Livvi Joy
Livvi Joy born on October 6, 2015 at 41 weeks 6 days. We were under the care of the midwives at Allen Hospital and the midwives were comfortable with me being overdue until the 13 day mark. At that point our care would have been switched to the OB doctors. We were required to have non stress tests at the one week overdue mark and the 10 day overdue mark. Both of those tests turned out well. At my 10 day overdue appointment the midwife was questioning if baby was head down because my cervix was dilated 0 (closed like a steel trap were her exact words) and she could not feel the baby. I had the midwife check me at this time because we were going to see if I would be a candidate for having my membranes stripped on the following Monday at 12 days overdue. Because the midwife was unsure if baby was head down she ordered a biophysical ultrasound to be completed that day (Friday.) Baby scored a 6/8 and missed two points for lack of 3 movements in the 30 minute time frame. Because my cervix was closed and baby had not descended really at all I did the Miles Circuit all weekend hoping it would help get baby in the right position for labor to begin. On Monday (12 days overdue) I had another appointment with the other midwife, Bree, and another non stress test. The test was fine but not great. Because of this and the fact that baby scored a 6/8 on the last biophysical ultrasound she required us to do another biophysical ultrasound. If baby didn’t score an 8/8 she wanted to induce me that day. Luckily baby was very active and scored 8/8. So our induction was scheduled for the next day (Tuesday) at 13 days overdue. In both of the biophysical ultrasounds baby was estimated at 10lb 1oz and 10lb 9oz. We were not surprised by this as, our first was 10lb 9oz. I was nervous the midwives would use that as a “risk out” circumstance because that is what happened with Landry. However, because my birth went well and he was big they didn’t “risk us out.” At the Monday appointment with Bree I had her check me again and I was 1 cm dilated! We felt very excited about this as it meant to us that my body did acknowledge labor should be starting soon. I was also 50% effaced at this time and baby was -4 station.
On Tuesday the 6th we called the hospital at 6am to make sure they had room for us to come. We were a little nervous they wouldn’t have room because Bree had told us they were very full on Monday afternoon and if we weren’t able to go on Tuesday we would have to deliver with the OBs because we would be at 42 weeks. Thankfully they had a spot for us!
We arrived at the Emergency Room entrance at 7am and got all checked in. Once we got to our room we got settled in while Darla our nurse did health history questions, etc. At 8:15am Bree and Amber, the student midwife, came to the room to start me on the prostaglandin gel. Bree did this and checked me at the same time. I was still 1cm dilated and 70% effaced and what she called -3 station. We started walking the halls after our 30 minutes of required monitoring with the fetal heart rate monitor. We walked and walked and walked and walked and I would feel the contraction but it was very light, I was able to walk and talk right through them. After walking for about 45 minutes we decided to go back to the room to lay down to see if that would change anything because the contractions seemed to be getting LESS intense and less often, this was around 9:30am. When I laid in the bed I laid in the Miles Circuit position and did some nipple stimulation. Because it was an induction we were both a little nervous that my body wouldn’t respond to the early attempts of inducing labor and Pitocin would be needed.
When I laid in the bed the contractions seemed to pick up a little or at least start up again to the point where I could feel them and notice them again. I stayed in bed for about 30 minutes as the contractions started to fizzle out again. I did eat a granola bar and quite a bit of trail mix at this point because I had not had anything to eat since breakfast at 6am.
At 10:15 we started walking the halls again. Once again the change in position or activity got contractions going again, but nothing too serious. I was able to walk and talk through them.
At 11:15am Bree and Amber came back into the room because that was the earliest they would do the Foley balloon. We had asked them if they would do the balloon earlier and they said the standard is usually 4 hours after the prostaglandin gel. But they were willing to do 3 hours. Amber put the Foley balloon in and we once again had to do 30 minutes of fetal heart rate monitoring in the bed. I was 3cm dilated, 70% effaced and -2 station before they put the balloon in, so the prostaglandin gel did do something despite my very weak contractions. At 12:00 we were back in the halls walking and contractions were significantly more intense and gradually got closer together, between 1 and 3 minutes apart. I remember stopping and leaning against the wall for a few of the contractions, not wanting to keep walking or talking through them.
