(100th Post!!!) The Birth Story of Lailey Claire Akin

In honor of Lailey's birthday tomorrow (April 7th) and to celebrate my 100th post, I finally finished her birth story...enjoy. (P.S. It's a long one!)

The Birth Story of Lailey Claire Akin

Our baby (gender a surprise) was due on March 29, 2009, but up until somewhere around 37 or 38 weeks, the baby was breech, and we had to make the difficult decision to schedule a C-section (c/s). It was not the way we had wanted it to go, but after a lot of praying, reading, and discussion, we finally had peace about our decision. On Tuesday, March 17^th, one week before the c/s, I had a regular appointment and the doctor explained all about the surgery and what to expect. Before we left that appointment, I asked her if she wanted to check me or feel my stomach just to make sure the baby was still breech. She said no because I “would have known if it happened.” Apparently when babies flip that late (38 weeks) it is very uncomfortable, even painful, for the mother because there is very little room left. I guess she figured the odds were so slim she didn’t expect it to happen anyway. After we left, I had a nagging feeling about it all evening. I had several family members who were taking off work or coming from out of town the next week for the c/s, and what if the baby had flipped and we found out that day when the doctor did an u/s right before the surgery. I kept trying to put it out of my mind, but I couldn’t. This is very unlike me to worry so much about something, so I finally mentioned it to Davey that night. Of course, he couldn’t understand why I hadn’t insisted the doctor check at our appointment that day. I regretted it, but now I had to know for sure. I decided to call from work the next morning to see if I could stop by the doctor’s office and they could fit me in to check the baby’s position. Honestly, I really did not think the baby had turned; for some reason I just needed peace of mind.

Thankfully, my OB office was able to work me in, and I went to see the midwife. When she felt the top of my stomach, she got a perplexed look on her face and said, “That sure feels like a butt.” Then she checked my cervix and got an even more perplexed look when she said, “That feels like a head down there.” As she rolled in the ultrasound (u/s) machine, I honestly still didn’t think the baby had turned. So when she looked at the screen and said “That baby turned!” I almost jumped off the table!!! Both she and I and the nurse who had come in to watch were laughing and shouting with excitement! I just couldn’t believe it. By the time I left and called Davey, I was just shaking with joy. All the people who had prayed so hard for the baby to turn would be overjoyed to hear that their prayers had been answered this way.

Then the waiting game began. As I had expected from the beginning of the pregnancy, I saw my due date come and go. I had already gone on maternity leave since I thought I was having a c/s for so long, but I tried to keep busy so I wouldn’t wait for labor to happen “any minute.” I walked a lot and tried a few other things to get labor going, but each time I had an appointment I was barely dilated to 1 cm and only about 50% effaced. The doctor stripped my membranes twice in hopes that it might get things going, but I only got mild contractions for the evening before they stopped. Fortunately through all this, I still felt really good physically even when I was past 41 weeks. That made it easier even if it was difficult to deal with emotionally. Davey and I were so excited to meet our baby, but we didn’t want to rush the natural process. The reason I wanted to go into labor on my own is because being induced can sometimes make it much more difficult to have a medication-free delivery. Davey and I had studied the Bradley Method for natural childbirth for a few months, and we hoped to have a natural birth if things went smoothly. I tried to keep an open mind though, especially in case I had to be induced, because I didn’t want to be too rigid in my plans and be disappointed if things didn’t go exactly as planned. Labor and delivery never does.

