The Delivery... By Popular Demand (Reader discretion is advised!)

First, I feel like by not posting details in the first place I built up Laila's delivery as some extremely interesting (?) event. It's not that it was really, really eventful; it's just that Kaia's delivery was so ideal and went almost exactly as Greg, my doctor, and I had planned. But, as I wrote before, Kaia was delivered with a scheduled induction... Laila was not.

So, remember that Laila was due around January 8th. I knew this was an estimated due date and had read and heard before that second babies tend to come earlier ~ whether or not there's any real truth to that, I still expected Laila to come a few days before her due date. Even though, I expected her any day, I still had nothing packed for the hospital. It was on my to-do list... [Keep in mind, we have Kaia to consider. She was going with us to the hospital and staying there as long as Greg or my mom was there. I had nothing packed for her either.]

December 30, 2008

Greg finally had a day off (!!) and he decided to try to sleep in a little. Kaia and I got up, as usual, around 7:00 am. We went downstairs.

[At night, we keep our dogs in our kitchen. First thing every morning, we let them outside to use the bathroom and I sweep and mop the kitchen floor to get the dog hair up. I love my dogs, but HATE dog hair. I refuse to let Kaia on the floor until I clean it, so I carry her downstairs and put her directly into her highchair.]

I cleaned the floors, gave Kaia her breakfast, and started emptying the dishwasher. Well, at about 8:00 am, liquid came out of me! What?! It wasn't at all like I expected. Not much at all. I also read and heard that you might "think" your water broke, but you really peed on yourself. Really? I didn't feel like I peed or needed to pee. Anyway, I started to the bathroom. On my way, more liquid began coming out, so I grabbed my cell phone and went to the bathroom. When I sat, it stopped (even more confusing, but I remembered reading that certain positions could adjust the baby so she could block the flow. Okay.), but every time I stood up it started again. Aaaghh! From our downstairs bathroom, I called Greg (sleeping upstairs), my mom, and my doctor's office. Greg said, "Are you kidding?" Um, no! The lady at my doctor's office told me that my doctor was actually at the hospital today. Yay! She told me to get ready to go to the hospital, just in case, but also said that she would call my doc to get her opinion. My doc said come in for tests. My mom said she was almost to the Memphis airport (she was already scheduled to fly out that day).

With that, we began getting ourselves and a bag ready for the hospital. The bag: my and Kaia's toothbrushes, diapers and a couple of toys for Kaia, Laila's coming home outfit - plus a bunch of random clothes (that might or might not fit!) thrown into a small suitcase (because neither Greg nor I could think clearly about what we might need, and didn't know if we would be staying). Greg grabbed a few things for himself (mostly work stuff, and a toothbrush). Anything else we needed, he could get later.

By 10:00 am, we were at the hospital. The first observations and tests were negative for amniotic fluid, but the liquid was still leaking, just very randomly. We talked about all of our options, basically going home and seeing what happened or staying there and seeing what happened. I was convinced that it was fluid from my amniotic sac though, so I was very hesitant about going home. The doc recommended I just wait there a little while then and have more tests done later. I think it was maybe 30 minutes or so after the first tests, that more tests confirmed that it was amniotic fluid. Finally! ~ I thought Greg and the doctor were thinking that I was crazy (and maybe that I had peed on myself too). Ha! I showed them : )

Well, after the tests confirmed amniotic fluid, the doc performed an ultrasound. Laila was breech! Breech! My sac broke. I was ready to have this baby. And, she's upside down! (Actually, her butt was down, head was up, and her feet were up by her head.) That changed my options. Ultimately, it became, do I go ahead and get on the c-section schedule or try to turn the baby first (external version, with very low success rate, pain for the mom, and stress for the baby) then likely have an emergency c-section anyway. Regardless, there was no going back home at that point. I was concerned with having a c-section because that would make my recovery longer (longer before I could pick up Kaia after the delivery). [During the pregnancy, we learned that I had placental previa - which would mean c-section, so I had been worrying about that for a while... but, the previa resolved and things were back to good. We thought.]

