Brown Living: Lydia's Birth

She's here! I'm twelve days late in posting this, and most of you have already heard the news by now, but I wanted to go ahead and post about Lydia Rose Brown's birthday.

Here's the story: On Thursday, June 7th, I went to the doctor for my 38 week appointment. I was at 4 cm and 90% effaced, and I had a few other signs that made my doctor say that she'd be surprised if I didn't go into labor that night. Woo-hoo! I was ready to have a baby, so I let Josh know what was up and went home to finish some cleaning and other last-minute nesting projects. I did have a couple of hours of contractions that evening (which is nothing big for me--I've had them for months), but no labor.

No biggie, it will happen the next day, right? Friday morning, I called my cousin, Lauren, and talked her into going to the zoo with the boys and me. We walked around there for a couple of hours, then went home and did some more deep cleaning, but alas, labor did not begin.

This is the last picture of me before Lydia was born.

Saturday rolls around, and I'm still waiting. By this time, I'm just annoyed that I'm still pregnant. And Sunday was more of the same. The worst thing is that other than not having contractions, I felt like I was in labor (lots of pressure, sore back, etc.)

Anyway, Josh's college group from church was going canoeing that Sunday afternoon, and since I wasn't in labor, he went ahead and helped out with the trip. He didn't actually canoe, but he shuttled the kids from their cars to the river and went to the party afterwards. I stayed home and pouted. :)

Sunday evening, I started to have back pain with my random contractions, and one particularly strong one at around 8:30 made me think I might be in labor, but they were so random and far apart that I wasn't sure. But, I texted Josh and had him come home around 9:00, because I was very uncomfortable and having trouble getting the boys to sleep during a thunderstorm.

Josh got home and got the kids to bed, then we just sat around waiting to see if this was the real thing or not. Contractions were very painful (back labor!), but they followed no pattern--10 minutes, then 13, then 25, then 8. Around 10:30, I called Lauren to come spend the night, just in case we needed to leave for the hospital.

Finally, I called my doctor, since I was in so much pain (have I mentioned that back labor is the worst?). I was really hoping that she wouldn't tell me that I had to stay at home until contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. I was relieved when she told me to go ahead and go in.

So, Lauren arrived and we headed to the hospital around 11:15 p.m. During the 10 minute drive, I had three contractions, and from then on they grew steadily closer and stronger. We had to go through the ER to get to Labor and Delivery, so we didn't get up to the room until 11:50. My doctor had called and alerted the nursing staff that I would go quickly, so they had everything ready for me.

Only 30 minutes after arriving, they already had the epidural in and I was feeling pretty good. I was grateful for the sweet nurse I had who, after finding that I was at 7 cm when I arrived, just took care of getting me comfortable before making me sign any paperwork. We actually "checked in" after Lydia was born. :)

Anyway, it was pretty quick and smooth from there. I was quickly fully dilated, then we waited a short time for my doctor to arrive. As soon as she got there and got prepped, a couple of quick pushes and Lydia was born at 1:28 a.m. Dr. Taggart kept talking about how huge she was. And at 9 lbs. 3 oz, 21 inches long, I was glad she came 10 days early.

We named her Lydia Rose. I liked the way it sounded with Brown, and the Rose is after my grandma, Roselia, and my aunt Rose Ann. Since her birth was pretty quick, she came out with a nice round head and no bruising--just perfect. She did spend a little time in the warmer to bring up her body temperature, but everything else was healthy as can be.