At 12:00 we asked to be checked because it felt like the balloon was falling out or was coming down which indicated that I was dilated to a 4 or 5. Amber tried to remove the balloon because when she checked me she thought I was dilated enough but when she tugged on the balloon it was extremely painful and she determined that maybe it wasn’t ready to come out. So we went back to the halls for more walking. Contractions remained strong-ish and were always about 1 minute apart.
At 2:00 Bree came and asked us to meet her in the room. When she checked me she discovered that the balloon was lodged next to Livvi’s head and that is why it was painful and didn’t come out when Amber had tried earlier. She made the comment that she had never had that happen before. I hate hearing that! I am sure Livvi was like what in the world is this? At least my water was not broke so it didn’t touch her or anything. I was dilated to a 5 at this point and contractions were strong and 1 minute apart. Contractions were lasting about 45 seconds at this point. From 2:00-3:00 we walked in the halls again. I remember not really being comfortable being out of the room at this point but I didn’t want to just walk around the room because I wanted to make sure labor kept progressing. So we walked a short route in the hall right outside our room.
At 3:00 I got in the tub because that is where I thought I would be the most comfortable during the hard part of labor and I felt like I was nearing the hard part of labor. Contractions were still very strong but spaced out a little bit after I got in the tub compared to when I was walking…more like 1.5 or 2 minutes apart. After about an hour in the tub I felt like getting out. I labored in the room, mostly standing and leaning on Ryan and squeezing his traps during a contraction. He did have some small bruises the size of my finger tips that night. Opps! :) I was also curling my lip a lot and kind of snarling during contractions. I felt like a wild animal. I was having a lot of tailbone pain during contractions at this point and standing was the only comfortable position I could find to labor in. I tried the birthing ball and a ball in the inclined bed, but neither was comfortable. I told Ryan I felt very tired and I didn’t know how much longer I could do this. My muscles just always felt tense because I was standing. I didn’t feel like I got much of a break and I couldn’t really relax at any point because I was standing and swaying the whole time between contractions. I was nearing transition!
By 4:20pm I was asking for Bree to come to the room to somehow verify that I was near the very end of labor. I was definitely in transition and feeling like I was losing a little bit of control during contractions, my breathing would get fast and panty which I knew I wasn’t supposed to do but I didn’t feel like I could control it very well at this point. This was a very scary feeling for me, I felt super vulnerable and that there were no options if I wasn’t able to handle a contraction. Ryan recognized this as transition but I thought that I was just losing it. This is why I asked for Bree, I needed concrete validation that we were close to the end in order for me to mentally get over the hump. During these contractions I continued to stand and lean on (squeeze) Ryan.
Finally at 4:55 Bree came to the room after asking for her several times. Amber was in the room while I was asking for Bree and I remember hearing her say to Ryan that Bree was doing paperwork. I was laboring in the hands and knees position at this time with a ball under my chest and I said “tell her to put the damn pen down.” HA! When Bree got to the room I wanted her to check me to hopefully hear that I was close. She couldn’t check me in the hands and knees position or standing. She wanted me to lie in the bed. My tailbone was killing me and contractions were still about 1 minute apart lasting 1 minute each so getting turned around in bed was hard work. I was a 7-8. After she checked me I quickly stood up on the side of the bed as a contraction came and again labored in the standing position. I felt very pushy shortly after getting up and started to do some little pushes uncontrollably. Some clear fluid came out and was on the floor and Bree thought it was likely urine. A few contractions after that I felt pushy again even though I felt like I shouldn’t push because 5 minutes ago I was a 7-8. This time the fluid was a little brown and they thought my water had broken and had meconium staining. So they paged the NICU doc to be there when baby was born.
