Long time no blog / Birth of Daisy

Hello friends! It's been a loooong time since I've written in this little blog. I think I was around 20 wks pregnant the last time I made an update. We chose the name Daisy the day after she was born. We watched her closely, making sure we chose the right name. She opened her huge sparkling blue eyes, and we knew right away she was a bright and happy little Daisy. NOW...I wanna cut right to the chase on this post. So enjoy, the birth of Daisy:



My water broke naturally over dinner around 9 pm on the evening of 12/30/2014. I had been in a lot of pain with light contractions for about a week. I had been in and out of the birthing center and they classified the contractions as “false labor”. My contractions were where they were supposed to be, but I wasn’t dilated enough. I was only at a 1 when they checked me. My contractions started picking up closer together and they were timing at about 5 min apart for 2 days… another trip to the birthing center, showed that I was in prelabor, but still not dilated enough. They offered to induce me, but I knew Daisy would come on her own time.

This is it!

My last pregnancy picture (39.5 weeks)

 The next evening on Dec 30 at 9 pm on a Tuesday..my water broke. Same time and day that it happened with her sister. On a Tuesday at 9. Unfortunately, there was also meconium in the fluid..just like with her sister. Since I was VBACing, it was more threatening this time. I was almost certain they wouldn’t let me attempt natural labor. I called the midwife and she told me to come on in. They put me in a room and told me I needed to try and rest. However, on the couch next to me, was a snoring toddler and an even louder snoring husband. I couldn’t rest. I woke Jeff up and we walked the hallway of the labor unit while Laila slept in the room. Each time we did a lap near the nurses station, we could hear them calling in epidurals to the other rooms. Pure silence is what we heard while walking. No other mothers were attempting natural birth that day one nurse told us. In fact, we were told that very rarely do women deliver without meds at the center, even though they had intended to. I wanted to change that. Each time we passed a nurse in the hall…they would kind of smirk. You could tell they were doing a personal count down of how long it would take me to request meds. On one particular lap, a woman was being moved back into her room from a C-section. She was crying because she couldn’t get up or move. I felt for her.

Around midnight, contractions were picking up, but I still was at a 1. She said she would like to administer a balloon device to open me more. I asked if I could please try to let my body do it on its own. She said she would give me until the morning (6 hrs.) but if I hadn’t progressed, that we needed to get the ball rolling. I walked…and walked…and walked. She came back and checked me again and I had progressed to a 4!!!!

Bouncing my life away.

 I bounced on the birth ball some more. And since mine and Daisy’s vitals were so great, they allowed me to labor in the birth tub. Before I got in the tub, they checked and I was at a soft 6 centimeters!! I still had to be closely monitored since I was VBACing. The water felt great. There was a lot of back pain though. At this point we discovered I was experiencing back labor.

 The only thing that helped was to have Jeff push on my back HARD through EVERY contraction. Every once in a while his sister or their godmother would take over. But that pressure was the only thing helping me. The contractions started slowing down. The water had relaxed me too much. The midwife suggested she check again when I got out of the water. I was at a 6 still. I started bouncing and walking again. At this point, I told Jeff I couldn’t do it. He looked at me and said “You ARE doing it. You’re more than half way there. Listen to your body. Interventions WILL lead to a C-section again.” I got past that hump quite quickly and never asked for pain relief again. I went back to the room and began looking at my affirmations. I laid them across the bed and stared at them as I bounced on the ball. I kept telling myself. “You ARE doing this. Your body has this!” I remembered to keep my jaw loose, and I yelled when I felt I needed to yell. Laila was in the room with us and she was laughing at my screams. She was playing games on an iPad and hanging out. She kept saying “I love you mommy! You can do it mommy!!”

In the labor tub.

Dancing to drop the baby down.

dance, dance, dance

The midwife came back and checked me again. I was at an 8!!! The midwife wanted me to start progressing faster, so she said I should stand and sway. I made sure not to tense up through the contractions. I was in the zone. Jeff danced with me through the pain to help her drop into the birth canal. It was beautiful. The midwife came back and asked how I felt. Almost at that exact moment, it felt like I had to use the bathroom. She said she thought it was time. She said she had heard my yelling from the hallways, and it sounded primal. (Which gave me goose bumps and I somehow felt cosmically connected to every other woman that had given birth naturally throughout the centuries) She asked if I felt like I could push. I knew I could.  I moved to the bed. She checked me and I was at a 9. I started pushing every time I felt the urge to. About 5 pushes in, she said she could see the head. Jeff and his sister were helping to hold my legs so that I could bear down. She said I was pushing like a champ.

 Suddenly, she told me to feel the head!! For some reason, I said “no!” I think I was nervous, or having an out of body experience. But a few seconds later, I felt her. I was amazed. 2 pushes later, she was out.

Seeing her for the first time.

Fat, and a head full of black wavy hair. She went directly to the breast and latched on with the latch of a pro! I was bleeding pretty badly, but they immediately gave me some clotting agents. I delivered the placenta. We left her attached to it until it had worked its last bit of nourishment into her little body…and then we cut the cord that had kept her alive and well inside of me for 9 months. They had NICU standing by while I was in labor in case she inhaled any meconium. I was so relieved when they told the NICU nurses they could leave.

Jeff kept saying "You did it!"

 Laila’s first words to her little sister were “ I love my baby sister.” They kept me over night to make sure my bleeding stopped. It did, and I was discharged the next afternoon.

Meeting her best friend. So much love in this picture.

The entire birth experience was the exact opposite of my first. It was amazing and beautiful. The room was full of love and support. I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

My world.