Layla Grace's Birth Story

Thursday afternoon was just like all the appointment days before it. I waited impatiently for my appointment time, talking to friends, stopping by work and hanging out with family. Jon went to work and I went to my appoint at 2:15 fully expecting what I had been getting for the last several weeks, an NST... and more waiting.



Within minutes of seeing the midwife my view of the afternoon was changed. My blood pressure was high, the baby was tacky and with my yellow skin and itchy complex the midwife decided it was time to meet our baby. She found the OBGYN and got the clear to have me induced.


We went to her office and while she called make sure there was a bed for me in the Labor and Delivery Ward I called my husband to tell him it was go time and to leave work and meet me at the hospital. In the time it took me to cross the street to the hospital and find a parking spot the bed in Labor and Delivery had been given away but while I filled out paperwork they found an OB check room to put me in.



In the OB check room with my husband (this room is like a closet with a bed in it people...seriously) he started calling family and telling them what we had been told. I would be induced with gel... if I didn't progress I'd go home and come back Monday... if I progressed we'd have a baby before the next morning.



Our mothers both decided to come to the hospital. While we waited for them in the tiny room I was induced and hooked up to the monitors, and an IV. After a few hours I was checked and I had progressed from 2-3 centimeters to 4-5 centimeters so more gel was applied and I was moved to another room to wait a few more hours.



When the midwife came back I had progressed again... so more gel... and this time they broke my bag of waters, hooked a monitor up for the baby and my contractions internally and told me she'd be back in another couple hours. We were super excited when she came back... I had been having strong regular contractions, breathing through them with my husband for hours and I had dialated to 7 centimeters.



Here is where the story gets complicated. At this point it was probably 10 pm. By midnight I was still at 7 centimeters but my contractions were getting stronger so I kept waiting. I had been ruptured so we were having a baby and I kept telling myself I just had to make it awhile longer.



People came and went visiting when they could between the contractions and I labored on... I lost track of time and day. I lost track of morning. I panicked and my husband ever the strong and unwaivering man of my dreams talked me through each and every pain.



For 25 hours we labored...naturally...breathing together, cursing together, screaming together... I moaned and waited. I eventually let a nurse talk me into an epidural at about hour 20 which didn't work and then about an hour after that I got a "tickler" which made my whole body numb like novicaine. It was a last ditch effort. I had lost my ability to communicate and function well... but I progressed at some point to 10 centimeters and the babies head had engaged...then she just stopped progressing. The tickler was an attempt to get me to relax enough to get her to start moving again.



I had good nurses and had horrible nurses. Near the end I had a nurse who kept telling me she knew labor was hard and that I wasn't progressing because I wasn't relaxing. I kept telling her it didn't feel right. I had an urge to push but if I pushed or relaxed with each contraction I felt as if the baby was being pushed into my pelvic bone and hip. She kept telling me I was being irrational. If I ever find her in a dark alley I'm going to kick her ass.



At the 25 hour mark the actual OBGYN came in. At this point, 2 ticklers, an epidural and many many hours of natural labor before that he was worried about the baby and my blood pressure. He said I needed a C-Section and he (and my husband) looked honestly shocked when I agreed.



Within 20 minutes we were in procedure room and they slowly made me numb while explaining what would happen. Nurses calmed me and the Dr reassured me till my husband came to sit by my side and then they retrieved my darling daughter from my womb.



The baby it appears had been stuck in my cervix like a mayo jar lid twisted on at the wrong angle. She was also face up. She would have never made it out on her own. As they pulled her out my husband took pictures and I told him to stay with her as they rushed her to the NICU for treatment.


Despite being 8 lbs 2 oz she was 3 weeks early and the combination of my being in labor for over a full day without eating anything, her early little lungs and all those tickler drugs she wasn't breathing well. They let me see her for about 2 seconds before they took her off. As my husband left with her I yelled don't let anyone see her till I see her. He didn't.



After I was stitched up I was taken to a post op room where my husband and eventually my family joined me. High on pain killers I was happy as a lark. They told me the baby was ok and just in the NICU for the night and I sighed in relief. It was 6:28 on Friday night.

It took a few hours to get me to a bed in the Mother Baby ward. On the way I was allowed to stop by the NICU where a nurse brought my daughter out for 5 minutes to show her to me. I wasn't able to move because of the drugs so I just cried and looked at her. I was given pain killers and put to bed. My family and my husband went home around 10:30.



The next morning I awoke to find out my daughter would not be in my room. Her suck, swallow & breath reflex wasn't fully developed and she kept turning blue when she tried to eat. Her blood sugar was low and they had her on IV's and monitors. She was down the hall and I couldn't get to her. I was stuck in bed.



The nurses marveled. By the end of the first day I was down the hall in a wheelchair and by the end of the first night I could walk there. I was the fasted they had ever seen a person get out of bed after a C- Section. For 2 days I made the trip for every feeding I could. If I couldn't go I sent my husband. I talked to peds drs and I refused pain meds if I thought they would make my head foggy.



But on day 3 my daughter and I were both discharged home...together. Her first night in our house the first night I spent with her.



All in all the story won't matter some day. How she got here is already so unimportant to me. I know people prayed her here from start to finish and it was God's blessing alone that got us through.



I prayed each day as I got out of the recovery bed and each night as I walked away from the NICU but I always new in my heart that she was going to be OK.


Today was her first well baby check with our peditrician. Since coming home she has developed excellent eating skills, her color has changed and she is a wonderful healthy...premature... 8 lb baby.



I bet you never thought you'd see an 8 lb NICU baby...

A special thanks to God who gave me this precious gift, my husband who kept me focused and kept providing even when he didn't know what to provide, my family who loved unconditionally and to those of you who prayed...and continue to pray still.