Logan's Birth Story

Backing up to the end of May, at the end of my 38th week, Lyla and I went to get our nails done. I mean, you can't go in to labor without having your nails done right? And I was so ready to go in to labor that I was READY to get things started. Lyla loved getting her nails done and the lady doing her nails was SO sweet. She did flower designs on Lyla's nails, which Lyla thought was super special.

The next day, Adam and I took Lyla to the siblings class at the hospital where we would deliver. I totally recommend this class!! It was awesome. They make the big sisters and big brother feel SO special. Lyla loved the class and loved seeing where we would get Logan when he was ready to come. They teach the kids about how the baby is inside mom, them being born, and all the things they can do to help out. They teach them how to change the baby's diaper, swaddle them and hold them. They talk about what their babies will do and some special rules for them to remember about being around the baby (like washing their hands and not picking the baby up unless a grown-up says they can). The instructor read them a special book and then took them by the nursery to see some real babies. Lyla loved practicing with the baby doll and seeing the nursery.

Daddy and big sister!

Practicing holding the baby.

Gotta practice changing the diaper!

She did an awesome job!

Certified Big Sister!

We saw my midwife, Christine, while we were there and she told me she was on all weekend. She delivered Lyla and I really wanted her to deliver Logan as well. Knowing she was on all weekend, made me REALLY ready to go into labor. After the sibling class, we headed over to the mall and did LOTS of walking. Hey, I wanted to get things going. Adam and I went to a wedding that night and Lyla spent the night at my sister's house. We enjoyed sleeping in the next morning and decided to be lazy and just enjoy what might be our last time for awhile to just lounge. We went and ate a healthy breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. That night we had everyone over to celebrate Allison and Dan's birthdays. 

Well, I made it to 39 weeks and then made it to my 39 week appointment on Tuesday, so I was 39/1. Still no baby. They checked me, and I was still the same as I had been at 36 weeks (1.5cm). I left feeling really disappointed. Like, really disappointed. That feeling that this baby is never going to come. The midwife I saw told me that my midwife would be on call again on Friday at the hospital. She also told me that while it seemed like I had not made any progress, that 1st time moms progress slowly. One thing at a time. With second time moms, usually everything happens at once. It seems like nothing is happening and then all at once you are in labor and you progress really fast. I guess that gave me a little bit of hope...

39 weeks and 1 day.

I decided I just had to let things go and stop thinking about it, which is really hard when everytime you see someone or talk to someone, especially family, they ask you when the baby is coming. I enjoyed my days with just Lyla and pretty much let her decide what we did. Her favorites right now are going to the playground and going to Target to look at the "things by the door" aka the Dollar Section. Haha. I guess we go to Target too much!! We ate dinner every night as a family of three, which was so nice. We also made play dates every day and each night I would go to bed hoping I would get to call and cancel because I had gone into labor. But each commitment we made we were able to keep, until FRIDAY!!

We were supposed to get together with Kelly and Caroline on Friday June 6th. I was 39 weeks 4 days. Lyla woke up super early that morning 6:30am, which is not normal for her. Adam was getting ready for work, so I had her get in bed with me and let her watch tv, so that I could sleep some more. Instead of sleeping though, I started timing the contractions I was having. Now let me just say, I had contractions all the time. A few in a row here, and a few there. Nothing worth timing and nothing that was painful. Usually it just meant I needed to go to the bathroom and once I went, they went away. But this morning they were consistently 5 minutes apart. Adam finished getting ready, and I told him he should hold off going to work until I had timed them for an hour just so I could see if this might be the real thing. I did not want to get my hopes up though. I thought for sure they would go away since they always did. At 7:30, they were still consistent so he just hung out and did some work from home. I did not want to call any family yet. I thought if we told people, the contractions would go away. Haha. I mean it was too good to be true that I would be delivering on a day that I wanted to since Christine was at the hospital. 

I got in the shower to get ready for the day and to see if they continued to be consistent. They were. I took my time in the shower, the hot water on my back felt good. I really wanted to focus on walking and standing a lot. This time I also swayed from side to side. If things were really starting, I wanted to give my body all the help it could get, getting Logan in position. We took our time getting ready. Adam asked if he should pack his stuff and put things in the car. I told him I wasn't sure. Again, I thought if I got excited and ready, it would be a false alarm. Around 10am or so, I called my mom to make sure her and my dad were around to have Lyla if needed. She was at work and my dad was home, so we decided to pick up some lunch and head to my parent's house. At this point, I still had not called the OB office. I did not want to jinx anything. My contractions were 3-4 minutes apart leaving our house.