On the next contraction around 5:15pm I felt very pushy and did a full grunt and push while standing at the side of the bed. Bree told me I needed to get into the bed to push. I do wonder why I couldn’t have just pushed while standing there? So very slowly and probably over the course of two or three contractions I made my way into the bed again so she could check me before I really started to push and she said I was complete, a 10, and could push when I wanted to. I was kind of amazed that I went from a 7-8 to a 10 within 10 or less minutes. When she checked me she accidentally broke my water because she wasn’t being careful not to thinking my water had broken when I was pushing while standing at the side of the bed. The water was clear! This definitely gave me an extra boost of energy getting that good news! They later told me it must have been some blood in the fluid that came out of me earlier. So they canceled the NICU doc. I quickly went back to my hands and knees as being on my back and bottom hurt my tailbone. Our nurse tried to find baby’s heartbeat after my water was broke and could not find it. So they had me flip over again and then they found it immediately. It was a bit of a tense and scary moment and I was a little annoyed at all this flipping around I was having to do because it was so painful to be moving around during contractions or even at all because of my darn tailbone.
I pushed on my hands and knees in the bed for about 20 minutes and Livvi was born at 5:35pm. The pushing was more painful than I remember with Landry. It was a very intense ring of fire. I felt like I was a lot louder during pushing this time too, I did a lot of grunting. Bree said this is likely because even though I was on my hands and knees my chest was pretty high and my butt was very close to the bed. The head part of the bed was pretty elevated. In hindsight I wish I would have asked to have it lowered so it was more flat or that Bree would have suggested trying that. Livvi came out really fast and there wasn’t much room between her head and the bed so Bree didn’t have much room to slow her down. On my last push Bree did say “slow down slow down” but there was nothing I could do to slow down and then she was out. She had a meconium poop as she was coming out, so we felt lucky that she held off on that. :) Bree said “tell us what we have, Dad.” Ryan almost said boy. He kind of stumbled on his words and muttered something and then said “GIRL” in a very surprised voice. We both had strong feelings that this would be another little boy. :)
I had a really bad tear, called a starburst tear where you kind of tear in all directions. Livvi went straight to my chest once I could get turned around and onto my back. It felt like this took forever because my tailbone was still hurting really bad. She wasn’t crying and she was very pink. She scored a 10 on her APGAR. She stayed on my chest for about 15 minutes while I delivered my placenta which came very easily. I didn’t need much belly mashing this time which I was very thankful for, it was painful when Landry was born.
They paged the on call surgeon to fix my repair because it was more complicated than Bree felt comfortable attempting. It took him about an hour to do. I drank a lot of orange juice during this hour. Livvi spent a lot of this hour doing skin to skin with Ryan in the chair next to the bed. She thankfully didn’t have a strong desire to eat right away because I think it would have been hard to breast feed her while getting stitched up. We had asked for an undisturbed first hour with baby, delaying all medical procedures, like height, weight, heart, lungs, etc. The nurses were very considerate of this and let us have more than an hour. Once I was stitched up I took Livvi right away and offered her the breast. She ate well on the right side for a good 40 minutes. At this point we did have the nurses look at her. So it was almost 2 hours after she was born that they did her medical stuff. She weighed 8lb 12oz and was 20.5 inches long. She nursed really well all throughout the night. :)
Livvi Joy
October 6, 2015
8 lbs. 12 oz
20.5 inches
On Tuesday the 6th we called the hospital at 6am to make sure they had room for us to come. We were a little nervous they wouldn’t have room because Bree had told us they were very full on Monday afternoon and if we weren’t able to go on Tuesday we would have to deliver with the OBs because we would be at 42 weeks. Thankfully they had a spot for us!
We arrived at the Emergency Room entrance at 7am and got all checked in. Once we got to our room we got settled in while Darla our nurse did health history questions, etc. At 8:15am Bree and Amber, the student midwife, came to the room to start me on the prostaglandin gel. Bree did this and checked me at the same time. I was still 1cm dilated and 70% effaced and what she called -3 station. We started walking the halls after our 30 minutes of required monitoring with the fetal heart rate monitor. We walked and walked and walked and walked and I would feel the contraction but it was very light, I was able to walk and talk right through them. After walking for about 45 minutes we decided to go back to the room to lay down to see if that would change anything because the contractions seemed to be getting LESS intense and less often, this was around 9:30am. When I laid in the bed I laid in the Miles Circuit position and did some nipple stimulation. Because it was an induction we were both a little nervous that my body wouldn’t respond to the early attempts of inducing labor and Pitocin would be needed.
