Our rainbow babe is here! Nearly a month has flown by since Lila was born and we are still in awe of how our family has grown. Calihan has been the absolute best big brother to his little sister. The first diaper that was changed at home was accompanied by Cal by his request. He says “It is ok baby girl” when she cries, and reminds her that we are almost home if she gets fussy in the car. The care for her is unmatched and we could not ask for anything more.
Lila was born on July 27th, at 10:14am! Weighing a whopping 8lbs. She was born with a full head of hair that continues to get longer and lighter as the days go by.
I was extremely nervous to be induced again as Calihan’s birth was not the most pleasant experience. There is a blog post on that here. I was quite traumatized for awhile and was hoping Lila would come on her own. As time went on, my doctor and MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine Doctor) suggested we induce due to her size. One more week and she would most likely be closer to a 9lb baby. We decided on 7/27 being the date as that is what she had available at the time.
Fast forward to the 27th and we were supposed to be in at 5am. I woke up at about 1am feeling some pretty strong contractions, but a bit a part still. I figured we had to be there at 5am anyways, so it would be fine. Around 4am when we were getting ready to head to the hospital I was struggling quite a bit as they were getting closer together. We arrived and registered at the front. I honestly couldn’t walk at this point during the contractions so I figured this must be the real thing. Strange timing.
We were taken to our room and when I was checked they said I was in active labor on my own already! They only did one small dose of pitocin to keep everything consistent but then turned it off as my body was doing it all on it’s own. The first nurse asked if I would like my epidural, but I figured we would have a long process so I declined saying I would hold off just a bit. An hour and a half went by and I thought “wow this is getting quite intense” but guessed I was still at a 4/5.
My doctor came in to break my water thinking the same and once she did and checked me I was at an 8!! This was at 8:20am at this point. “WHERE IS THAT EPIDURAL NOW” was my next thought. The anesthesiologist was in back to back C-sections and wasn’t able to come before my water broke.
I was in so much pain at this point with my contractions so close together. The nurse (bless her soul) knew we would be delivering a baby with no epidural if he didn’t get to my room stat. She ended up going into one of the surgeries and asking him to come in asap. He finally made it around 8:45 and her and Lyall had to help hold me during contractions, but once it was in I felt amazing.
15 minutes later and I was at a 10.
The experience I had with Calihan made them want to put me in a certain position before we started pushing so she did not get stuck. I was on my right side with my leg over a peanut ball for about an hour before we started pushing. I started pushing at about 10:05am and had her at 10:14. Three rounds of pushes and she was out!
SO much better than with Calihan. Even the pain from laboring on my own without the epidural was a thousand times better than getting jumped on. The total amount of time from the start of my contractions was only 9 hours.
3.5 hours from start to finish once we were in the room. This is proof that every labor can be different! We went home after the 24 hour mark which was nice because we wanted Calihan to meet her at home. She did have slight jaundice so we had to come back 48 hours later to double check her levels. She did great at that appointment and her newborn appointment that following Monday!
Our cuddle bug or squish is what I call her has just started giving slight social smiles, loves tummy time (so much so that she falls asleep half the time) and enjoys music at all times. My personal recovery has been a little harder this time around, but as the month is wrapping up I have started feeling more like myself! The plan is to get more into the postpartum on a later post and sharing what helped the most!
I also am breastfeeding this time around. My sister helped with researching the best food items to keep supply up. The energy balls she made me were delicious and felt like they helped get everything going! I will share more on those later as well in addition to other food/drink items that worked for me personally.
As always – thank you for reading! I am so thankful to be able to share her birth story after such a rough loss. My heart goes out to those longing for their rainbow babes. I am sending positive vibes your way.