We left around 11:30am or so and picked up some Chick fil A. We got to my parent's house around 12pm and Adam and my dad convinced me to call the office (I think they were a little nervous). By the time I called my contractions had been 2-3 minutes apart for a little less than an hour. I called the office and the nurse wanted me to go to the office to get checked. She said I could come to the Atlanta campus and get seen around 1pm. I made sure she knew that this was my second baby, the contractions were consistently 2-3 minutes apart, but nothing too painful where I couldn't walk or talk through them. At the end of our conversation though, she decided that since my contractions were progressively getting close together to go on to the hospital to get checked. So Adam finished eating (I wasn't hungry) and we headed to the hospital around 1pm. Adam just kept saying that no one would believe I was in labor because of how I handled each contraction. He said no one would even know I was having them. I must say that made me feel really good, but also that it still might be false labor since I was feeling so good still.

We got checked in and it must have been busy because it took us almost an hour to get in a room. Adam said he thought it was because they thought there was no rush because I did not look like I was in labor. Haha. There was a couple that checked in after us and got taken back before us. That was fine with me though because it gave me more time to be hopeful that I was in fact progressing and I would hopefully be farther along when they checked me. The whole time we waited for a room I walked and timed contractions and they were 2 minutes apart.

We got into a room around 2:15pm or so. The nurse started the paperwork. Since we weren't sure if I was actually in labor and if I was going to stay or not, she waited on starting an IV and that kind of stuff. We had called Adam's parents at this point, but told them to hold off coming, just in case they sent me home. My contractions were consistent, but still nothing painful or uncomfortable. Christine came in around 2:30pm to check me and while I was so excited to see her, I was also so nervous to see what she would say. I was praying that I would be something more than 1.5cm!

Unknowingly my last pictures pregnant!

I was 4cm and my water broke as she checked me! That meant, I was staying and there would be a BABY soon! I had hoped that when I actually went to the hospital to deliver, I would be a little farther along, but it was more than I had been on Tuesday. I was just happy it was the real thing and that I was still feeling so good. When my water broke, she and the nurse did not say anything, so I asked if the fluid was clear. Nope, meconium. Of course with my NICI background, that made me so nervous. 

We called the rest of the family and told Adam's parents to go ahead and come down. We finished getting all checked in, consents signed and IV in. They only started me on minimal fluids, which I was thankful about. I had pitocin running the entire time I was in labor with Lyla and I wanted to avoid it this time around. I was able to get up, walk around and hang out in a chair. I did not do that with Lyla, but I wanted things to keep progressing. I decided to hold off on getting any Fentanyl as well. I was worried I might go quick and I did not want Logan having Fentanyl on board with meconium...just in case anything when wrong. As time went by though, I kept thinking about how I should have gotten one dose right in the beginning, so that way I could have slept a little bit. I did a lot of standing, rocking and walking this time around. I really wanted to have progressed by the next time Christine came in to check me.

At 4:30pm Christine came back in to check on me and the nurses had changed shifts at this point. My nurse's name was Katherine...easy to remember and she was SO sweet. I was checked and still was 4cm. A little disappointed, but I got up and walked some more and tried to stay out of bed. My contractions still were not really painful and I noticed they were starting to space out, which made me feel even more discouraged. I think that since I had gotten some fluids in me, maybe I had been dehydrated. With the fluid on board, it started spacing out my contractions. Of course I started to worry. I walked more, stood more, rocked more. I just wanted to help things along as best I could. I did not want him sitting in that meconium a minute longer than he had to. Christine said she had a c-section at 5:15 and then would be back to check on me. I love that about having a midwife. How much they check on you and how available they are!

At 6pm Christine came in to check on me. I mentioned that my contractions were really spaced out and seemed to not be very strong at all. Of course she could also see that from the monitor too. They were more like 6 minutes apart at that point. She knew I did not want to start pitocin, so she said I could have another hour before making any decisions. She did not check me again since that would not change the course of things. I walked and stood and sat in a chair the entire time she was gone and still no change. 