When I laid in the bed the contractions seemed to pick up a little or at least start up again to the point where I could feel them and notice them again. I stayed in bed for about 30 minutes as the contractions started to fizzle out again. I did eat a granola bar and quite a bit of trail mix at this point because I had not had anything to eat since breakfast at 6am.
At 10:15 we started walking the halls again. Once again the change in position or activity got contractions going again, but nothing too serious. I was able to walk and talk through them.
At 11:15am Bree and Amber came back into the room because that was the earliest they would do the Foley balloon. We had asked them if they would do the balloon earlier and they said the standard is usually 4 hours after the prostaglandin gel. But they were willing to do 3 hours. Amber put the Foley balloon in and we once again had to do 30 minutes of fetal heart rate monitoring in the bed. I was 3cm dilated, 70% effaced and -2 station before they put the balloon in, so the prostaglandin gel did do something despite my very weak contractions. At 12:00 we were back in the halls walking and contractions were significantly more intense and gradually got closer together, between 1 and 3 minutes apart. I remember stopping and leaning against the wall for a few of the contractions, not wanting to keep walking or talking through them.
At 12:00 we asked to be checked because it felt like the balloon was falling out or was coming down which indicated that I was dilated to a 4 or 5. Amber tried to remove the balloon because when she checked me she thought I was dilated enough but when she tugged on the balloon it was extremely painful and she determined that maybe it wasn’t ready to come out. So we went back to the halls for more walking. Contractions remained strong-ish and were always about 1 minute apart.
At 2:00 Bree came and asked us to meet her in the room. When she checked me she discovered that the balloon was lodged next to Livvi’s head and that is why it was painful and didn’t come out when Amber had tried earlier. She made the comment that she had never had that happen before. I hate hearing that! I am sure Livvi was like what in the world is this? At least my water was not broke so it didn’t touch her or anything. I was dilated to a 5 at this point and contractions were strong and 1 minute apart. Contractions were lasting about 45 seconds at this point. From 2:00-3:00 we walked in the halls again. I remember not really being comfortable being out of the room at this point but I didn’t want to just walk around the room because I wanted to make sure labor kept progressing. So we walked a short route in the hall right outside our room.
At 3:00 I got in the tub because that is where I thought I would be the most comfortable during the hard part of labor and I felt like I was nearing the hard part of labor. Contractions were still very strong but spaced out a little bit after I got in the tub compared to when I was walking…more like 1.5 or 2 minutes apart. After about an hour in the tub I felt like getting out. I labored in the room, mostly standing and leaning on Ryan and squeezing his traps during a contraction. He did have some small bruises the size of my finger tips that night. Opps! :) I was also curling my lip a lot and kind of snarling during contractions. I felt like a wild animal. I was having a lot of tailbone pain during contractions at this point and standing was the only comfortable position I could find to labor in. I tried the birthing ball and a ball in the inclined bed, but neither was comfortable. I told Ryan I felt very tired and I didn’t know how much longer I could do this. My muscles just always felt tense because I was standing. I didn’t feel like I got much of a break and I couldn’t really relax at any point because I was standing and swaying the whole time between contractions. I was nearing transition!
By 4:20pm I was asking for Bree to come to the room to somehow verify that I was near the very end of labor. I was definitely in transition and feeling like I was losing a little bit of control during contractions, my breathing would get fast and panty which I knew I wasn’t supposed to do but I didn’t feel like I could control it very well at this point. This was a very scary feeling for me, I felt super vulnerable and that there were no options if I wasn’t able to handle a contraction. Ryan recognized this as transition but I thought that I was just losing it. This is why I asked for Bree, I needed concrete validation that we were close to the end in order for me to mentally get over the hump. During these contractions I continued to stand and lean on (squeeze) Ryan.