Since we would likely have a c-section anyway, we waited until there was a surgery spot ready in case we had to rush in and we tried the external version. That was the most painful thing that I have ever experienced, but it was very controlled. The doc and a resident were pushing on me and Laila (literally, manually turning her with their hands on my abdomen), while another resident monitored Laila's heart rate, the nurse rubbed my feet (seriously, she needs a raise), and Greg took care of Kaia. It worked!! The doctor was so excited that she gave high-fives to all of us, then put a band around my abdomen to try to keep Laila in place -- she said that she didn't know if the band would make a difference or not but she was doing whatever she could to keep Laila in place after all of that! Then, we started inducing...

Around 9:00 pm, Greg and Kaia left to go get my mom from the airport. We weren't sure what would happen while they were gone, but I was okay enough with the idea of delivering while they were gone and refused to have my mom take a cab from the airport to the hospital (a little over an hour and around $100 - and all of our close friends here were either out of town or don't have vehicles). They made it back though! When they got there, I was dilated to about 6cm. I did have an epidural ~ I learned with Kaia that epidurals are great!

December 31, 2008

I think I pushed for about 30 minutes. It wasn't bad at all (about the same as for Kaia too). Oh, and I had a mirror. I wasn't sure about that, but it was really good. It was nice to see Laila's head and it helped me gauge the pushes.

2:21 am: Laila was born. She had the cord around her neck and had right shoulder dystocia. There was a lot of commotion with the doctor and nurses. The doctor called for more help and I didn't hear Laila cry or see her for a while, so it was pretty scary. Once they got her out, they put her on me for a moment but took her away (still in the room) pretty quickly. At least I got to see her, and my mom checked on her and let me know a little of what was going on (ah, I forgot to tell you, my mom is a labor and delivery nurse!). Thanks to the epidural, I didn't feel the third-degree laceration (from here to there and really deep) - for a little while anyway.

A pediatrician was called in to check on Laila. She was a little jaundiced, but we worked that out with food and sun (we went through that with Kaia). She also had Erb's palsy from the dystocia. She didn't move her right arm at all for about a week and a half, then started moving it gradually when she would cry hard. By two and a half weeks, she was moving it a lot more but didn't seem to have much elbow control. Now, it's normal or nearly normal. She tends to favor her left arm, but that may work itself out over time. Or, she just may be a lefty. Her daddy is.

Newborn Laila, with gunk and all.
(See her right arm? Guess it kind of looks like she's just relaxing though.)

Oh, Kaia has these "fits." They almost always occur about 30 minutes to an hour after she falls asleep, when she has gotten too tired before going to bed (like if she doesn't get her afternoon nap). She's gotten them since she was about 5 months old or so. The "fits": she cries and screams uncontrollably, very loudly, loses her breath... and she's ASLEEP and CANNOT be woken up. They were very scary to see at first and are still uncomfortable to watch. She looks like she's being tortured! Well, she was at the hospital with us all day and night and only slept a little bit in the car on the way back from the airport and had just fallen asleep in the hospital room when I began pushing. I made sure that I was really quiet as I pushed so I didn't disturb her, but just after Laila was born, Kaia had a "fit." Greg went to hold her (even though we can't wake her up, we hold her - it makes us feel like we are doing something and it lets us watch her close since she starts gasping for breath through the fit). She was so loud that he eventually took her into the bathroom in our room and closed the door. We could still hear her. After everything settled, with Kaia and Laila, Greg took Kaia home so she could sleep better, in her own bed. My mom stayed with me at the hospital.

Daddy holding Kaia through her "fit."

That's it. We came home the next day. Laila's cord came off on 1/05. That was faster than Kaia's came off and I was thrilled (I don't like to see those, or clean them. Blah!). The rest has been great!