the day my life changed forever

March 28, 2010. The birth of my sweet baby girl. Elizabeth Reilly.



Weighing in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. 20.5 inches tall

This is my story....

It really starts March 7, 2010. I got up, got ready for church, started having contractions, but went to church anyway. The contractions were very mild, and I didn't want to get too excited. Also, I had a baby shower that day. So, I went about my day.


After my shower, my contractions started getting closer together. Starting at 15 minutes apart, they were now 6 minutes apart. I decided to try to take a bath and see if they got closer, or if they went away. They moved to 5 minutes apart. I decided I should probably go home (I took a bath at a friends house), and take a nap. It's like 8:00ish by this time. I called my mom to let her know what was going on, and she headed to my house. We took a walk around the block and then laid down for a nap. I woke up about 11:30 and my contractions were 3 minutes apart.

At this point, we decided it was time to go to the hospital. Although, the contractions felt to easy to be the real thing. I should have known then. I got to the hospital and was only dilated a 2 and my contractions stopped altogether. Went back home.

For the next 3 weeks, I had contractions off and on hoping they would turn in to the real thing. They never did. Until that Sunday morning.

3/28/10 9:15 am: I am getting ready for church and have this contraction that hurt more than anything I have ever felt in my life. I was still unsure about it being the real thing. I didn't want to get my hopes up after 3 weeks of nothing. So, I continued to get ready for church. I had another one a few minutes later (wasn't really paying attention to exact time). I decided this must be the real thing b/c these contractions HURT! I told Scott I thought I was in labor, but I still wanted to go to church in case they stopped. So, we loaded up in the car, Scott went to get donuts, and we headed to church. In the 15 minutes it took us to do all this I had 3 more contractions. I decided we needed to turn around and go home.

I called my mom (who was saving us seats at church), to let her know she needed to come now. My contractions started at 5 minutes apart. CRAZY! My mom got to my house (with my dad) and my contractions were INTENSE. She had to call my midwife to let her know we were definitely in labor. I went to the bathroom (b/c that's what they tell you to do) and I came out to my mom telling me we needed to go to the hospital. Aliza said so. At this point I couldn't move without another contraction starting and I didn't want to move. I made it to the car and felt like I had one long contraction ALL the way to the hospital. I prayed for a break the entire way to the hospital. I never got one.

I went straight up to L & D and the nurses got me all settled in. They checked to see how much I was dilated and hooked me up to the monitor to check the baby. I was dilated to a 4-5 and they said that was great. I didn't feel so great. I thought I should be dilated way more for the pain I was in. They assured me I was doing a great job and progressing fast. They told me I could get in the bath after they monitored the baby for 30 minutes. 10 minutes later they decided to let me get in the tub b/c they thought it would help with the pain.

I don't really remember how long I was in the tub, but it couldn't have been longer than 30 minutes. The contractions were so intense I couldn't take it anymore. I decided for the epidural. I debated with the nurses for probably 10 minutes before I finally decided to do it. They called the anesthesiologist to come do the epidural.

Side note: the entire time I was in the tub, I felt like I needed to push, but I was just checked and at a 4-5. I didn't really think it could be time. I was wrong.

30 minutes after I got out of the tub, the anesthesiologist finally showed up and did the epidural. Aliza showed up right before that and once the meds kicked in, she checked to see how I had progressed. I was at a 10. I could have been pushing the whole time. Probably could have done the entire thing naturally like I wanted, but had no idea I was that far along. At first I was kind of frustrated that I had given in to the meds, but later realized I don't regret it at all.

Aliza told me it would be best to let her "labor down" so that I wouldn't have to push as much. 20 minutes or so later, she comes back and it was time. I think I pushed for maybe 30 minutes. The girl was ready. I did have to get an episiotomy b/c her heart rate dropped to 30 and we had to get her out, but she came out FAST!

3:31 Elizabeth Reilly plopped her way into the world. Not breathing. Talk about scary. They called the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner in to get her breathing. It didn't take long, but was the scariest 2-3 minutes of my life. Aliza spanked her for me later. Also, she was pooping like crazy. Her Daddy's first words to her were "you sure are full of shit". Poor girl. She was just in shock.

It wasn't over yet. I'll spare all the dirty details, but it took Aliza 30 minutes to get my placenta out. She literally had her hand elbow deep inside of me trying to get it out. When she pulled it out she said "it just looks ancient". It didn't even look like a placenta. This part is the reason I am so grateful I got the epidural. Even with the meds, this was the most painful part. I can't imagine what it would have felt like if I didn't have paid meds.

6 hrs. total. It happened so fast, I barely remember the details. I didn't have time to stop and use all the techniques I learned in my Bradley class. I never got a break from contractions. It defintely didn't go as planned. But, in the end, I had a beautiful baby girl to hold and cuddle with. Nothing mattered after that. Words cannot describe how I felt. Literally. I have yet to figure out how to describe how I feel about being a mom, or this little girl. My world has changed. In one single day (really just a few hours), my life is completely different.




So, here I am. Trying to figure out how to be a mom...