Finally at 4:55 Bree came to the room after asking for her several times. Amber was in the room while I was asking for Bree and I remember hearing her say to Ryan that Bree was doing paperwork. I was laboring in the hands and knees position at this time with a ball under my chest and I said “tell her to put the damn pen down.” HA! When Bree got to the room I wanted her to check me to hopefully hear that I was close. She couldn’t check me in the hands and knees position or standing. She wanted me to lie in the bed. My tailbone was killing me and contractions were still about 1 minute apart lasting 1 minute each so getting turned around in bed was hard work. I was a 7-8. After she checked me I quickly stood up on the side of the bed as a contraction came and again labored in the standing position. I felt very pushy shortly after getting up and started to do some little pushes uncontrollably. Some clear fluid came out and was on the floor and Bree thought it was likely urine. A few contractions after that I felt pushy again even though I felt like I shouldn’t push because 5 minutes ago I was a 7-8. This time the fluid was a little brown and they thought my water had broken and had meconium staining. So they paged the NICU doc to be there when baby was born.
On the next contraction around 5:15pm I felt very pushy and did a full grunt and push while standing at the side of the bed. Bree told me I needed to get into the bed to push. I do wonder why I couldn’t have just pushed while standing there? So very slowly and probably over the course of two or three contractions I made my way into the bed again so she could check me before I really started to push and she said I was complete, a 10, and could push when I wanted to. I was kind of amazed that I went from a 7-8 to a 10 within 10 or less minutes. When she checked me she accidentally broke my water because she wasn’t being careful not to thinking my water had broken when I was pushing while standing at the side of the bed. The water was clear! This definitely gave me an extra boost of energy getting that good news! They later told me it must have been some blood in the fluid that came out of me earlier. So they canceled the NICU doc. I quickly went back to my hands and knees as being on my back and bottom hurt my tailbone. Our nurse tried to find baby’s heartbeat after my water was broke and could not find it. So they had me flip over again and then they found it immediately. It was a bit of a tense and scary moment and I was a little annoyed at all this flipping around I was having to do because it was so painful to be moving around during contractions or even at all because of my darn tailbone.
I pushed on my hands and knees in the bed for about 20 minutes and Livvi was born at 5:35pm. The pushing was more painful than I remember with Landry. It was a very intense ring of fire. I felt like I was a lot louder during pushing this time too, I did a lot of grunting. Bree said this is likely because even though I was on my hands and knees my chest was pretty high and my butt was very close to the bed. The head part of the bed was pretty elevated. In hindsight I wish I would have asked to have it lowered so it was more flat or that Bree would have suggested trying that. Livvi came out really fast and there wasn’t much room between her head and the bed so Bree didn’t have much room to slow her down. On my last push Bree did say “slow down slow down” but there was nothing I could do to slow down and then she was out. She had a meconium poop as she was coming out, so we felt lucky that she held off on that. :) Bree said “tell us what we have, Dad.” Ryan almost said boy. He kind of stumbled on his words and muttered something and then said “GIRL” in a very surprised voice. We both had strong feelings that this would be another little boy. :)
I had a really bad tear, called a starburst tear where you kind of tear in all directions. Livvi went straight to my chest once I could get turned around and onto my back. It felt like this took forever because my tailbone was still hurting really bad. She wasn’t crying and she was very pink. She scored a 10 on her APGAR. She stayed on my chest for about 15 minutes while I delivered my placenta which came very easily. I didn’t need much belly mashing this time which I was very thankful for, it was painful when Landry was born.
They paged the on call surgeon to fix my repair because it was more complicated than Bree felt comfortable attempting. It took him about an hour to do. I drank a lot of orange juice during this hour. Livvi spent a lot of this hour doing skin to skin with Ryan in the chair next to the bed. She thankfully didn’t have a strong desire to eat right away because I think it would have been hard to breast feed her while getting stitched up. We had asked for an undisturbed first hour with baby, delaying all medical procedures, like height, weight, heart, lungs, etc. The nurses were very considerate of this and let us have more than an hour. Once I was stitched up I took Livvi right away and offered her the breast. She ate well on the right side for a good 40 minutes. At this point we did have the nurses look at her. So it was almost 2 hours after she was born that they did her medical stuff. She weighed 8lb 12oz and was 20.5 inches long. She nursed really well all throughout the night. :)
Livvi Joy
October 6, 2015
8 lbs. 12 oz
20.5 inches