closer than I though since the nurse sounded a little frantic. I told C to call J and tell her to come now and hurry! I could hear her on the phone ask if we wanted Charlie too and I said no just her. I knew if she had to get Charlie into the car and get here she would miss everything. At this point I was thinking I still had a little while before I started to push since I didn’t have that push feeling yet and the nurse didn’t tell me I was complete so I assumed I was close but not complete yet. I then asked to get into the tub and they started to get it ready. Well the next thing I know a Doctor on call at the hospital came into the room and introduced himself. I was told he was there in case I delivered before Julie got there. Nice! Well then another midwife from another practice, My old practice with Charlie, came in and introduced herself and offered to help if needed. I then started to feel the initial pressure of the push feeling I remembered from Charlie. It’s weird how the feeling just switches to the need to push. It’s like someone pushed a switch and now the pain is turned into pressure. I was like I have to push! I was still lying on my side and they all started to tell me to try to turn on my back. I started to try but couldn’t in the middle of the contraction. They all were telling me I didn’t have to. They were just trying to not encourage me to push until Julie got there but at the same time were around if I did. It was kind of nice to not be told to not push and that they knew I couldn’t not so why tell me that. Before the next contraction I turned on my back and started pushing but not trying very hard, just enough to ease the pain and urge. I then realized how funny it must have been with a Dr., a Midwife, and extra nurses just standing around starring at me in case I needed help! Hahaha The nurse then took off the monitors. They should have been taken off awhile ago but I have a feeling that since no Dr. or midwife was there the nurses wanted it on to keep an eye on me. Another annoyance but I understand! Just then Julie walks in the door and I hear her sweet voice say “Hi sweety”. I then knew I could relax and really push. I then said again that I wanted to get into the tub. The Doctor and other midwife said goodbye and Julie took over. It was kind of funny that I had an audience for a while with the dr., midwife, and nurses all standing around watching me but not doing or saying anything. We got me to stand up but then I had to push again and couldn’t stop pushing. Julie was standing there with her hand under me in case the baby came out. They started to move the towels on the floor under me but I was determined to get into the tub! I hear Julie say to the nurses that we might be doing this standing up. I instantly thought to myself how weird would that be to tell people, No, I am getting in that tub! So in between the next contraction I finally moved into the tub after they removed my gown. I had planned on wearing my tank top in the tub but at the time I didn’t care and just wanted in the tub to push. SO naked I was. I didn’t have time. A nurse insisted I put on a rubber glove on my right hand to cover up the IV, which was kind of annoying. I didn’t want to feel my baby for the first time with a rubber glove! But I put it on since I had to push again and needed my hand to hold on to the handle for leverage. I gave it a good try. I could feel her head really low and knew I was crowning. I remember thinking that I didn’t want to push too hard since it will hurt. But then I thought what am I thinking? It’s eventually going to hurt so get it over with. Push her out now! She went back in a little bit but was still sticking out. I could just feel it. She was sitting right there and not going anywhere. I knew I had to push her out. Julie helped to stretch me and the next contraction I started pushing thinking I would push a few more times but then decided NO I’m getting her out now! So I started really pushing and out came her head! The contractions were not stopping now and Julie told me I had to push again and I pushed her shoulders out and up she came! This whole time is kind of surreal since I could hear people talking in the background but I was in my zone in my own world with my eyes closed to push. Just like last time with Charlie. I opened my eyes and…

1:58PM Lillian Midori was born!

