I ended my labor story last time with…

When we returned to our cubicle to be monitored again they had taken away my monitor for someone else, so they decided to go ahead and move me to the L&D room! Yey, we had been upgraded!! This was around 11 pm. This room was much better. I was still not concerned to be in “active labor” as I was still only 1-2 cm! Ahhh… so we decided to just relax and wait for my body to do its thing…

So around 11:30- midnightish I starting having more painful contractions that progressively started getting closer together. I started to not be able to talk through my contractions, but was still able to have conversation in between them… strangest thing ever. After a while my “team” (mom, Chase, & Vic) was put to work by holding my hand, putting pressure on my back, and helping me breathe through the pain. I was mostly doing this on the birthing ball while leaning over the bed on some pillows. Finally around 3 am my water broke! Yey! Progress! It felt so great and Chase and I were so excited because we thought we could be meeting out little girl anytime… little did we know from our “newbeness” that we still had hours and hours to go…

After the water broke the contractions got WAY more intense and I was pretty much just working through the contractions without any extra conversations going on. They offered me a local shot that was supposed to take the edge off the contractions and help you “rest” in between, so I decided to accept. It lasted in my system for about two hours and helped me rest in between, but during the contractions (which were happening very often- felt like I never had a break!) it seemed like the same intenseness, but maybe not? We went on with the routine of working through the contractions in different positions till about 7:00 am when they checked to see my progress again… I was so excited to see how far along I was with all the work I had been doing… much to my disappointment and surprise I was only about 3-3.5 cm at this point!!! Agh, what a bummer that was to hear…. I was so overwhelmed with pain and frustration thinking there is NO way I can keep on like this for 7 more cm. So alas, I asked for the epidural. They got right on it- I had the epidural in me around 7:30 am.

I have a love/hate relationship with the epidural… I loved it because it allowed me to sleep, rest and not worry about Lydia’s heartbeat (for some reason at that point I was really worried about how she was doing during contractions) for the next 10 ish hours before I got to meet our baby girl, I also believe it allowed me the strength (besides the Lord of course) to push her out in the end, and I was able to enjoy the rest of my labor process with Chase, my mom, Vic & Jord (yes Jord showed up around 9 am in order to capture the birth of Lydia for us!) and enjoy the entrance of Lydia with less pain. I hated (maybe hate is a strong word- didn’t like) it because of the way it made me feel… I got the chills, then felt ichy, had a “hot spot” that extremely hurt during contractions still, I had to keep the monitors on the entire time, I couldn’t get up, I couldn’t pee, so they had to put in a catheter, and in the end I had to sometimes feel my stomach to see when I was having contractions in order to know when to push.

So all this to say, I am undecided, but leaning toward not wanting to do the epidural for baby number 2… we will see. I guess it would depend if I have to be induced again and how long the process was taking. I actually enjoyed and am thankful for the part that I was able to “labor though”… I had such a great support team and I feel like Chase and I have become even closer through this whole process.

So anyway, about 5:00 pm they checked me to see how far I had gotten and I was about 9.5 cm! Music to my ears! This was really happening, we were going to really meet this little girl that had been moving around and growing inside of me for 9 + months… could it really be time?! At this point the contractions were getting more intense again (I could feel them more as the epidural was waring off) so Chase prayed for the entrance and life of Lydia as we prepared to finish strong. Vic had encouraged me to try and “labor down” before I started pushing right away because this would help the pushing process be shorter. So thankfully the midwife that was with me allowed this and allowed Vic to coach me through the pushing- what a blessing. This normally doesn’t happen and I got to have 4 of my people in the room when everywhere it says only 2 people are allowed!

After 20 minutes of pushing… Lydia May McGough made her entrance into the world at 5:56 pm on October 3, 2012. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and was just under 19 in long.

What an amazing feeling and high it was to hold and see our daughter for the first time! There is nothing like it. A love I never knew before. She was perfect in every way. Chase and I were head over heels and knew from that moment on our lives would never be the same… it would be better! Praise be to our God from whom all blessings flow!

A few funny things that I said/did during labor: (some of them I was told later by my team- ha)

• At one point I hit my mom during contractions and then immediately said, “Oh, I am sorry.”
• I tried to bite my moms hand at one point- she just pulled it away and tired not to laugh
• Chase & my mom said that they had to keep from laughing a few times because I guess I was saying funny things & reacting funny to the pain. I guess I had no problem hitting Chase!
• I kept saying, “I hate this… this pain.”
• During the pushing process: they told me she had hair and I said, “I knew she would!” and they allowed me to touch her head and I said, “Oh I just love her!”

if you want to read the beginning of the story go here.