On the morning of Monday, April 6^th, 2009 (41 wks, 1 day) Davey and I went to an u/s appointment to check the baby’s amniotic fluid levels and other things to make sure he/she was still thriving despite being overdue. When we went to see the midwife in the afternoon at my OB’s office to get the results, she said that the baby’s fluid levels were lower than they like to see. They don’t want it to go below 5, and we were somewhere around 3.4. She left the room to talk to the doctor, and then she came back in and told us that we needed to get this baby delivered. It was one of those defining moments in life when you realize everything is about to change. We were so excited to finally get things going! We scheduled the induction for that same evening (April 6^th), and then left the hospital and spent the entire drive home calling family. We got back to the house, showered, and packed our bags, which I don’t think I had finished yet. For some reason I felt like if I packed everything up I wouldn’t have anything left to do and I’d go crazy waiting for labor to begin. Well, now I didn’t have to. We both scrambled around the house grabbing everything we thought we needed and loaded up the car. There are no words to describe how excited we were. For so many days it had felt like it would never come, and now we knew we would meet our baby in the very near future. I wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. But I just kept packing.

Finally we made it back to Fayetteville and stopped at Great Wraps Café at 4:30 pm across from the hospital for dinner before checking in. I don’t really think either of us tasted our food at all. I told Davey not to tell the lady working that we were on our way to have a baby (I really don’t know why), but he told her anyway, and I think I kicked him in the leg out of view. Must have been the nerves.

At 5:15 pm we began the check-in process at the hospital. We got into a room, filled out paperwork, got hospital bracelets, and talked with the midwife. I had been having what I thought were Braxton-Hicks contractions (ctx) fairly regularly that day, but due to the frantic running around trying to make it back to the hospital I’d hardly noticed. Once I got hooked up to the monitor, Heather (midwife) came in and told me she was going to skip Cervadil and just start Pitocin. Apparently I was already having ctx every 4-6 minutes on my own and didn’t need it. I asked her if it was possible to have a very low dose of Pitocin since I was already contracting and she agreed to that. It was around 7:30 pm when they hooked up the IV and got it going.

From then on some of our family – who we had told that there would be no reason to run to the hospital yet – had decided that they were just too excited to stay home and had started arriving. We told them they could come back to the room and visit. The ctx were mild and I was still able to talk and even watch an episode of “The Office” on Davey’s laptop – ha! Everyone coming in to visit really helped the time pass. Around 10:30 pm I felt the need to pause and relax during ctx.

11:15 pm – I had a small amount of bloody show and was feeling a little shaky (this happens when I have a lot of adrenaline pumping and have not eaten in awhile), but I was still relaxing okay through ctx which were 2 min. apart but not too strong. I was still pretty positive about everything and was just working to relax. My dear husband, who had gotten hungry, forgot on two different occasions and tried to offer me some food, which I couldn’t have because of the IV and Pitocin. He felt really bad after he saw the glare on my face.

The ctx were getting more uncomfortable, but Davey was doing an amazing job of being reassuring and calm. He helped me get up and unhook the annoying monitors whenever I had to use the bathroom. This was quite a process because I had to take the IV pole with me and it didn’t roll over the threshold in the bathroom very well, plus I had 4 cords draped over my shoulder, plus two belly monitors – one for me, one for baby – that kept sliding off my greatly rounded stomach. Lather, rinse, repeat about every 30 minutes. Ironically, that was one of the worst parts of the whole thing.

12:30 am – Heather checked me and said I was still at 1 cm but 90% effaced which she said was great since effacement (thinning out of the cervix) is the hardest part for first time moms. All I could think was “Grrrr. That’s it?” My ctx were still close together (about 2-3 min.) and I was really feeling them in my back. Davey was using counter pressure against my lower back which helped some. He was very encouraging as it got more difficult.

3:30 am – Ctx still 2-3 min. apart, more effaced but still 1 cm (Seriously!? Is that my magic number? Can’t I have a 2 or something?”) I was trying to move around as much as possible during ctx, but due to the stupid IV and slippery belly monitors, I was pretty limited. The nurse helped me move to a rocking chair, but the baby didn’t tolerate that as well so she said I had to move back to the bed. This time I decided to sit up instead of lay on my side to see if I that helped any. Not being able to walk around the room and labor in different positions was very annoying. Between not being able to move much and having to go to the bathroom so often, that IV pole became my nemesis and I was tempted to pull the dang things OUT. Thanks to Davey for lots of encouragement and back rubbing, because at that point he was keeping me going. Occasionally he would almost doze off between ctx and I had to grab his hand and get him to rub my back again when another one started.

