Lorelai’s birth story—Part 1

She’s almost 6 months old, but better late than never, right?  It’s long because I want to remember and write down as many details as possible, so I’ll do it in parts.


A little background first.  I had an elective induction with Logan on the day after my due date.  He was a pretty big boy (8lb11oz, which no one predicted) and had mild shoulder dystocia (his shoulder got stuck briefly).  He was fine and there were no complications, but this is apparently one of the most scary obstetrical complications that can happen during delivery.  My doctor actually said that if Logan had been any bigger, we probably would have been in trouble.  This was noted in my file, so when I got pregnant with Lorelai, we had to pay very close attention to how big she was.  I got an estimated fetal weight ultrasound at 37 weeks, which said she was already 8lb7oz, meaning they were predicting a 10lb 40-weeker! OMG! (Yes, I was in serious denial and didn’t think she would be bigger than Logan.) I was SO worried they’d force me into having a c-section due to her size, so this was a huge stressor for me.


Anyway, on the morning of July 28 at my 39-week appointment, I found out I was already 4cm dilated and 75% effaced, so the wonderful Dr. Fetko agreed strip my membranes to get things going naturally (after another doc in the practice refused the week before, even though I was plenty dilated already—apparently all the males in the practice are against it).  My OB practice shares on call duties every other night with another practice (just so happens to be the OB my sister uses), so Dr. Fetko made me promise not to tell them she stripped me if I went into labor that night—I guess it’s not good OB etiquette to send someone into labor without being available to deliver them yourself? Whatever, she was my hero for doing that so I’d promise her the moon if I had to! We also scheduled an induction for August 2nd, just in case.  (Oh, it’s also worth noting that based on external palpations of my belly, my doctor predicted about an 8lb baby, so not too huge.)


Adam had taken the morning off so he could go to my appointment with me.  He was there for moral support as we discussed with the doctor ways to avoid shoulder dystocia and came up with a good birth plan.  Luckily, my doctor at that point was pretty confident that I would have a successful vaginal delivery. She was on call that next day, so told me she’d probably see me at the hospital to deliver, fingers crossed! Needless to say, I was a happy girl when I left the appointment. 


Adam and I went out to lunch at Shiki Sushi (YUM, shrimp pad thai!), where I started having random contractions.  That afternoon as he and I were working from home, I got out my handy dandy contraction timer on my iphone. They were becoming increasingly painful, but not regular and closer together.  I bounced endlessly on my exercise ball while I sat at my computer and worked.  I was getting excited, but trying not to get my hopes up.


By the time we got the boys home from school, I was having to pause during contractions and several times I had to ask the boys to hang on a minute before I could do something or talk to them, although they were still anywhere from 5, 7, 10, 15 minutes apart randomly at that point. Luckily I wasn’t screaming in pain, so I didn’t scare them.  We ate dinner and I decided to go out for a walk while I called my mom to update her.  The plan was for her to come over and stay with the boys when she got the call that I was in labor, but I knew what I was going through could stall or last like that for a long time, so we were trying to decide whether she should spend the night or not.   But just to be on the safe side, we decided that she would come over after the boys had gone to bed—no harm done if it didn’t happen, but it would be easier on her than waking up in the middle of the night and scrambling to get to our house.  Thank goodness for that foresight!!!


To be continued...

(here's part 2 and part 3)