Zelena Mae Gilliam made her entrance (or should I say exit) on
May 15th at 7:08 a.m. Weighing in at 6 lbs. 14 oz. 19 1/2 in.
Let's just start back from the beginning of the labor so everyone can get the full story of the wonderfully long labor and birth of Z. It all started on Saturday, May 11th. I started getting contractions but they were very light, where I could still go about my normal day. So I tried to ignore them and we had a little BBQ at our house with some friends.
On Sunday the contractions really started to kick in and I lost my mucus plug. That night I got hardly any sleep because the contractions were at their strongest and they started getting closer together which was around 7 to 8 minutes apart. So I just knew that we would be going in to the hospital on Monday. So Monday morning I called the doula and told her we were going in because contractions were around 3 to 4 minutes apart. Well as soon as the doula, Laurie, got to our house the contractions lightened up and were only 10 minutes apart. I could not believe it! But of course Monday night the contractions started going on strong again and I was able to get hardly any sleep once again. So Z hadn't even made her grand entrance and she was already causing me not to get any sleep.
Well on Tuesday, May 14th I was determined that she was going to come out one way or another. So as bad as the contractions were I got busy being as active as possible. Around noon James and I went for a long walk around the neighborhood and once we got back to the house the contractions were coming on strong with 5 minutes apart. James said his job was to make sure we were not going to the hospital until 5-1-1. Well he did a good job because when we got to the hospital around 2:30 p.m. I was 5 cm dilated. I forgot to say that at home I started bleeding which had me a little worried so I was very glad it was time to be going in to the hospital.
The bleeding ended up not being a good thing. My placenta had a tear and they told me that I would have to get a hep lock, which was on my birth plan not to have one and that I would have to be monitored constantly which was on my birth plan only to be monitored intermittently. Birth plans never seem to work out the way you want them to. So I of course agreed because my main concern was the baby. If something more would have happened with the placenta that could mean lack of oxygen to Baby Z and emergency C section. They also told me baby Z was sunny side up, (OP) which I found out at my check up on that Wednesday before. I was just hoping that all the yoga I did had turned her.
So we got to our delivery room and I went to the bathroom (if you have a problem reading any gross stuff then you may not want to read the next part) and a huge blood clot fell out and I started pouring blood. Of course I panicked but everybody else was able to stay calm. Fortunately everything was fine.
So I went from 5 cm to 7 cm pretty fast. I was thinking that this could totally keep going this fast and she would be here before we knew it. The pain was not that bad if it wasn't for the back labor which was caused by the back of her head grinding into my tail bone. I was trying everything I could to get her to turn. I found during labor my best friend was the ball. Which really surprised me. I even did the ball in the shower which was fantastic.
So around 8 cm they asked me if they would like for them to break my water or if I would like for it to break on it's on. I started freaking out a little because I knew them breaking my water, the contractions would get more intense but if they didn't it could be a lot longer until it did break. I didn't know what to do. Finally I got a burst of courage and I said bring it on! So they broke my water.
My doula was amazing! She must have pressed on my back for five hours straight. I could not have done what I did without her.
This picture got James an FU.
After my water broke the contractions sure did come on strong. What seemed like many hours passing they checked again and I was at 9 cm but I wasn't really going anywhere. Things were stalling for some reason. I also was out of my skin and could not take the back labor any longer. I asked for some drugs. So we tried nitrous oxide. James said he has never seen any one suck down so much nitrous oxide in their life. To me, it did nothing for me. James said I looked very high but it did nothing to phase the contractions.
So finally I was screaming our safe word which was Glacier. So imagine this, me screaming Glacier while having a mask of nitrous oxide over my face. Now that I look back, I can laugh. So of course the anesthesiologist had just went into a surgery so they told me it was going to be an hour or more. I thought I was literally going to die. Once I did get the lowest dosage of the epidural, I was able to calm down. They then told me that they were going to have to give me Pitocin, which was on my birth plan not to have, because of her being OP my contractions were not working to bring her down. So good thing I got that epidural because there was no way in hell I could have done Pitocin without that epidural.
So the Pitocin worked and I went from 9cm to 10 cm and it was time to push around 4:30 a.m.
I first tried pushing on my side then on my back then to the other side. I eventually went to pushing with the bar.
The nurse kept asking me if I would like a mirror but I kept saying no because for some reason I always said I don't want to see that. So finally after she asked me a couple of times, I said yea sure, let's see it. I don't know what that mirror does but it did some magic. Just being able to visually see that head full of black hair really helped me to push harder. So after 2 1/2 hours of pushing. Our little OP baby came out facing up.
There is a lot more pictures that were taken but of course they all have my boobs in them. Don't think I should post those.
And here is the happy family!
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