She was pulled out of the water by Julie and placed on my chest. She cried for the initial minute and then was quiet and looking at me. My cord was short again so they had to make sure I didn’t pull her up too far but I could get her on my chest and out of the water. I could feel the cord tugging from me. They immediately put dry towels on her and wiped her off a little. We sat in the tub to wait for the cord to stop pulsing. C and I were so giddy. C took a couple pictures with his Iphone. Finally the cord stopped and Julie cut the cord. C didn’t want to since it grossed him out. Jackie then walks in just missing it! She had her camera and started taking pictures and C took some with his phone. I was sad I didn’t get the video or pictures I wanted of the labor and birth! Julie hands Lillian over to C and wraps her in some dry towels. He gets his first good look at her and then hands her to the nurse to get checked out and wiped off. I get out of the tub and head to the bed while they check out the baby in the warmer next to my bed. I was shaking really bad from all the hormones and getting out of the water and they wrapped me up in a couple sheets to warm me up. Julie checked me out at the same time and seeing if the placenta is ready to come out yet. She really pressed on my belly to get all the bleeding out and help the placenta along. I guess I lost quite a bit of blood but not enough to be alarmed about. They just kept an eye on me. The same thing happened last time with Charlie and I remember the nurse saying I was a natural red head and red heads tend to bleed more. A minute later I am pushing out the placenta and Julie is cleaning and sewing me up. I tore a little downwards where my previous tear was. I only needed 3 or 4 stitches. Julie showed me the placenta and J and I were so interested. Once again it was very healthy like Charlie’s. I had J take pictures of it. C and J took turns holding Lillian during all of this. The nurse then took Lillian again to do the reassessment of her apgar and she passed again. We declined the eye ointment and Vitamin K shot. Lillian was then handed back to me. We took some pictures. The nurse then took me to the bathroom to get cleaned up and they were all impressed I could walk so well. Especially since the nurse was expecting me to be dizzy from the blood loss but I wasn’t. We cleaned me up and put on the lovely net underwear and pads. Then I realized I hadn’t fed Lillian yet! Julie and J came over and tried to help me. She wouldn’t latch. Julie had Lil suck on her pinky to see if she was sucking correctly and said that she likes to chomp. Ugh, I have another chomper! We also checked if she was tongue-tied like her big sister and she is not. We tried some more and she wouldn’t latch and was getting frustrated so we stopped. Luckily this was my second baby or I would have been really worried but I knew from experience that we’d eventually get it and to just keep working at it. She’ll get it eventually. We passed her around some more and then I realized I hadn’t checked her out yet. I unwrapped her and looked at her adorable body, counted all the fingers and toes, and kissed her hands and feet. I then tried breastfeeding her again and finally got her to latch on to one side in the football hold. She ate for a couple of minutes and then stopped. A good start! We decided it was now a good time to take her to the nursery and get weighed and measured. C and J took her to the nursery but returned a minute later since they had to roll her in the incubator when she was out of our room. Off again they went. J had to take pictures outside of the nursery window since no cameras are allowed so no other babies accidentally get their pictures taken. She weighed 6lbs. 15ozs and measured 18 ½ inches long with her head and chest measuring 13 inches around. C went and picked up Charlie and some food to bring back while J and I just hung out looking at Lillian. Carl came back with Charlie wearing her Big sister shirt! I was taking pictures of Lillian in her incubator when they came in so I picked Charlie up, Yes I forgot I wasn’t supposed to lift anything, and showed her Lillian. I then asked if she wanted to hold her sister and she said yes. We put some pillows on the rocking chair and then sat Charlie and Lillian in the chair. Charlie didn’t understand what was really going on but looked at the baby and rubbed her face gently. I don’t think she understood that this was HER baby sister yet. After a minute of holding her I could tell she was done and so we got her set up with her food. J then left to go home for the night while the 4 of us hung out and bonded. We played a movie for Charlie while we ate and hung out. We then gave Charlie her present from Lillian, a travel aquadoodle. After playing and hanging out for awhile C took Charlie back to J and K’s house for the night. He put her to bed and then came back. While he was gone I was trying to get Lillian to settle in and go to sleep. She was quite fussy and we tried to feed again several times but wasn’t able to settle into a sleep. She ended up being pretty fussy all night long. Around 4am she finally started to get tired and sleep but then the nurse came in and said we had to move rooms since there were 2 women who just came in that needed the ABC rooms. So off to another post pardum room we went. It was much smaller but the bed ended up being better since it was the hospital bed that I could adjust up and down. The pediatrician came in the morning and checked Lillian out. Everything looked great. She had her lay on her belly to check out her spine etc and Lillian lifted her head right up and looked around. The Dr. said wow she’s strong and that we needed to keep an eye on her when on high surfaces. She said we had to stay until Lillian was 24 hours old just to keep an eye on her for any signs of Group B Strep since we didn’t get the antibiotics in time. Later in the day one of my midwives, Gayle, came in to check on me and said everything looked good and when Lillian was released we could go home. We had the nurse, Annie, get all the paperwork prepared and ready so that we could leave after 24 hours, an early release. Around 1PM C picked up Charlie and we hung out for a while finishing paperwork and getting Lillian and I cleaned up and ready to go. When everything was done C and Charlie went downstairs to get the car and then a few minutes later the nurse wheeled Lillian and I down stairs. C and Charlie were waiting for us out front and we put Lillian in her car seat. It took us awhile to get her in the car seat since the straps had to be readjusted to the lowest settings to fit her. Lillian instantly hated being in the seat and started crying. I had to keep trying to get her to suck on the pacifier to quiet her down. On the way home we picked up some Pizza Hut pizza for dinner. That night J, K, and B came over and hung out. Lillian was much better for her first night home. She ate and slept well.