Lucy's Story

Lucy at one week

Some people like to hear about birth stories. Perhaps it's because I'm a mother, but I like to hear about other people's experiences. So for those who want to know, here is my story about Lucy. (For those who don't, I'll have something more exciting (an organization project) post soon!)

Thursday, October 29^th had seemed to be another regular day for me. I spent the day in my comfy clothes, resting on the couch doing the typical things I had done for the past 7 weeks. Bed rest certainly wasn't fun for me and I was honestly bored out of my mind. Although if I had been able to move about and do things, I probably wouldn't have. I was simply too tired to do anything.

That afternoon I decided that I should probably take a shower and get cleaned up for the day. At roughly 4:30p when I got out of the shower, I realized that my water broke. I felt a little frantic at first. This was a whole new experience for me. With Olivia, they broke my water at the hospital. I knew that I needed to finish packing my bag and get Livy ready to go to her grandparents.

I was honestly in no rush to get to the hospital. Even though my water broke, I was having no contractions. So while I finished packing, Eduardo took Livy out to deliver Halloween goodies to her friends. Before dropping Livy off, Eduardo also made dinner and bathed Olivia.

After dropping Livy off we headed to the hospital. We got there at about 7:40p and got checked in and headed to our Labor & Delivery Room. It took a half hour for our nurse to come in. It was a good thing that I wasn't in true labor yet.

After setting up the monitors, we found that I was having contractions, but they were too small to feel and wasn’t helping me progress. It was then decided by the on call doctor, to start me on a Pitocin drip to help get my labor going. This is something that I really did not want to experience. I wanted to go fully into labor like I did with Livy. I did not want to be started. (Of course at this point, I was grateful that I wasn't going to be induced on a later date and that this was the day my baby was meant to come!)

They started the drip at 10:30pm and it kicked in about 10:45/11:00pm. By 11:30 pm the contraction were sever enough that I decided it was time for my epidural. I progress very quickly once I have hit heavy labor and knew that it was only a matter of time before I would be complete.

It’s odd how calm and relaxed epidurals make me. They make me so relaxed that I want to sleep and rest. Naturally it wasn't a full rest since I was still able to feel the pressure of the contractions but couldn't feel the pain.

Finally at 1 am the nurse comes in to check on me and asks if I could feel the pressure of the baby’s head. Yes, probably for the last half hour or so. She checks and I'm complete.

But it's not time to push. We had to wait for the on-call doctor to arrive and to get set up. I was okay with this because I was still in a complete drug like state from the epidural.

Finally at 2am it was time. We waited for one contraction and in that one contraction I pushed. That's all it took! The nurse commented that I probably could have had her an hour earlier if I hadn’t rested so much. The total labor from start to finish was 3 hours.

I did tear a tiny bit but once the doctor looked at it she decided it was too small for stitches. She told me, like what Olivia's doctor had said 2 years ago, that my body was meant to have babies!

Lucia weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and measured 20.5 inches long!

We both have recovered well and slowly adjusting to our new lives. I look forward to when Lucy knows that night is for sleep and day for play, but that will come soon enough.