She´s here!

I´ve been MIA because little Miss Lillysaur decieded to make an early appearnce. She was born at 38w2d on 12.11.10 at 7.40pm. She was in a hurry and labor was fast and furious. I had no form of pain relief and no tearing! Just when I was at the point where I thought I couldn´t take anymore without some help, it was time to push.

I went into labor while finishing up some shopping for her. In fact, I was standing at the check-out when I felt a drip drip and wondered to myself if I had a) wet myself or b) my water had broken when the sales lady asked me when the baby was supposed to come...talk about freakish timing! My mother was with me, so we headed to the restroom where I tried to decide which of the above it was. There was a bit of blood, so I figured it must be my water, but there wasn´t too much of it. I figured that since it was 12.30, I better get something to eat because they probably wouldn´t let me have anything at the hopsital. I felt incredibly removed/distracted from the world around me, but I ate my lunch and felt a few period-like cramps, but nothing else. I had to drive home because my mother doesn´t drive a standard and she doesn´t drive in foreign countries. That was fine until we were about 2 minutes from home and the first real contraction hit. It took all I had to concentrate on driving, and I was thankful that I was almost home and that it was a back road with no traffic. As soon as I got home the contractions started coming pretty regularly, probably about every 5-6 minutes, though I didn´t time them. I kept moving, finished getting some things together, made a few phone calls, and waited for Mr. Lillysaur to make it home. He got home at about 2.30pm, we waited for the dog trainer to come get the dog, and headed out at 3.15. My mother and husband rubbed my lower back for me whenever there was a contraction, and that made it very bearable.

We arrived at the hospital delivery ward about 4.00 and were shown to a labor room, hooked up to the fetal monitor and told to wait. The contraction seemed much less strong now that I was in the hospital and on my side. After about 45 minutes the midwife came back to check on me. She was ordered to do a PH test to see if it really was amniotic fluid or not, but with the blood in the cervix it wasn´t possible to determine. I was told I was about two finger tips dialated and taht I could go home if I wanted...It was a little after five now and I couldn´t imagine going home. I was sure this baby was on her way, and I told the midwife that. She left for a bit, and I tried out the birthing ball, but found it to be too uncomfortable. The contractions started kicking back up, and Mr. Lillysaur was busy massaging my lower back while I stood and rocked my hips, leaned on the windowsill for support or walked around. The midwife came back, noticed that I seemed tense and offered me some Busopan to relieve the cramping, but I turned it down. I did take the warm cherry pit pillow they gave me for my back. She also suggested that I take a warm shower to help relieve the back pain since I was having back labor. I wanted to try acupuncture, but the midwife who did that was busy with someone else and I would have to wait. The two tubs were also in use so the shower was my only option. I took to the shower and stayed there for about 30 min. letting the warm water fall on my back, and all the while swaying back and forth. The warm water did wonders for relieving the pain and I didn´t notice the contractions as much until my husband called me to get out of the shower because the midwife wanted to talk to me about the acupuncture and check me again.

As soon as I got out of the shower the contractions really started coming and it was all I could do to put my robe on and lie down on the bed. The midwife put me on the monitor, checked my cervix and announced that I was at 4cm. The contraction were coming on strong and coming every three minutes. I had no control of anything at that point, and the contractions just seem to take over. After about 5-10min they started coming every 1.5 minutes and I told Mr. Lillysaur to ring for the midwife so I could get some pain relief. I couldn´t imagine this pain going on for several more hours. She came and said I could have some pain relief but that the Dr. would have to come put the IV line in. She went and got the doctor who came a couple of minutes later. It was work for her to get the IV line in because the contractions were coming one on top of each other at this point. I still hadn´t gotten any pain relief yet, and I felt so wrenched by the contractions that I was pretty sure none of the standard IV stuff would help, so I asked for an epidural. The doctor said it would be fine and that she would send the anesthesiologist to talk to me and then put it in. I immediately announced that I felt tremendous pressure in my bowels and that I needed to go to the bathroom. I also said I really felt the urge to push which got them all looking funny. The doctor asked the midwife to check me, and she responded that she had just checked me about five minutes before and that I had only been at 4cm. I felt the overwhelming urge to go to the bathroom, and decided it would be a good idea just to try and go...I pushed mightely and my water game gushing out. That really got the Dr.´s and midwife´s attention. The midwife checked me and announced with great surprise that I was fully dialated, and that when I pushed she could see the top of the babies head...Things really picked up from there and I was ordered to start panting until they could get me into the delivery room. I was in the delivery room five minutes later, and after three pushes my sweet girl Frances was born. She came into the world screaming, recieved 10´s on her apgars, and weighed a whopping 6.6lbs and was 19 inches long.

We are home and are enjoying every minute of getting to know our little girl. I feel so incredibly blessed that she is finally here and that she is healthy. She came almost exactly three years to the date of my first miscarriage.