Thursday August 29:
I had a doctors appointment at 3:30. I left work and went alone, which was odd because Dusty went to almost all of my appointments. Dr. Campbell had told me the week before that he thought I could go into labor anytime and that I probably wouldn't make my due date. He was surprised to see me at my appointment. I was dilated to a 2.5 almost a 3 and he offered to strip my membranes. I let him because I was super ready for Lily to be here. He kept teasing me that he was messing up his weekend by doing it because he was the on call doctor for the next four days. I just laughed and told him I was sorry. He said I'd have mild cramping afterwards and not to worry about it.
I went and picked up Dusty from school right after my appointment and we just sat at home for the rest of the night. I had cramping, but I didn't think anything of it.
Friday August 30:
I woke up at 4:17 with a contraction. It wasn't too bad, though, so I didn't wake Dusty up. I went to the bathroom and eventually found my way to the living room. I tried laying on the couch but I was too nervous so I paced the living room, drank water and timed contractions. They were about 20 minutes apart and I could definitely talk through them so I just kept counting. At 6:30 Dusty got up to get ready for school and I told him what was happening. By this point my contractions were irregular and varying from three to ten minutes apart. This was supposed to be my last day of work and I really wanted to go in and fill out my timecards, so Dusty kindly called the hospital to see what they said about coming in. The nurse informed him that as long as I could talk through my contractions, they weren't consistently under five minutes and I was comfortable that I shouldn't come in. Because of that we decided that I should go to work.
I got myself ready for work and Dusty finished packing my hospital bag because we assumed that I wasn't going to come home before she was born. On my way to work I called my mom and told her that I thought we were having a baby today. She was excited and chatted with me until I got to work about 30 minutes later. By the time I got to work my contractions were about 6 minutes apart and I realized that driving to Colfax probably wasn't a good idea. I went in and told the only other person there that I was having contractions and she thought I was crazy for coming to work. I agreed and asked her to watch the front phones while I went to the bathroom (on Fridays I was the secretary, but only on fridays... it was an odd arrangement). While in the bathroom I realized that I needed to head to the hospital. I'd been at work a grand total of 15 minutes at this point. When I got back into my office I ran into my boss. Another one of my coworkers had told him that I was having contractions and he asked if he could drive me back to Pullman. I agreed and off we went. My boss Troy kindly prattled to me about inconsequential things on the drive and we timed my contractions.
After we got back to Pullman, we met Dusty at WSU, dropped off Troy at his house (his wife was going to drive him back to work) and headed to the hospital. We were at the hospital by 9:00 am. As we walked in, the nurses said they were expecting us (they should have told Dusty that they thought it would be that fast and I wouldn't have gone to work). They put me on the monitor and watched my progress for about 20 minutes. By this point my contractions were between four and five minutes apart and Lily's heartbeat was in the 150's. After monitoring that they decided to check to see how dilated I was. I was afraid i was going to be one of those women who came in and hadn't progressed at all but I was pleasantly surprised that I was dilated to a 5.5 by that point. They officially admitted me and the waiting game began.
The nurse asked me what my pain management plan was and I told her epidural. She was surprised because she'd thought that I'd been handling the pain really well but she called the anesthesiologist. I got my epidural around 11:30. It honestly didn't hurt like I'd been told. I didn't feel a thing while it went in and it kicked in quickly. It was perfect because I could totally move my legs and support myself but I couldn't feel any pain or discomfort.
About an hour later my water broke on its own. I thought for sure that I had peed my pants because I was drinking apple juice like it was going out of style and I assumed that I'd just lost control of my bladder. I was super nervous to tell the nurse but it turned out to be my water breaking. That was a relief! Around 1:00 my OBGYN came and checked me. By this point I was dilated to an 8. He said that he would be back around 5:00 to check again.
I slept the rest of the afternoon. I was terrible company for Dusty but it felt great to just sleep. I'd wake up when the nurses came in but besides that I was passed out. As it got close to 5:00 I started feeling pressure in the lower right side of my abdomen and the nurse let me get some additional pain medication to help the feeling go away. It turned out to be Lily trying to get out on her own.
Around 5:15 the nurse came in and started getting me ready to push. We'd done a few trial pushes by the time the doctor got there around 5:30. The doctor told me that pushing out a baby was like pushing out a big poop and I informed him that I was really good at pooping since I'm always a little sick to my stomach (I don't really follow my gluten-free diet as well as I should sometimes) so getting Lily out shouldn't be a problem. I started officially pushing at 5:33. In between pushes I'd lay back and laugh and chat with the doctor and nurses. My nurse kept telling me that this was the quietest labor she'd done for a really long time and that she was impressed. When we started pushing Lily's head had about half an inch to go before it started coming out, she'd already decided that it was time to come. I had no problems pushing. Lily was coming so smoothly that Dr. Campbell even let me rest a little because he didn't want me to tear. I pushed for 41 minutes before Lily officially arrived.
Lily was born at 6:14 pm. She weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches long. She is beautiful. On the Apgar scale she scored a 9. She was (and still is) perfect. We postponed her shots and everything else so that I could try to feed her and Dusty could get to know her during the first hour. She didn't cry hardly at all and instead prefered to stare around the room. We stayed in the hospital until Sunday and then took her home and it's been wonderful ever since! Lily gained weight quickly and hasn't ever had a problem eating so we consider her to be the perfect baby!
38 weeks pregnant, 1 week before Lily was born
Our last awkward photo with just Dusty and I. We snapped it in the car at the hospital
All checked in, with my first big cup of apple juice
I don't usually like jello but I thought it was amazing in the hospital
Dusty took a million picutres of me sleeping, this is pretty much how I looked most of the day
Snuggling Lil right after she was born
Getting weighed
First picture with daddy
First picture with mommy (after mommy got to shower)
Our little princess.
First family picture
Dusty and Lily watched football all day Saturday in the hospital
Getting ready to go home
We had the same nurse for all three days we were at the hospital. She was AMAZING!
First time coming home
This is the picture they put up on the hospital website of Lily. She hates that dress. Every time I put her in it she is ornery. She isn't usually ornery, unless she's in that dress.
