Sunday night I had contractions all night long at 10ish minuets apart, for the 7th time in the past 3 weeks. I slept off and on and waited till morning, because usually my fake labor stops by 5 or 6am. Instead of stopping, it was getting more intense and 5 minuets apart, so I dragged Duane out of bed to take me to the hospital.
We arrived at the Hospital around 6am
and I was already 3 cm dilated, which means this is real labor! By 9:30 am I was at 5 cm. Contractions were 5-10 minuets apart and didn’t really hurt. All sorts of doctors stopped by to meet us and let us know they would be there when the baby is born just in case she needed them.
At noon, I was still at 5cm
I was getting rather bored, so I let the doctor break my water. That is supposed to get things going. Nothing happen, so I took a nap until 1pm. Suddenly contractions were 3-5 minuets apart, and I understood why people get epidurals.
I was ready to start pushing before all of Lioness’ doctors were ready, so they asked me to just breath through the next contraction…and the next one. The baby slowly started working her way out through 4 contractions before I was allowed to start pushing.
When Monkey was born I had been in labor since midnight, so by noon I was delirious from tiredness. Pushing was a weird out of body experience, which was kind of nice. That didn’t happen this time. I was fully present and it hurt! But since she came out so slowly, I had no taring this time!
Monday, August 31st at 3:08pm, Lioness came out screaming!
That’s what we were hoping for. Although we were prepared for her to be whisked away by the breathing doctors. I got to hold her right away. I was crying and shaking. After Duane cut the cord, the doctors assessed the baby, while I got to check out the placenta.
Lioness is 7lbs 2oz and 20 1/2 inches long. That’s 1lb and 1inch bigger than Monkey was a birth. She has no problems with breathing, even though her lower jaw is small. She does have a cleft pallet in the soft pallet in the very back of her mouth. She tried nursing, but she can’t get a good latch. It’s like sucking through a straw with a hole in it.
Meeting All the Specialists
Later, while the baby was sleeping, the lactation consultant came and acted like I didn’t know anything about nursing a baby. Have you seen Monkey? She is giant, so I know how to feed a baby. I tried to explain the baby had been trying to nurse already. None-the-less I ended up get taught how to nurse a baby. I did not like that lady, but her opinion of how well Ariasha nursed, affected whether she went to the NICU or could go to recovery with me.
Then the craniofacial surgeon stopped by to sneak a peak at the baby. She took one look at the cleft pallet and said, “she’s not going to be able to nurse, you’ll have to use a special bottle.” You don’t tell that to lactation lady when bonding time with mama is on the line. For the next half hour lactation lady did everything she could to get that baby to nurse. Realizing that lactation lady was fighting for us, I decided she wasn’t that bad after all.
We had a whole team of doctors trying to make a decision on if the baby needed to go to NICU. But there was a shift change, so we got to stay in labor & delivery until almost 7pm. Enjoying every minute of it holding our baby girl. Grandma and Monkey came to see “baby sisser” too.
They took the Baby to NICU “for a little while.”
How long is a little while? Over-night, or a few days? The doctor said it might only be for a few hours, so I gave them permission to keep her overnight so I could sleep.
I went to my room and pumped milk and went to bed. How is Mama doing? Just picture trying to sleep on an uncomfortable hospital bed, tangled in a bathrobe, after having the biggest poop ever (7lbs 2oz!). Followed by the worst period cramps ever, and having hot-flashes. The nurses all think I have an insanely high pain tolerance. But in realty I can deal with natural pain a lot easier than handling scary allergic reactions to medication.
