Welcoming Leila Nicole

March 11-17, 2013

Monday, March 11 was Leila's due date. At my doctor's appointment I was dilated to a three and they scheduled me to be induced the following Monday. That night I had strong contractions about 10 minutes apart that lasted a minute or two... I got excited after it went on for a couple of hours, thinking I was going into labor, nope. As the week progressed I continued to have contractions (which is usual for me during the full second and third trimesters), continued to be more uncomfortable (pubic symphysis pain and sciatica) but had gotten to the point where I didn't mind one more week to get things ready for Leila's arrival and spend more one-on-one time with Caleb.

Leila on her due date

The rest of the week was just the usual. Allen went to work. Caleb and I cleaned, went grocery shopping, napped, played outside and at the park...

Fast forward to Saturday: Contractions the same as usual... I expected to be moaning and crying if it was true labor. We cleaned, went to Sam's Club, played at the park, and sometimes I'd have to lean on the cart or sit down when a contraction would hit.

Then at 3 pm decided I should start timing just to see how close the contractions were. They were five minutes apart. That put me in go mode because I thought I was probably in labor. After two more hours of that, making and eating dinner, folding clothes, and putting Caleb to bed, I had to not just stop to breathe through contractions, but kneel on the floor. We called in back up to come be with Caleb, packed and got to the hospital by 7-ish.

Not an attractive picture but Allen got one of me having a contraction just walking to the car. 

I only had to kneel in our driveway once, in the parking lot once and waiting to go into triage once. I was too proud to have Allen drop me off or get a wheelchair or bring our duffel bag in because I felt fine between contractions and wondered if I really needed to be coming in. As long as I could kneel down, I was okay. The contractions when I had to sit in the car were pretty uncomfortable.

The contraction passed: time to pose for pictures. 

Same shirt I wore to the hospital with Caleb... it was meant to be. 

As I sat waiting to be taking to a triage room, I sat next to a woman who was definitely not in labor and we chatted until I had to kneel on the floor to breathe through contractions. That was when the nurse came to get us and I felt dumb for making the nurse wait until I could walk to get to a room.

This next stuff may be TMI for some people...  In the triage room once the nurse realized I was already dilated to 8 cm, things started happening. All of the sudden four nurses were all filling out paperwork, drawing blood, calling the on-call doctor (my OB was on spring break), wheeling me to a delivery room and hooking me up to monitors. The nurses basically told me at that point that I was too late for an epidural. I could still breathe through the contractions fine but needed Allen to help hold my legs because I was shaking so badly.

Dilated to a 9 (and still smiling)

Sometime around 8:15-8:30 pm the doctor arrived, broke my water and they told me to start pushing. This is when things got bad. As soon as she laid me flat on my back and broke my water a lot of pressure was gone, it felt like Leila was up in my ribs and I didn't want to push. They made me push and it sucked. After a few tries, the on-call doctor, who was not my favorite, left and I got up on my knees. Two minutes later I was pushing and could not stop. The nurse held Leila's head as she yelled to get the doctor scrubbed up again. I grunted/yelled like an amazon woman (embarrassing) and they made me flip onto my back again. Within another couple of pushes, Leila was on my belly instead of in it.

Leila Nicole was born at 8:52 pm on Saturday, March 16th. She weighed 7 lb 9 oz, was 19 1/2 inches long and her head circumference was 14 inches.

Allen held her while the doctor stitched me up, not waiting for lidocaine to numb me at all before starting. 

I loved holding her but was still really shaky.

I showered while Allen watched the nurses bathe Leila. It took a long time to bathe her because she was so cheesy. That's why she was so pale instead of pink.

The proud parents.

She was so alert with wide open eyes for the first hour or so after birth. Allen went to get food and with the nurses gone, Leila and I shared a mommy daughter bonding moment. Tears came to my eyes as I realized she was my little baby, a perfect little girl.

It has been fun to watch Caleb understand a little at a time who/what Leila is. Sunday morning when Allen brought him to the hospital, Caleb ran into my room and over to my bed. He didn't notice the little baby I passed to Allen. He just jumped up to come be with Mom, I loved it!

After a while of being here, he realized Dad was paying attention to someone other than him. Allen introduced him to Leila and he didn't care. Sunday evening he would point to Leila when we asked him where she was and he gave Leila a kiss before leaving the hospital with dad.

This is your little sister Leila.

He was more interested in playing peek-a-boo in the curtain 

Pointing out her nose

I’m amazed at how well Caleb has been handling all of this. Sunday morning he woke up to my friend Cathryn Parker getting him out of bed since she slept over when we went to the hospital. Then Allen picked him from the Parker’s house and brought him to the hospital once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

My mom flew in Sunday night so when he woke up Monday morning, my mom is who got him out of bed and brought him to the hospital to see Allen, Leila and I. He never cried when leaving me or after I left him, which is surprising since he cries for two hours straight every week when left at nursery at church. (I think that says something about our nursery than about Caleb… ) I’m the one who has cried when he leaves because I miss him and am not used to being away from him!