Hi everyone! I had a baby!

Lily Marilyn Hale
7 lbs 9 oz
19 inches
Born August 28, 2007

She's sleeping now, so I thought I would share her birth story with LJ.

So, as you may know, I was due on August 17th. Since I went with the traditional OB, they're not generally wild about letting women go over 42 weeks of pregnancy. I wasn't looking to sign up for an induction, but I wasn't necessarily totally opposed to it either -- at least not to the point that I would get into a battle about it with the doc. I was progressing from week-to-week with my dilation and effacement, so when they suggested I schedule the induction, I went ahead and did it.

Tuesday morning we called the hospital at 6am, as instructed, to find out if they would have space for me to come in. They told Kevin to call back at 8:30, then noon, and finally they called me in at 2:30pm. Kevin and I drove to Valley Medical Center, and arrived right in the middle of a nursing shift change. As we waited, I started having contractions. For the first time, they were pretty regular. So, I am glad to say that I actually started labor naturally at what was the last moment possible.

They put me on a low dose of pitocin to help move things along, and my body responded with gusto. After about 4 hours, I was dilated to nearly a 6, and at that point, I was ready for my epidural. I went into the delivery experience wanting to see how far I could get without pain relief, more out of curiosity than anything. Since I've never had major surgery, never broken a limb, nor had any significant medical issues, I had no idea what my pain tolerance is. I was not determined to have a natural delivery, though, and felt no guilt when I decided I was ready for the anesthesia. I had 3 contractions during the insertion of the epidural catheter, and thank God Kevin was there to help me through it. I'd been dealing with the contraction pain by squirming around a fair amount, so trying to remain completely still was a challenge, to say the least.

Once I had the epidural in, the contraction pain abated. After about 3 more hours, I was ready to push, and did so with the help of my mom and Kevin for about 30 minutes. My doctor arrived, and after observing a few pushes, things suddenly got frantic. More medical type folks came in to assist, and the pulled the bed apart to prepare for delivery, and they had me put my legs in the stirrups. I wasn't completely sure what was going on, but it seems that my placenta was tearing away from the uterus (or something...?) and there was some weird bleeding. The doctor wanted to get Lily out immediately, so they used the suction to get her out in one swoop. It all happened pretty fast. Kevin wasn't able to cut the cord because they wanted to get the placenta out immediately, and prevent whatever was going wrong to not get worse. I'm glad I didn't get a chance to freak out at any point.

All told, I got through the entire process in fewer than 8 hours, and it was not nearly as bad as I was told was possible. I'm pretty damned lucky; I had the easiest pregnancy I can imagine, and the delivery was quick. Did I mention that she's perfect?

No, really. See?