5:00 am – The back labor got a little better, and Davey suggested that the tv might be a good distraction for me. I really don’t remember what he turned on, but I don’t think it helped too much. We continued laboring and at some point in the early morning, our awesome nurse could tell we needed a little encouragement and asked if I wanted to be checked again. I told her that I really didn’t because if I had to hear that I hadn’t made any progress again I was going to lose it. She suggested that she not tell me a number but rather just let me know if I’d progressed. I reluctantly agreed. She checked and said that I had progressed a little, but I could tell by the look on her face that she was being very positive for my sake. Sometime after that I started thinking that I didn’t know how much longer I could take the back labor. I knew that I was doing everything I could to manage the ctx, but not being able to pace and squat or use a birthing ball or get in really any other position besides sitting or side laying was seriously discouraging me. I kept talking to myself in my head and reminding myself of everything I had learned about relaxing, breathing, focusing. I had been feeling like “I can’t do this anymore” for at least an hour, but hadn’t really allowed myself to admit it, because I knew that I should really be in transition (the last few centimeters) before I think that. I kept going and going just taking one ctx at a time, but they were so close together that I wasn’t getting much relief even between them. Who knows if this was from the Pitocin or not, but they don’t call it labor for nothing. I finally told Davey that I was really thinking that we needed to try something else, either an epidural or something, because this wasn’t working. I knew the baby had been face up when I started labor, and that can sometimes make dilating more difficult and back labor more intense. I really think that was what was going on. We talked to the nurse and she said she could give me some medicine to take the edge off, but for about 50% of women it just makes them sick and/or really out of it. The other option was an epidural. Knowing the way I typically react to medications, I knew that I would be the one to get sick and loopy and still have back labor, so I opted for an epidural. It was early morning, and I knew that we had labored as best we could despite the circumstances –the dreadful IV pole which I unashamedly had murderous thoughts toward at that point, my inability to move around, and no food, which by that point had made me very weak combined with laboring all night. Looking back, I had stopped working with the ctx and my body, out of exhaustion, had started fighting the labor, which was hindering my progress. I hoped an epidural would help me relax and stop fighting it.

Around 9:00 am, the anesthesiologist came in and prepped me for the epi, which they said would feel like a bee sting, but bees hurt worse honestly. It was not bad at all. They said I was a champ (“Woohoo! Thanks!”), and I crawled, okay, make that rolled awkwardly back into bed. As it kicked in and I didn’t need so much counter pressure from Davey, he decided to lay on the couch for awhile and get some sleep. My dear coach had been rubbing, and rubbing, and rubbing for a long time by then. I dozed a little but never really went to sleep. I could still feel pressure but the epi had really taken well. I remember my legs felt like heavy logs attached to my body, which was pretty strange. Not having back labor was a huge relief.

About 3 hours later my OB (Dr. Moore) had come in to check on me and see how I was doing. She asked if I wanted her to break my water, and I agreed since I hoped it would help move things along. She left for a little while and then came back in sometime after 1:00 pm. Before she broke the bag of waters, which I didn’t feel any gush or anything since I didn’t have a lot of fluid left as she said, I was 5 cm dilated. She left and said she’d see me in a few hours.

Over the next half hour or so, I remember I started to feel the ctx again. Definitely more manageable, but they were mildly painful again, which I thought was odd with the epi. I started feeling a lot more pressure in my lower back and pelvic region. With each ctx, I felt more and more like something was happening. After the long night, I was very hesitant to get my hopes up, but after a few more minutes of feeling strange I asked Davey to go get the nurse. Part of me thought “I’m still nowhere near 10 cm” but then I couldn’t deny what my body was telling me. The nurse checked me and said I was at 9.5 cm! In 30 minutes I had progressed from 5 to 9.5! I was elated to say the least. Talk about saving the best news until last. This was becoming a trend – first with the baby not flipping over until 38 wks, then me barely making any progress all night just to jump the last half of dilation in 30 minutes. The reason I was feeling the ctx again was because the baby had turned and started moving down the birth canal.

