Lilah Belle made her appearance on Friday, June 24th at 12:23 p.m.! She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long! And, is just precious! We couldn't be more in love with our sweet baby girl!
Lilah's Birth Story:
I want to start off by saying that I had been told to prepare for the unexpected when it comes to the delivery. My pregnancy had been so smooth and I had no problems throughout the entire 9 months. In fact, my doctor had said at one point that my pregnancy had been a textbook case. Because everything had been going so perfectly, I had prepared myself that things may not go as planned when it came to the delivery--in fact, I had this strong feeling that it wouldn't...and it turned out I was right!!
Jep and I checked into the hospital on Thursday, June 23rd at 8pm for a scheduled induction. They started the process by giving me an IV, Cytotec, and took some blood. That night, I was given an Ambien to help me sleep and I actually slept really well despite how excited/anxious I was for the next day! I woke up the next morning a little bit before 5 am to news that my bloodwork showed that my platelet count was low. So low that I most likely wouldn't be able to get an epidural. Ummm--what?! Are you serious!? This was totally unexpected. I did not even think there would even be the slightest chance that I wouldn't be able to get an epidural. This was not in the plans!!The nurses took my blood again that morning to check if the platelet count had by any chance gone up. No such luck! Unfortunately, my levels had dropped even lower which left me with the option to either deliver without an epidural or have a C-section under general anesthesia. I was terrified of both options but opted for delivering without the epidural since it didn't pose as much of a risk as the C-section. After the decision to deliver without an epidural, Jep went into protector mode and was asking if there was any chance we could order up a doula to aid with the delivery. My sweet nurse said that they didn't have anyone on call but that she would give us the name of someone a friend of her's used. At this point, I was just thinking it's way too late for all of that and I succumbed to the fact that I would just need to tough this out without the miracle drug.
The pitocin at 5 am and when my contractions got stronger I was able to get some pain meds through my IV which didn't help much at all but I guess it was better than nothing! I was only able to get two rounds of pain medication and I was told that the body builds up a tolerance for it quickly (the second round wouldn't be near as good) so it was suggested that I hold off as long as I could. I actually have no idea how far progressed I was when I asked for the drugs. I remember that it provided some relief but that was very short lived and the second round barely did a thing! When I reached 10 cm I was able to get a saddle block. It wasn't too long after I reached 10 cm that our sweet girl arrived. Lilah was born at 12:23pm!! She was perfect and I quickly realized that the entire experience was all worth it!! I will admit that there was a time I was thinking that Lilah may be our only child!! :) Jep was amazing through it all and so, so supportive!
(So long Roxy!! It's been a great 8 years!)
