Lainey Mae

Lainey Mae

October 11, 1:37 pm

6 lbs 5 oz

19 inches

I've always dreamed of the "perfect birth". After a blissful nine months (ha!) with little morning sickness, I go into labor on my own, a week earlier than my due date, go to the hospital and continue to progress, un-medicated and completely in control, until the baby makes a quick entrance, perfectly healthy. Of course this whole process takes no more than a few hours. Well, it's good to start with an ideal. It's never happened for me, and I doubt it ever will. This birth was far, FAR from what I had hoped for, but in the end, I still got a healthy baby, which is the important thing.

So, Monday morning I had my 39 week doctors visit where we discovered that Lainey had turned into a breech position. He gave me some options - I could wait and see if she'd turn back on her own, but since I was so close to my due date, it was possible I'd go into labor and I'd have to have a c-section. Or, we could attempt to turn the baby and then induce labor right afterwards. We thought this was the best chance to avoid a c-section, so we scheduled an aversion (turning the baby) for the next morning.

That night I went to bed and, surprise surprise, didn't sleep very well. I layed in bed and felt Lainey moving quite a bit and was wondering if perhaps she was changing positions. Well, guess what? We had an ultrasound at our appointment that confirmed that she indeed had moved in the night and was once again head down! Good girl. The doctor there advised us to hurry on over to my scheduled induction before this gymnast decided to flip back around. We got started on pitocin at about 10:30. This is when things got exciting. Now, my babies have all shown signs of distress during labor - their heartrates have all dropped and have scared nurses and doctors. So, I wasn't surprised at all when Lainey started doing it too. However, with the others, I was close to deliver, so we dealt with it and got a healthy baby here (although it's always been tense). This time around, I was no where near delivery - Lainey wasn't moving down into the birth canal and I was only dilated to a 1 when she started showing signs of distress. Labor wasn't progressing well either because every time the pitocin was increased, Lainey's heartrate would drop to scary levels. With one of those scary dips, the doctor and a few nurses rushed in to make a decision - the baby had to get out, and quick. So, I was wheeled into the operating room at 1:28. I heard discussion about whether there was time to do a spinal or not, but my doctor was worried that it would take too long for a spinal to take effect, so while they prepped me, I was given general anesthetic and had myself a nice little nap. Of course I was sad that I didn't get to see my baby right away and hear her cry (the nurses said as soon as they got a head out she was screaming something fierce - that's my girl), but there was something nice about just being put out - and a needle through my IV sounded nicer than a needle in my back. Nick was freaking out just a little as this whole thing just happened so fast. He didn't get to come in and was pacing the hall with worry. My mom was called and was thankfully in the area and able to come quickly to the hospital. She was with me when I came out of anesthetic and sweetly wiped my tears as I came to grips with what had just happened. Lainey was born at 1:37. Nick was able to go with her to the nursery, and feed her a bottle. We were informed that the cord was wrapped around Lainey's shoulder, causing it to get pinched with contractions. I don't think she would have made it without medical intervention. We are grateful for a doctor who made the call and quickly got her here.

Lainey had a hard time maintaining her blood sugar, so the poor little thing was put on an IV and kept in the NICU for two days. The nurses were so nice to bring her to this bed-ridden momma so I could feed her, although it was against policy to do so. Four hours after birth, I finally got to meet the sweet little thing.
Brother and sisters got to come meet her the next day. Everett was all smiles and lots of hugs for "baby new sister" (as Maren would say).

Sisters liked her too.

Yep, we all kind of like her.

I just had to put that photo in because of Ellie's face. She was telling me something that had happened at school with expression. :)

Look at Lainey's head compared to dad's hand! So tiny! She is a good pound lighter than any of my others.

Baby Lainey with all her monitors and such in the NICU:

Finally a "well-baby" and in mom's room for the last few hours of our hospital stay:

So no, I didn't get my "perfect birth", but I guess that's not as important as a "perfect baby", which I DID get. Sweet baby girl.