This is the story of Lakelyn's birth. This is a day that I will always remember!
I woke up at 5:00 am on Thursday, July 19, 2010 with contractions...4 days past my due date. By 5:30 am I decided that I should start timing them. They were about 5 minutes apart so I went ahead and jumped in the shower. I wanted to make sure I was ready in case we needed to go ahead to the hospital. I also wanted to see if I got up and moved around if they would go away or get stronger. Needless to say they never really got any stronger, but they never went away either. They were also pretty irregular...they would go from 5 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart to 8 minutes apart. At this point Jason is awake and wondering what to do about work. I had a doctors appointment at 10:20 that morning so we decided that he should just stay home and go to the doctor's appointment with me. We would see what Dr. Nethers had to say and if it was nothing he could go on to work after that. We made arrangements to drop the kids off at my mother and father in-laws and they would keep them for the day.
We arrive at Dr. Nethers office with my contractions still not regular, but I was still having them. He checked me and I was 4cm dilated. He gives us a choice to either go home and more than likely we will be back at the hospital that evening or we can go on over to the hospital and he will go ahead and break my water to help speed things up. First thing I ask is if I can go eat before we go to the hospital...that was the deal breaker! :) He said it would be fine for me to eat as long as I didn't go fill up at a buffet somewhere! Jason and I talked it over and we both decided that we were ready and would love to go ahead and get "little bit" here. We headed over to Panera for a light lunch and the whole time we were eating my contractions were 3 minutes apart.
We got to the hospital about noon and by the time they got my IV's in and all hooked up to the monitors it felt like my contractions had gone away. They were very light and didn't hurt at all. At this point all I could think was "oh no...this is going to be a LONG afternoon!" However, the nurse assured me that she could see on the monitor that I was still having them about every 3 minutes apart. Dr. Nethers arrived around 1:00 pm to break my water and I was VERY relived to find out I was already dilated to 6cm!
Once my water was broke I was sure my contractions would really pick up, however, they still were not very painful. Finally, I asked the nurse if she could check me since I was not having much pain and I was worried that I was not progressing. She said she would and if nothing was going on she would call Dr. Nethers to see what he wanted to do. However, she also said that I could be one of those women who was sitting there with no pain and dilated to 8cm. If that was the case she said she had a whole hallway of women who would be ready to come in and kill me! :) She checked me and too my surprise I was actually dilated to 8cm! I couldn't believe it, but I was so relived!
At 4:30 pm the nurse came back in and said she had just spoke to Dr. Nethers. Even though I was dilated to 8cm, my contractions were still not very regular. I would have two really strong ones back to back and then it may be 5 minutes before I would have another light one and then a few minutes later I would have 2 really strong ones again. He decided to give me a little pitocin to get my contractions to regulate.
Almost immediately my contractions pick up in strength! My sister and brother had come in to visit while Jason went out to the waiting room to be with Avery and Oakley for a little while. Thank goodness for them being there and keeping me laughing...it sure helped make some of those contractions much easier! However, it finally got to the point that I was in quite a bit of pain so they decided to head out and get Jason to come back in with me...guess they weren't quite ready to deal with that!! HAHA!!
So here I am focusing on my focal point (which was some little weird thing in the ceiling) and trying to go to my happy place. With every contraction I would squeeze Jason's hand and think about being at the creek, sitting around the bonfire, with everyone singing "Turn the Page." (This was my most favorite memory of Memorial Day Weekend this past year.) I would just sing the lyrics over and over in my head until the contraction was over. (The song "Turn the Page" also reminds me of my first date with Jason...another day I will NEVER forget!)
At some point during all of this I looked at Jason and said, "I don't think I can do this. Maybe I should get the epidural." He just looked at me with the most loving eyes and said, "Yes you can, you are strong and you can do this! You are probably going to have a baby in less than an hour anyway. You can do this!" I had made him promise weeks ago that if I tried to back out of doing it without pain meds that he would try to talk me out of it. Thankfully, what he said was all it took. It was painful, but I knew that I could make it through.
All of a sudden my whole body started to shake and my contraction were back to back with no relief. I knew that I was in transition and that it would all be over soon. Next thing I know, in walks Dr. Nethers and says, "It's time to have a baby!" He checks me and asks me to give him one push...my response was "I can't!" I don't know what I was thinking...the baby had to come out somehow! :) I was in so much pain that it seem impossible to be able to push. All I wanted to think about was breathing through my contractions...pushing just seemed too painful. Anyhow, Dr. Nethers looked at me and said "Yes you can, just give me one little push." I did and next thing I know they are telling me to open my eyes and look. (I was honestly in so much pain that opening my eyes and watching the baby come out was the LAST thing on my mind. All I wanted to do was to get that baby out!!!) I did force myself to open my eyes and with 2 more pushes she was here!! At 5:55 pm our beautiful baby girl had finally arrived!! All the pain was gone and I had a precious little gift from God laying on my chest!
Jason cut the cord and we watched in awe as they cleaned up our new little blessing! I nursed her immediately and then we decided to go get Avery and Oaks so they could meet their new little sister. We decided that Jason would tell Avery first and ask her not to say anything so that Oakley could tell everyone in the waiting room what the sex was. Needless to say the minute Jason told Avery she jumped up in the air and yelled "Yes!! Just what I wanted!!" After that everyone pretty much knew it was a little girl! Jason brought them back first and they were immediately in love with their sister. They both couldn't wait to hold her and then they gave her LOTS of kisses!
Even though I have delivered three babies I am still in awe of God's amazing gift to us! The miracle of birth absolutely blows my mind! I praise God that he allowed us to have the 3 beautiful and healthy children that we do. I thank Him for choosing us to be their parents! I pray that He continues to give Jason and I strength, knowledge, incite, and patients to be good parents. I also pray that He continues to lead us down this road call parenthood. We know that it will not always be easy, but through Him we can do anything! Thank you God for our Avery, Oakley, and little Lakelyn!