Things started moving then. The nurses began setting up the room for delivery. Davey said that once he saw all the medical stuff laid out it really hit him and he got all teary-eyed and thought “This is really it.” I was still doing great because of the epi, so I was just excited then. The nurse, who I loved but can’t remember her name, got me in a good pushing position and was on one side with Davey on the other. She gave me some brief instructions and then started watching the monitors to tell me when to push with each ctx.

It was around 2:00 pm when I started pushing. Because the epidural was so effective, they had to tell me when to push, but I had no trouble feeling what to do. It was so calm in the room, and between Davey’s encouragement and the nurse and doctor’s instructions, it was an amazing experience. After the first few practice pushes, they were surprised at how quickly the baby was moving down. They were saying “Wow! You’re doing great!” and it really made me dig down deep and push even harder. I also had a mirror to see the progress I was making, and that helped tremendously. I know this would freak some people out, but I loved having that mirror because I could see the whole thing and know what I was doing. At one point I felt nauseated and had to throw up, but it was a relief and I quickly got back to pushing. Dr. Moore said that it takes the same muscles to throw up as it does to push, so I jokingly said, “Whatever works, right?” We started laughing and another nurse in the room at the time said, “Whoever did her epidural sure did a good job!” because I was cracking up about silly stuff in between ctx. It felt amazing and totally empowering to push. Each time they would encourage me and I could see my progress I felt stronger and more determined to get this baby out to see if we had a boy or a girl. Soon the baby was crowning and we were shocked to see tons of dark hair! I had thought the baby would be bald just like Davey was, so this was really a surprise. With each ctx I pushed as hard as I could, and before long the baby’s head was out. With one more push the baby easily slipped out and before the doctor could say it, I saw that she was a GIRL! After so many months of everyone being determined that we were having a boy, I was in absolute shock. I was just crying and laughing and crying some more as they laid her right on my chest and cleaned her off. It was the most incredible moment of my life. I couldn’t believe my baby girl was lying on my chest. I remember thinking “She’s not that little!” Definitely not as small as I had expected. She was crying pretty well, and someone asked Davey if he wanted to cut the cord. Thankfully the wonderful nurse had already grabbed our camera and began taking pictures. I’m so glad she did! I was so happy I could not stop crying. Even after reading probably a hundred birth stories, nothing prepared me for the joy I felt in that moment.

The nurses took her to weigh and measure her and check her over while Dr. Moore got me cleaned up. All I could do was just stare over at my baby under those lights and just be amazed. Much to our surprise she was 8 lbs. and 0.4 oz and 20.5 inches long. She had dark eyes and lots of dark hair and looked just like her Daddy. It was like I’d given birth to a miniature Davey (who, by the way, had quickly changed into his “World’s Greatest New Daddy” shirt. I hadn’t let him wear it before then because I didn’t want him to get blood on it or anything and then have it look gross in pictures.) At some point while they were cleaning her off it occurred to Davey and I that we were going to name her Lailey Claire. Her apgar scores were 8 and 9 because one side of her body was kind of grayish probably due to lowered circulation from the way she came down the birth canal. But her color returned quickly and she was fine. Soon she was all clean and swaddled and I got to hold her again. I asked the nurse to help me get started with breastfeeding. Lailey latched on with no problem and nursed for almost an hour. She has been a little champ at nursing ever since. When she finally finished, Davey got ready to go out to the waiting room and tell the family. We had waited because we wanted the grandparents to come in after he told them but Lailey nursed for so long they had to wait for the news. Before he left the room, he decided to have the nurse write down all of Lailey’s info because he was so afraid he would announce it wrongly to everyone! I think the paper even said she was a girl so he wouldn’t forget in his excitement! Finally, after 9 months everyone got to hear the news they had been waiting for. I think it was well worth the wait.