Lenora's delivery story

Here's the story of Lenora's grand entrance in to the world. Continue reading only if you like that sort of thing.

By my 38 week appointment on Thursday it was very apparent that Lenora was going to be early just like Hazel and Eliza . I was already 4cm dilated and 75% effaced (plus I've never made it to 39 weeks with any of my pregnancies). By Thursday afternoon I was having pretty regular contractions to the point where I cancelled my work appointment. But they died down by that evening. I should mention too that I had been feeling really odd all week. It felt like I had the flu coming on but I knew I wasn't getting sick.

Friday was uneventful besides Michael attempting a "labor inducing" foot rub:) On Saturday about noon I started having regular contractions again. I went for a walk and they picked up and were getting stronger. We decided not to head up to Salt Lake for my sister's birthday party and had my brother and his wife come pick up the girls so they could go to the party. I packed them an overnight bag hoping this was the real deal and someone in the family would need to keep them:)

Contractions were still regular but not strong so I decided to go on a cleaning rampage. From about 3pm until 8pm I cleaned, installed the car seat, did laundry, sorted, organized, etc, etc. I just wanted the house to be spotless. By about 8pm contractions were starting to hurt more, but I refused to leave for the hospital until I finished steam mopping the floor. I know Michael thought I was crazy by this point but was a total sweetheart and didn't say a word.

Of course things slowed down on the car ride in and I got the "yeah right you're not in labor" looks from the nurse. I was disappointed to hear I was still only a 4 but after an hour of monitoring I was at a 5 and contractions were picking up again so they admitted me (this was just before 10pm).

After another hour I was at 6cm and the doctor decided to go ahead and break my water since contractions were still not very strong. I was mentally prepared for things to pick up very fast but shockingly almost the opposite happened. My contractions slowed down for nearly an hour. But then once they picked up they started getting painful.

I had mentally prepared myself this time around for the possibility of a natural birth. With Eliza I was in a ton of pain and had to wait forever for my epidural and was complete minutes after it started working. So I wanted to be more prepared to deal with the pain if that happened again. I was doing well handling the pain and was dilated to 7cm and 100% effaced. I thought to myself "I can do this I think". But then it just didn't feel right. For some reason I couldn't explain I felt like I should get the epidural. So I went ahead and got my epidural about 1am. Later I was SO thankful I had....

The epidural worked like a charm and I even caught a bit of sleep. In fact, the nurse woke me up to check me and I was complete and ready to push. I was shocked when after only a few pushes she was crowning! (I pushed for almost an hour with Hazel and about 15 minutes with Eliza).

The doctor was in the process of offering me an episiotomy along the same scar where I'd torn with both girls since it was already starting to tear a bit. But then Lenora's heart rate started dropping rapidly and the episiotomy was no longer an option. They need to get her out as quickly as possible. Two short pushed and she was out. Once she was out they found her cord was very short and wrapped around her neck. Her heart rate started dropping when she crowned because the cord got pulled tight. Thankfully it wasn't pulled tight long enough to do any harm and she was crying almost immediately.

I got to hold her immediately and was instantly in love!

Now on to why I was SO thankful for my epidural.... After delivering the placenta my doctor did the standard push down on your uterus thing and said something didn't feel right. He examined the placenta and confirmed it was all there, but it felt like there was more inside. Long story short, he ended up having to do a manual sweep of my uterus to remove an extra lobe of the placenta. It hurt a bit as the epidural was beginning to wear off, but I can't imagine how much pain I would have been in had I gone natural then had to endure that. Even my nurse commented how glad she was I had the epidural because seeing women experience that without it is terrible.

Even with the minor bumps at the end, this was my easiest delivery. It was peaceful and laid back. And of course the end result was wonderful!