July 2 - July 7, 2010

I cant believe we went into labor last weekend. I have to admit I was not very prepared to leave the house on Saturday morning, but Layla didn't give us much of a choice.

Friday July 2, 2010:
Chris and I had plans to go to breakfast with his mom and Willy. I didn't feel good when I woke up. This had become very normal even though the pains felt more like contractions. I came home from breakfast and spent the rest of the day reading on the couch. I did not experience any additional pain so I thought they must be practise contractions. I was not in a good mood for the rest of the day. My mom stopped by to bring me food and I was pretty short with her and then had a deva melt down when Chris got home. Luckily for me I married a very calm and understanding man and he just calmly prepared dinner and offered me a 1/2 glass of wine to relax. I was able to be more civil but could not fall asleep. At 2:00am I finally made my way to bed and fell asleep.

Saturday July 3, 2010:
I woke up suddenly to a gush feeling. I ran for the bathroom and a bunch a fluid came out. At first I didn't know if my bag had ruptured or if I just had been holding my pee. I still yelled for Chris from the bathroom that I thought my water had possible broken. He shot out of bed and ran to me with a big smile on his face. He kept asking me if I was sure, but I still had not moved from the toilet so I wasn't sure. When I went to stand up and walk back to bed I was still leaking all down my legs. That's when I knew for sure. I told him to finish backing the bags while I called the on call doctor. No one, including my doctor was on call that morning. I ended up being transferred to the doctors office that Shannon works for. And her direct boss was the one on call. I told her my water broke and she asked me if I was sure and then said to head to the hospital. Since I have never met this doctor before I asked her if I had time to take a quick shower but she said "no" she would like me to just head on in. This all happened at 5:30am. I arrived at the hospital at 6:00am.

When I was settled into a labor and delivery room, they checked the fluid that had been leaking to make sure it was amniotic fluid and then started all the paper work. After an hour of being hooked up the the fetal and contraction monitors they started and IV and pitocin. I was not going into labor on my own. I was still only 1cm dilated and not progressing much by my self. At this time my mom and Mike and Chris's mom and willy arrived at the hospital. They were not strict on how many people were in the room so that was nice. They kept gradually increasing the pitocin to try and get my labor progressing. Chris and I watched Father of the Bride during these first easy hours. I was not feeling too much pain and thought that this was going pretty good. That is when the doctor arrived and said that my contractions were not strong enough and I still was not dilating fast enough. They really got the pitocin going and then everything changed. The doctor also did an ultrasound and found that the baby was sunny side up. She asked again if I would like the epidural because the labor that was about to start was going to be very painful and possible difficult when it came to pushing. I told her no, and kept trying to breath through the contractions. After quite a few hours of extreme pain and sill no progression of dilation the doctor and nurse again suggested the drugs. They told me it would allow my body to relax which would speed up the labor. I always thought that the drugs would do the exact opposite of this and would more likely push me into a c section birth. But there is only so much pain a person can handle and I gave in. They told me it was not going to hurt, but there was no way I believed that a huge needle in my back was going to be painless. The anesthesiologist came in and was so kind and explained everything to me. The nurse instructed me to breath and hold still. This was the most difficult part because the contractions were so strong at this point. First I felt a few stings of local anapestic. They weren't bad and then I felt some pressure in my back and in my hip. After that all the pain started to slowly disappear. My legs went numb and I could once again smile and talk to the many visitors that were waiting outside my room. This was around 3:30pm so about 10 hours after my water had broken.

I could not believe the pain relief. I kept telling everyone that I wish I had not been so stubborn. It is just that it still feels like cheating when you take the drugs. When you tell some one that you are planning to just take the drugs, most people try to tell you that it is the wrong choice and that everyone in their family including themselves was able to give birth with no drugs. But Why?! With in hours of receiving the drugs I went to 7cm and the to 9cm quickly. Everything was looking great. I made it to 10cm and was getting couched on how I was to push the baby out since I had no feeling in my legs. I started pushing at 7:30pm. In the room was Chris, my mom, Chris's mom, Mackinsey and Lindsey. They all helped couch me through 3 hours of pushing. Layla's head was coming out but it turned out that it was just part of her head. She was still sunny side up and also twisted. Her face was still at +2 station and not dropping. The doctor came in and gave me the worst news ever. She thought it would be best if we went ahead and did a c section. I was so upset. I didn't know this doctor and all the sudden I had to let her cut me wide open and preform a massive surgery. I broke down completely and became hysterical. Chris was there to help me calm down and his mom was able to get a hold of Shannon who told me that the doctor was very skilled and I should not worry. I agreed and got prepped for the c section.

I was rolled into the operating room and given additional drugs. I still could not calm down. I could not believe that the worst case scenario for what I wanted was now happening. After I was efficiently numb they started the surgery. It was the worst pain ever. Of course I could not feel anything that they were doing but the pressure was still there and the fear was still there. I could not relax. After they removed Layla and showed her to me I blacked out. I re woke in the recovery room to Chris and my baby sitting on a chair next to me getting acquainted. I was still in pain but glad that I had woken up and didn't seam to have any of the complications that I was told were possible. They wheeled me into postpartum and Chris told me all about our new baby girl.

Layla Alise Tucker was born on July 3, 2010 at 11:19pm. Just missed being a firecracker baby. She weight 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 21 inches long. Because of the bad head position a lot of her length was due to the gigantic cone head she sported. Everyone had stayed till the delivery but no one was able to hold her and they only saw her thought the glass in the nursery. My labor was around 18 hours long from when my water broke.

We then spent the next few days in the hospital learning all about our new beautiful baby girl. Everyone was right that you cant even begin to believe how much love you have for a new baby. I was blown away with how instant my love and devotion to Layla was. On July 4 I had already started getting up and moving around. Chris set up a chair in front of the window and we watched the entire fire works show at CV high school. I feel I recover very well from the surgery. And everyone that checked my incision said that the doctor did an amazing job. I have had some hardship with breastfeeding but I am hopeful that everything will work itself out.

On July 7, we were told that Layla had jaundice and was going to need to stay an extra day in the hospital. Since I had a C section I was allowed to stay also. She was put in a suit and placed over ultraviolet lights. We were only allowed to take her out every three hours for feeding. We had to start a better feeding schedule to get her better. I worked really hard and supplemented with formula just as they asked.

This morning we received the good news that we were free to go. All three of us. My milk came in big time today and the nursery nurse said I didn't have to continue the formula as long as we were feeding every few hours and we continued to have wet and poopy diapers. We have to go get blood drawn in the morning and hope that her levels are still decreasing. If they aren't then we will have to bring her back to the hospital to be back under the lights. I am hopeful that things will be ok. But it has become very difficult to feed her since we got home. I am not sure if it has to do with the change of environment or that she has gotten used to being given formula and doesn't want to breastfeed. I have gotten a few good feedings in but it has not been easy. She still would rather sleep then eat. I made the most of this and took a nap between the last feedings and am now watching her while Chris gets some good sleep. We have to leave at 6:30 am tomorrow morning to make sure that we get the blood results as fast as possible to the doctor to make sure Layla is ok. We already have an appointment to see Layla's doctor on Friday for an additional follow up.

So things are going well now and I am hoping that this extreme fear and nervousness subsides with time. We have a lot of help and support and I am very thankful to everyone for their kind words and good advise. It has been a long and trying year, but if at the end if the prize is Layla everything was worth it!