Landry Kate's Birth Story

Landry's birth story starts out on December 31st, 2014.  I had worked on Monday and Tuesday the 29th and 30th, but I had my 39 week doctor's appointment at 11AM on NYE so I took that day off.  Carter and I slept in a bit that morning, but when he woke up he was so clingy to me...it was like he knew it was our last morning alone together.  And I was an emotional wreck because I was unsure of when and if labor was ever going to start.  My labor with Carter started so differently since I was induced after my 38 week appointment because of high blood pressure/preeclampsia...so I had never been through a normal labor where you play the waiting game and I worried how I would know when it was time to go to the hospital when the time came...much like a first time mom would feel!

Anyways, Carter and I did lots of cuddling and watching Curious George together, then I took him to the babysitter's house so I could get a shower and finish throwing the last few things in my hospital bag.  Brent took off work around 10 so he could meet me at the doctor because I was nervous my doctor may want to start talking scheduled induction and I wasn't sure what I would want to do in that case. I had always said I would not do that and give the baby at least a week past my due date if it ever came down to it, but I wasn't sure of the risks to baby if we let her keep on growing.  

I met Brent and got checked in at my OBGYN office.  My blood pressure had crept a little higher, but still not to any dangerous levels or anything and baby girl's heartbeat was good.  The doctor checked my cervix and said I was up to 2 centimeters dilated and that my bag of waters was absolutely bulging and that it could break any time.  She suggested that we go home and love on each other a bit and we might have the first baby of the year! :) She didn't even mention induction or to make an appointment for the next week, so she was obviously very confident this baby was coming sooner rather than later! 
We went to lunch together and laughed the whole time about my 'bulging waters' and how it would probably break while we were there.  Brent joked (or at least I think he was joking!) that he would just walk away and act like he didn't know me and go get the car for me. Then we made a trip to SAMs for some groceries and to Gander Mountain for some deer salt blocks for Brent to take to the farm he hunts.  I picked up Carter man on the way home and we all rode over to the farm to set out the 'deer treats' as Carter calls them.  I was hoping the bumpy ride across the field in the truck might just bounce me into labor or break my water!
We came home and I nested like a crazy person....we had a couple of mice caught in our pantry that week so I literally took every last thing out of the pantry, cleaned it up, re-organized, and put it back in!  We had a quick, easy dinner, and contractions suddenly started.  I was still running around doing laundry and a million other things, and they got closer and harder around 7/8 PM.  That was when I decided it was probably best if Carter stayed at my grandma's house for the night just so he wouldn't have to be drug out of bed in the middle of the night.   So we packed up everything we might need and headed over there.  I sat on the couch there to be sure my contractions would keep coming even when I was resting and they continued to get stronger and closer.  My mom convinced me that we should probably go on to the hospital since my water was so close to breaking and who knows how fast this could happen this time.  
We (Brent, mom and I) checked into the hospital around 10:30PM on New Year's Eve, with my contractions coming every 3 to 4 minutes and lasting 45 seconds to a minute each.  When I was checked for dilation, they told me I was at 4 cm, once again with 'a bulging bag of waters'...which was what every new nurse who checked me would say..it was a running joke for us for sure!  I was pretty happy with 4 cm since I hadn't really been in labor that long and the last time around I went from 6-10 in just a few hours, so I felt like we were pretty close to meeting our sweet little girl.  
I labored all night, unable to eat, drink or sleep, but I did catch at least a little rest between contractions.  I was dilated around 5 cm for probably a good 12 hours!  It was awful because my contractions dropped off to around 5 minutes apart, but they were very painful and I was just getting worn out in general since I had no sleep and no pain meds.  I was told they were going to try to send me home sometime early the next morning since labor had kind of dropped off a bit and I about went crazy on them!  I live 45 minutes away (one way) plus it would take a good 15 minutes or so to get out to the car and loaded in it so there was no way I was going anywhere.  I told them I would either camp out in the hallway or they could just keep me...thank goodness they let me stay! :)  
Finally around 10:30 on New Year's morning, I was checked and they told me I was getting close to 6 cm, with contractions still around 5 minutes apart.  I begged at that point for at least some kind of pain medication so I could at least get some rest.  Thankfully, my doctor allowed me to get my epidural, which I received a bit before noon.  I finally was able to relax a bit, and within no time I was dilated to 7 cm.  I dozed on and off after that.  I was up to 8 cm at 3pm and they said the water was no longer 'bulging', but that instead they were feeling baby girl's head, so things were starting to feel like they may be coming to an end soon! I was checked again for progress around 5 pm and I was up to 9 cm.  Our family started really filling up the waiting room around that time and my doctor ordered pitocin to try to speed up the last centimeter of dilation.  I was trying to get comfortable after over 18 hours in the hospital bed, so I laid over on my right side.  That made Landry's heart rate drop, though, so I instead had to lay on my left side.  
Unfortunately, after 7pm, I started having some major hurting going on on my right lower abdomen with each contraction.  Since the epidural works off of gravity, but baby girl wasn't doing good if I laid on the right side to make it hit on that side better, I got a 'hot spot' that the epidural just couldn't take care of.  I was in so much pain and the contractions were really consistent and hard since I was on the pitocin.  They tried to up my epidural but it just wasn't touching it.  The exhaustion of labor really caught up with me at that point.  I was in tears...I really couldn't imagine having the strength to push the baby out after all of the time I spent waiting and hurting with no food!  It took me 2.5 hours to push Carter out, so that kept lurking in the back of my brain as well.  I kept saying "I can't do this!" and was pretty much ready to just have a C-section to have it all over with.  My mom was practically in tears with me and Brent ended up storming up to the nurse's desk demanding that they do something for me.  
Around 9PM, I was given some pain meds through the IV and my epidural was re-adjusted.  I was still feeling quite a bit of pain with the contractions, but the pain meds had me feeling pretty good so I was able to kind of tune it out and relax myself and wait for time to push.  
I felt the feeling that it was time to start pushing around 10:15.  With my first push at 10:23PM, my water broke (actually, more like exploded on my poor nurse!).  We regrouped and she helped coach me to push the right way (which I feel like was a lot of my problem with pushing out Carter) and ended up doing a lot of waiting between contractions so my doctor could get there.  I pushed her out at 10:43PM, only twenty minutes from that first push (but a full 24 hours after being checked into the hospital and 30 hours of total labor)! 

Landry Kate Smith, Our New Year's baby

She had the cord wrapped around her arm, which caused a brief scare, but besides that there were no initial problems at all! My doctor said something like 'how do you grow such big babies for such a small girl?' and I was super confused because I felt like she looked so tiny.  I held her for a bit, then they took her over to weigh and evaluate her while I got all stitched up.  That's when they called out that she was 19 inches long and weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces!  I was shocked, as that is a full pound bigger than Carter man was!  

I breastfed her a bit and we had some skin to skin time before I handed her off to her daddy.  Then we brought our families in to see her and I finally got some food thanks to Brent's dad running out to McDonald's for me! :)  I think I drank like 2 Sprites in a matter of 15 minutes after being limited to ice chips for so long!  And I'm pretty sure that was the best meal I have eaten in my life. Below is Brent's mom and dad holding Landry for the first time (left) and Brent's sisters on the right. 

I'm going to pick back up in a second post about our hospital/NICU stay because it is yet another long story that I don't want to forget the details of!