Lily Grace's Birth Story

So this story begins Tuesday morning. Procedure dictates when a pregnancy reached 41 weeks, mom is supposed to have a Non-Stress Test and an Ultra-sound to make sure everything is still ok. However, this didn't get booked for me. So on Tuesday (41+1) we scrambled to get that done. I had had minor 'tightenings' that morning but really nothing. More like uncomfortable braxton hicks than what I would call actual contractions.

The hospital called at 9:00am and scheduled me in for 11:00. So the morning became a whirlwind of getting the kids breakfast and getting them to gramma's and getting myself to my appointment (I was late). The appointment went great and everything was looking fine.

Meanwhile, Ryan was at work and mentioned that things MIGHT be starting with me and the whole office freaked out. So he wrapped things up and came home. He would officially start his holidays the next day.

He got home at about the same time as I did, so we went and picked up the kids and decided to go walk the mall in hopes of picking things up. Although I did have a few more uncomfortable tightenings while I was actually walking, nothing really came of it. While out, we got a call from the midwives and found out that the

re was a good possibility that there was meconium in my amniotic fluid. Ryan and I decided that in stead of the home birth we had planned, it would be best for babe if we had a hospital birth instead.

Fast forward to Tuesday night. We went to bed around 11pm and I crashed hard (forgetting to take my heartburn meds) I was woken up at about 1:30 with heartburn. Disappointed that it wasn't contractions, I took meds and tried to go back to sleep. I had three contractions in about half an hour. That's when I decided to turn the tv on to try and ignore them and go back to sleep. I had another 2 or three in 20 minutes. Next distraction: Bath. I also decided to start timing to see if the bath was actually slowing things down. If anything they were picking up both in frequency and intensity.

I decided at this point to wake Ryan up. We got up got dressed and went downstairs. By about 3:30 I started dry heaving and at that point we decided to call the midwife and my mother-in-law to come and be with the kids.

We arrived at the hospital at about 4:00am She checked me and I was at 6cm. Because I was GBS+ the nurse hooked up an IV and we started the first (and only) round of antibiotics. Once those were done, my midwife checked me again (8cm) and broke my waters. As soon as that was done (which was a bit of a procedure) it was go time.

I pushed through about three contractions (MAYBE 10 minutes) and she was here. I caught her myself and pulled her onto my chest. I even got to cut the cord. I had one minor tear that required 3 stitches.

Lily Grace was born at 4:58am, March 19, 2014. She weighted in at 9lb 9oz and measured 21.5 inches in length. There were no complications from the meconium or my GBS+ status.