Liam's Birth Story

**Warning: This story is the gross, bloody, detailed version of Liam's birth. If you don't want to know, don't read.**

When I woke up on Wednesday morning at 6am to get Nate's lunch together at work, I could tell something was happening, but I wasn't sure, plus my parents got in to town late Tuesday night, so I figured I would just spend time with them while Nate was at work and if Nate needed to leave work early, it wasn't a problem.

I ate breakfast with my family, and just enjoyed being around people, using their presence as a distraction from the mild, irregular contractions. My mom needed to buy some groceries and stuff for while they're here, so we headed off to the store. We went to Wal*Mart first and wandered around, the contractions weren't so bad, although my lower back ached quite a bit during this part, and so I started swaying through contractions, and breathing slowly to help focus on something else. Then we headed to Whole Foods, and stayed there until it was time to go get Nate from work.

We headed up to where my parents are staying, and relaxed and ate dinner. I was scheduled to come in for an induction at 8pm, and was told to call at 7pm and make sure they had room for me. But at 7pm I was having enough contractions I didn't need to be induced and called the hospital to let them know I would come in when I was ready. 

All through dinner the contractions got stronger and more regular, about five minutes apart, but I still didn't feel ready to go into the hospital, I was waiting to loose some mucus plug or some sign that I had started to dialate. The contractions were getting to the point where I wanted to hold someone's hand through them, so Baylea sat by me and helped with that. I turned on a movie to help distract, and watched over an hour of it, with me half sleeping between the contractions. At around 9:30pm I decided I wanted to go home and try and get some rest.

I sat in the tub for about 10 maybe fifteen minutes, but was so tired I thought I might fall asleep in there, so I went and laid down with Nate. Very quickly I was drenched in sweat, and shaking because I was cold. The contractions got very strong and painful, and I was finally ready to go to the hospital, if only to get an epidural even though originally I didn't want one. We left about 10:30pm

We went back up, got my mom and drove to the hospital. By that point I was struggling to manage the pain quietly and by the time we got to Labor and Delivery, I was yelling a bit. The nurses quickly got me into an exam room and a nurse came in to check me. After checking my cervix she looked at me and said "you're having a baby" I asked if I was dilated and she said I was at eight. I couldn't believe it. The wheeled me into the delivery room and got me situated. 

At one point I looked at my mom and said "I can't do this, I need something, it hurts to much" but my mom, knowing that I really didn't held my hand and said, "you're at eight centimeters, you are so close to having this baby, you can do it!" Honestly, if my mom hadn't been here, I'm sure it all would have gone differently. The contractions came fast and strong and I yelled a lot. I'm sure everyone else in L&D loved it.

At this point things were moving so fast it all blurs. My water broke at some point, I got dilated to ten, the nurses called the Dr again to make sure she wasn't taking the scenic route to the hospital, and I was ready for my son to meet the world.

Nate and my mom were so fabulous, encouraging me, wiping my forehead with a damp cloth and helping hold my legs up when it was time to push. When I got to start pushing I found it was exactly what I wanted to do, it felt better.

The head started crowning, but took more then two pushes to get him out, and so I was like "he's never coming out" and at that point they let me touch his head so I knew he really was coming. The ring of fire isn't called the ring of fire for nothing, it hurt real bad, but I knew it was all for a baby in the end and it would only get worse to get better, so I kept at it. His head came out and only one more push and his body followed. They laid him on my chest, and I got to see my son for the first time. He was born at 11:26pm.

I did it!

Getting weighed.

Oma Jayme loving on him.

 I was so relieved that the hardest part was over. I kept saying "I did it" over and over again. Oma Jayme got to cut the cord, and the peds nurse took him to clean up. The Dr started cleaning me up, and when the placenta came out I screamed a little, as it surprised me. I thought someone was pulling it out, I didn't realize my body pushed it out until they told me.

I had some clotting, and so it was quite painful for awhile as the Dr had about half her arm shoved up my into my uterus doing God knows what to take care of them, and stitched me up. Nate stayed by my side through out though and that helped. 

Liam weighed 8lbs 11oz and was absolutely perfect. My little over achiever scored an 8 and a 10 on his APGAR tests. Oma and Baylea over saw all his cleaning and weighing while I was getting taken care of.

Once they were done, they let me have him again, to try and nurse. This little guy latched right on and nursed for about thirty minutes on one side and about fifteen to twenty on the other. 

As the nurse came in to massage my uterus, I apparently gave her a bit of a heart attack over the amount of blood loss at the thirty minute mark, and she said I needed to shape up before they sent me up to the mommy baby ward. After an hour she told me peeing would help, and then we could go up and get comfortable.

Nate holding Liam for the first time.

When she had me standing up to put on the underwear//giant diaper, I started to feel light headed and told her. Next thing I knew I was sitting on the toilet again leaning against the wall. I had blacked out although had continued to follow directions and sat down. After that we quickly finished and she got me in the wheel chair to go upstairs. They had me drink some juice first, and that helped, by the time I got upstairs I felt okay, but was ordered to not leave the bed without a nurse present.

My night nurse came in and said "Oh! You're the one who almost didn't make it in time" I said "I was only dilated to eight" "Yea, you could have had that kid in your front yard." It was then I realized just how fast everything had gone. 

Liam this morning, exhausted after a long night.

All night we got poked and prodded. It seemed the Peds nurse and night nurse couldn't sync when they came in, so it was about every 45 minutes. Liam didn't want to sleep in his bassinet, only curled up on my chest (which I was perfectly happy with) so they would wake me up to get him. At some point someone can in and drew some blood, and I vaguely remember someone telling me to "make a fist" but didn't remember that until after I woke up with a band-aid on my arm. It was about six thirty when I finally woke up of my own accord. 

That's the birth story, at least how I remember it. The dr said if everything is okay I can go home Tomorrow, which sounds really nice, but for now I am going to sleep, because Little Foot is sleeping and I'm getting tired finally. 

Special thanks to everyone who was praying, I definitely know God orchestrated it all, I had the all-natural, drug free birth I wanted, a very good start to breast-feeding, and and good recovery so far.