You may be thinking "What the what? Lara's 2! What are you doin posting her birth story now?" Well....A) I have been wanting to write it out for a long while now and B) I plan to post Liam's and a mother must be fair.
We were scheduled to be induced Saturday June 27th at 7:00am. Needless to say there was not much sleep to be had at our apartment the night before. We put together a closet organizer, my rocking chair, and the pack n' play...talked about how "holy crap by this time tomorrow we will probably be parents"...and Steven got to fufill his 9 month dream of drawing a basketball on my stomach.
I was having regular contractions through the night but eventually calmed my nerves enough to go to sleep. I was awoken at 5:30am to a call from my mother. "I am on my way. Why aren't you at the hospital yet?!" Confused I responded "Because we don't have to be there until 7." "Oh...why did I think it was earlier...I guess I will go walk the mall." Needless to say grandma was preeeety anxious.
My alarm went off at 6:15am and I got up, took a shower, fancied my hair (because you have to look good while giving birth) and made sure all of our last minute things were packed. The feeling I had while riding in the car to the hospital is a hard one to explain. It was a strange mixture of anxious, scared, excited, and freakishly calm.
We arrived at St. As a few minutes before 7am. There was no one in the check in area except us so we got to check in right away. Sitting at the window while the lady put my arm band on, I remember feeling like being strapped into a roller coaster, slowly eeking my way to the top of the big drop. No turning back now.
They led me straight up to Labor and Delivery to a HUGE room with its own little waiting area with couches that could be curtained off. I changed into my foxy gown and got hooked up to the monitors. Dr. Hutchens came in a broke my water at 7:30am and my contractions immediately started coming closer together. The nurse came in to put in my IV. She asked if I wanted her to stick me with some numbing stuff before she put in the IV. I like to avoid as many needles as I can and thought I could tough it out. WRONG. NEVER let them put an IV in your arm without numbing you first. Bonus for me...I have squiggly viens and evidently had a rookie nurse who stuck me 5 times before she got a different nurse who stuck me 2 more times before they had to find the anesthesiologist to put my IV in. Getting my IV was by far the worst part of my day. When nurse #2 came in to try she thought she had it and turned the fluid on and my hand started to swell.
At 8:00am mom arrived and they got the pitocin up and running in my veins. By 8:30am I was allowed to get up and go to the bathroom. I got situated back in the bed and got started on my ice chips.
Lara evidently hated the way I was sitting because about 2 minutes after I sat back down, alarms started going off indicating her heart rate was dropping. Nurses rushed in the room and put me on my left side and put an oxygen mask on my face. Pretty scary way to start out the day. L's heartrate stabilized for 20 minutes and then dropped again so they switched sides. But this time Steven's family had arrived...people were throwing around the C word...and I was freaked out but determinded that Lara just didn't like the way I was positioned and if someone would just listen to me and let me move...she'd be fine. My nurse told me no, don't move...stay on your oxygen...but let me just tell you, laying on your right side...NOT the most fun way to labor. Just sayin'. So being the rebel I am, I sat myself back up the way I was before I got up to pee. Lara's heartrate didn't drop again. SO ha nursing staff.
Steven asked me numerous times to get an epidural...I am pretty convinced he needed one more than I did. Like he will never understand what it feels like to be in labor, I will never understand what it is like to watch my other half go through labor so I feel for him from that respect. He did do a good job of keeping me entertained.
By about noon I was ready for something to take the edge off a bit as I wasn't allowed to get up and move after the heartrate incident earlier that morning. They gave me some stadol and I was actually able to nap for a while. For those of you who don't know, when you have stadol you still feel everything, you just don't care as much. At 6pm things started to really hurt. Like really REALLY hurt....Welcome to the "trasition phase" of labor. It gets its rep as the absolute worst part for a reason. I curled up in the fetal position, burried my face in my pillow, and listened to Steven tell me when a contraction was peaking and then coming down. There was nothing left to do at that point but grin and bear it. My mom and Ashley were standed at the end of my bed during this part chatting and giggling which was SUPER irritating to my laboring self so I got a little snappy with them. At 6:30 I started to feel like I needed to push. Steven got the nurse who checked me and said, "Oop...almost...but not quite." I'm not sure how much more time passed, but I was REALLY neeing to push...it was a feeling of "Why isn't anyone listening to me? I'm not making this up!" feeling. It was a little before 7pm when the nurse came in, checked me, and said "Ok Kari, we are going to do a little practice pushing. It will probably take you a while to push this baby out because you have a very flat pubic bone (whatever the crap that means)." I pushed once...the nurse checked and said...."Oh wait...we better go get Dr. Hutchens." As luck would have it...Dr. Hutchens had thought my labor was progressing rather slowly (I was stuck at 5cm for quite a while) and had decided to go out and get a burrito so they had to page him. Nurses started pouring into the room to get ready for L's big debut and started telling me I couldn't push anymore until the doc showed up. Well...when your body is trying to get a baby out...you really don't have much say in the matter and I was about ready to freak out if they told me to breathe through one more contraction. Steven tells me I was "freakishly calm" the whole day until it was time to push and we had no doctor there to "catch". Whenever someone comes in to L&D a doorbell rings. Well the doorbell rang and one of the nurses says "Oh that must be Dr. HUtchens..." Relief flooded over me until someone said "Oh nope...." and they started LAUGHING. What about that is funny? Nothing. Finally Hutch showed up. I pushed 5 times and out came Lara Lynn Williams at 7:29pm...almost exactly 12 hours after my water broke. Dr. Hutchens asked if Steven wanted to cut the cord. He hesitated...looked at me...looked at Lara...and finally Karol pushed him forward and said "Yes...he does.".
Steven went with Lara while they cleaned her up and I got to hang around for some stitches and chat time with Dr. Hutchens. When they brought her to me to hold all I remember seeing was a pink hat, HUGE eyes, and her little birdy tounge sticking out. I started crying and told Steven "She has your eyes!" Just like I had hoped.
No epidural meant I felt everything. I can honestly say it was not the most fun I have ever had, but it was absolutely manageable. 12 hours of labor sounds like a very long time but it FLEW by. There isn't anything about L's labor that I would have done differently....except maybe have had a more fashionable get up.