At 7pm we decided that pitocin at a minimal rate might help things pick back up. I got in bed, thinking it might be a good idea to try and get some rest. I just remembered how horrible the pitocin made my contractions with Lyla, and I wanted to see if I could fall asleep before they got really bad. The contractions really started coming stronger and more painful by about 7:30pm. Christine told me she would be back around 8pm to check on me. My nurse came in around 7:45 and increased the rate of the pitocin. I remembering telling her that I would prefer her not turn it up, especially since it was REALLY starting to hurt now. She said she wanted to leave it like that for a bit and then reevaluate. Little did I know, it really was not the pitocin, but I was in fact transitioning. Both deliveries now I have seemed to miss entering this phase. With each contraction I told myself that I could get through one more contraction and then would ask for something for pain. Knowing that I had only been at 4cm that last time checked, I felt like I was still probably a ways off and would definitely need something to get me through. I was able to sleep between each contraction. Time between contractions is a funny thing. You feel like you sleep such a LONG time in between, but really it is only a few minutes! I guess it's God's way of letting your body get some really good rest in between really hard work! I prefer to just keep my eyes closed once the contractions start getting really intense. I don't want anyone talking to me, including Adam. I just focus on breathing and trying to keep my body relaxed. Literally, I let the contraction take over my body. Adam sat and watched a movie while I tried to get some sleep.

By 8pm I did not care if I got Fentanyl or and Epidural. I just needed something!! I totally forgot how badly those contractions hurt towards the end!!! Adam's movie seemed to get louder and louder (I don't know if this is true or not) but I felt like it was so loud and my contractions hurt so bad, I could not focus with it on any longer. I snapped at him to turn it off and focus on me. Haha. I think it was the only time I snapped at him? Hopefully! He said that he was shocked I was in such horrible pain, he said he never knew because I never showed any of it! I knew Christine would be there soon to check on me, but around 8:10pm I knew I could not handle it anymore. My nurse had gone to dinner and she had another nurse checking on me (after everything was over, my nurse told me she thought I would deliver while she was at dinner....she could have told me that!!). I could feel my body needing to push with each contraction and I told Adam to call someone because I could not handle it any longer.

Another nurse (she did not introduce herself though, I did not know if she was a nurse, a tech, or environmental services!) came in the room when we called and I told her I felt like I needed to push. She was not the sweetest of nurses and told me not to push. That there was no set-up, no one was in the room and my midwife was not there. WAIT, WHAT? SERIOUSLY?! You try telling your body not to push when it's time!! She told me my midwife would be there shortly and started leaving the room. I told her that she better not leave because the baby was coming. Again, she told me not to push, but offered to check me if I wanted her to. UMMMM, yes, I don't know who you are, but if you feel qualified to check me and you are offering, then check away! I think you should do something!! She checked me and said "oh yes you are complete, but don't push because there is still a tiny bit of cervix". She called for a set-up, but people were NOT coming fast enough for me. 

Next thing I know, my midwife was there, putting her gloves and gown on. I could tell she was a little super upset things were not set-up since I was ready to go. I do not remember the other people coming in and out or what they were doing. She did not even take the end of the bed off, she just sat down and said "ok, next contraction you can push!". Seriously music to my ears. I thought she might be checking me and I remember saying "whatever you are doing down there can you stop?! It hurts!" She informed me that it was not in fact her, but Logan's head and put my hand down there to feel. That gave me some motivation. The harder I pushed, the quicker it would be over! My nurse was able to join us as I was delivering and was able to call the resus team to come. She told me to put my hands behind my legs and push, but I was just too tired to hold my legs. So Adam held one and my fill-in nurse held the other. I pushed hard and felt his head come out. She told me to stop, and then she was ready for me to push again. This time I needed help. I really felt like I could not do it. I am not sure if I just could not catch my breath or what, but the nurse gave my stomach a shove and out he popped! One contraction, when I was actually "allowed" to push, and he was out! I remember as soon as he came out, thinking how immediately I felt SO much better!

8:23pm Logan Hayes was born. She laid him on my stomach and I did not hear anything. She reminded me that it was ok for him not to cry. She cut the cord and he cried as she brought him to the warmer for the team to look at. He looked perfect!

They did not need to look at him long. They said he looked great, wrapped him up and brought him over to me! He was perfect! Just the sweetest little baby and just like that I was in love all over again. Our sweet little boy was here!

Love at first sight! It is truly amazing how much your heart grows.

As I held him, Christine delivered my placenta and cleaned me up. It took her awhile to decide if I needed any stitches or not. Finally she decided, just so I could heal a little better, she would give me two stitches in one little place. With Lyla, I tore in two places and they took forever to heal! This time it hardly hurt at all and I healed so quickly. 

They came in to weigh and measure him. He was bigger than I thought he was. I was really surprised! He weighed 7lbs 13oz and was 20in long.

I was able to start skin to skin right away, which I loved.

My second baby delivered by the best! We love Christine! I am so thankful that in God's perfect timing, He planned that I would deliver on a day that she was on call.

Sweet boy!

Adam was there I promise! He was just the only one there to take pictures. If there is a next time, I am going to seriously consider having someone professional in there to take pictures the whole time so that he does not have to.

Still to come, Logan gets to meet his big sister!