Lhana's Birth Story

I go to my 40 week appointment on Feb. 21st still feeling the same as I had been feeling the past couple of weeks. I was having pressure down there, but that was nothing new. Dr. Huff checked me and I was still just 3 cm dilated and 70%. I go home and notice nothing. Evening rolls around and while doing laundry I notice that I am a little crampy. It was hardly noticable. I had to stop and pay close attention to where my cramps were coming from. They were from my lower back but were not painful, just a little uncomfortable. Don and I stayed up late and fell asleep sometime after midnight. At 1am I get a strong contraction that wakes me up. I look at the clock and try to fall back asleep. 10 minutes later another really strong contraction. It was a tad more painful and one that made me clinch my teeth until it was over. So I watched the clock and sure enough another one came in a tad stronger 10 minutes later. This 3rd contraction squeezed so tight that I suddenly felt the urge to go to the bathroom. I make it 10 feet to the bathroom door but as soon as I stepped foot on the bathroom floor a gush of fluid rushed out. I thought I may have peed on myself. I take a few more steps and sit to use the bathroom. As I am sitting I peep around the corner to check out the fluid on the floor. The fluid is not pee. It was clear with a few ruptured membranes noticeable.  My water broke!!! I thought that only happened in movies! And then the contractions hit and they hit hard!!!!


The next contraction came immediately after my water broke. I broke out in a cold sweat and got light headed as if I were going to pass out. I then hollered Don's name and told him that my water had broke. His response, "aw..man!" ha! We were both so exhausted because we had just fallin asleep, so his response was perfectly acceptable. I told him that my last contraction was at 1:36am and to tell me the time when my next contraction came. It came 6 minutes later and it wasnt playing around! I thought the first three were uncomfortable and a tad painful but this contraction was like a 7 on a scale of 1-10. The others were about a 2 in comparison. The contraction hit so hard that I suddenly felt nauseous and got lightheaded and sweaty. I told Don to call his parents to come get Rory and load our stuff. They live a few blocks away and were at our house within 5 minutes. I called my mother and told her we were headed to the hospital. My contractions continued to increase in frequency and intensity. We get to the hospital and my contractions are already about 2-3 minutes apart! The nurse checks me and I'm 5 cm dilated. Note: I was 5 cm dilated when I arrived at the hospital with Rory, but this pain was so much worse. The intensity of contractions once your water breaks is so much more unbearable. At 2:36am Don sent a text to my mother with the room number we were in. Mom and Meg took their time getting to the hospital. They lingered around the house and made coffee. My labor with Rory lasted so long, they thought for sure that they had plenty of time.

    The nurse called Dr. Helton to let him know that I had been admitted, I was 5 cm dilated, but that he didnt need to come yet. My contractions started coming every minute or so rather quickly and I started feeling a tremendous, unexplainable amount of pressure. I got nauseous and vomitted a few times the pain was so intense. They started an IV, gave me Zofran, and planned to infuse my antibiotics (for Group B Strep), but there was not time for the antibiotics. Moments later I called the nurse and told her that I felt the urge to push. Nurse checked me again and I was at 8cm. She called Dr. Helton back and told him how quickly I was progressing and that he needed to come on in. He was there within minutes. He immediately checked me and I was already 10cm dilated. WOW! Thats 5-10 cm in just 30 minutes! It was time!!! This baby was ready to come out! I continued holding on to the bedrails for dear life as each contraction hit trying my best not to push. It was tough and I whined to the nurse that I couldn't do it. All I wanted to do was push and I knew it would make me feel better. The nurse was very encouraging and told me to focus all of my energy on my breathing and calming myself down. She told me to ignore what was going on below and to take deep breaths and focus on looking at her and relaxing. Surprisingly I didn't punch her in the face and her advice worked. Don  continued to rub my back as a shouted a few profanities. Dr. Helton suited up as the nurses got everything together. I heard my mother and sister in the waiting room while I was getting ready to push. My mom said that she thought they had the wrong room when they got there. The door was locked and the woman on the other side was already having a baby. She thought for sure I couldn't be having the baby less than an hour after I called her. 
   Our unborn child was waiting on no one. The moment they told me I could push, it was the greatest relief in the entire world. Two contractions and 2 pushes later Don and I welcomed our precious, surprise baby girl, Lhana June into the world at 3:16am. Ah! All  natural, no epidural, no pain medication!!! I did it!! We were at the hospital only about 50 minutes unil she was born. Amazing! I was so afraid of  the pushing part, but compared to the contractions...it was nothing. It was so extremely painful, but the moment I saw her, the pain went away! She was just beautiful! I looked at Don and he was bright red and grinning ear to ear. I wish I had a photo to capture his face at that moment. It was priceless!


Note to Self: Rorys birth took 23 hours, Lhana's took less than 2, so maybe I should consider checking into the hospital a day or two before baby #3 is expected to arrive, unless I want to have #3 at home. Hmm...

Hello, chubby cheeks!