Lyla's Birth Story

There aren't many photos in the beginning because I am awful at remembering to take pictures, and also, I was strapped to a bed, so that made it kind of difficult. :) I wish I would have been better at getting all of the pictures I wanted taken!

Ok so you all know that my due date was August 10th, but I set an induction date for August 8th. My mom was coming in town, and I didn't want her to come and have to leave before baby came! And I really wasn't wanting to go over my due date. :) I was so ready to not be pregnant anymore and also ready for our little one to come.

But, it looks like our little one had her own agenda! :) She did not want to be told when she could make her appearance. We went to bed Tuesday night at about 11pm. I woke up an hour later at midnight feeling contractions. They started out 10 minutes apart. I went out to the living room and waited it out to see if this was going to be the real thing. They very slowly got closer and closer together, and by 4am they were 5 minutes apart. I woke Chris up and told him we needed to go to the hospital to get checked out!

We got to the hospital and they hooked me up. When they checked me I was at a 2. So they said they would watch me for an hour to see if I had made any progress, and then decide if they were going to keep me or send me home. I was praying they would keep me cause I was in a lot of pain! With each contraction I had to grab the railings on the side of the bed, close my eyes, and just focus on something else to get through it. I even threw up twice during that hour because of the pain. The nurse FINALLY came back in the room to check me again and I was at a 3!! Yay! She told us we were definitely having a baby that day. :)

They started getting things processing, calling Dr. Leavitt to let him know I would be needing him at some point :), and we started making phone calls! About an hour and a half later I was getting my epidural. After the epidural was in, I tried to sit up to get a drink of water and all of a sudden I got super light headed and almost passed out. I then threw up all over myself and the bed! It was so embarrassing, and the nurse had to put all new bedding on the bed and a new gown on me. Ugh it was so awful :)  Things were definitely better after that though. I was able to enjoy my labor, enjoy the company that was there, and not cry in agony every 2-3 minutes. :) Dr. Leavitt came in about 9am to break my water. And he informed me that the baby had relieved herself in the sac, and when she comes out she will be covered in Meconium. She will have to be cleaned off ASAP once she comes out and make sure none of it gets in her lungs when she takes her first breath.

The next few hours were spent just relaxing and waiting. Chris's parents were there with us, and then my mom arrived at the hospital about 11:30am, and so we waited. Dr. Leavitt was supposed to come check me on his lunch break, but 2 o'clock came and he still hadn't showed up so the nurse decided to check me. They told me that since I was a first time mom that they usually don't check that often and so they weren't too concerned that I would be ready to go by then. But, the nurse checked and I was at a 9 1/2! So that's when they got things into gear! They called the doctor and told him how close I was, and he wanted the baby to drop down as much as she could on her own so I wouldn't have to do so much pushing. To help the baby move down faster, the nurse kept changing what side I was laying on. I soon started feeling the urge to push! Even though I had an epidural, I could still feel a little pressure with each contraction that had me wanting to push the baby out. They got everything set up for the doctor, and then the nurse wanted to do some "practice" pushes. So we did a few of those, and baby had moved down closer and closer with each push. And after a few more pushes she was right there ready to come! I wanted to just do one more push and get her out, but they told me I had to wait till the doctor got there! Apparently they had called him a few times to let him know and hadn't picked up. I guess he had finally gotten the message cause everyone saw him running down the hall to my room! As soon as Dr. Leavitt walked in, the pressure to want to push baby out was so strong, I asked him if I could start pushing! He threw the table down, put his gloves on and yelled GO! I pushed one last time with all of my might, and baby was out!

He put her on my chest just for a second while Chris cut the umbilical cord. I was only able to see the top of her head but what I did see was that she had LOTS of hair! :) I was very glad about that, and made all the heartburn and indigestion worth it. Haha They whisked her away for the respiratory nurse to work on her making sure her respiratory system was clear, gave her some oxygen, and cleaned her up! What a strange and wonderful feeling it was knowing that that little baby over on that table was mine. While the doctor was stitching me up, I was handed a menu to order my dinner since it had been just about 24 hours since I had eaten. :) So I ordered my dinner, and by then our baby girl was weighed, cleaned up, diaper on, and put on my chest so we could have some skin to skin contact and I could help warm her up. It was so great. I finally had my baby!

Lyla Rae Allen was born at 3:49pm on Wednesday, August 7, 2013. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz, and was 20 inches long! She has beautiful big blue eyes, lots of  blondish/light brown hair, and the cutest cheeks and lips. We are so in love with our baby girl.