Liliana's Birth Story- Part 3

Jarrod said it was about right here when he realized what was going on.  When we walked in onto the labor and delivery floor, it seemed pretty quiet.  He assumed they assigned 3 nurses to us because they had nothing else to do.  Now he realized, they assigned 3 nurses to us because this was baby #4 and I was already at 7cm!  They weren't just asking questions about previous labor history, they were setting up a warmer and prepping things for labor!  The nurses were excellent and dimmed the lights, let us play music (we choose Casting Crowns as for whatever reason, I find it nice while laboring) and were quietly encouraging me as I hit contraction after contraction.  We couldn't reach my midwife and no one at the nurses station could either, so the on call doctor was in after delivering a baby to introduce herself and to check me.
I had met her during my pregnancy with Azelia and remembered that she was a very nice doctor and everyone at the practice couldn't say enough nice things about her.  As she was washing her hands she asked if I wanted her to break my water and I asked to be checked first.  If I was close, and I thought I was, I wanted to have them spontaneously break as opposed to have them be broken.  She went to check me and said, "Oh, your waters already broke!  You're at 8, almost 9 cm.  Sorry Dad, it doesn't look like a birthday baby for you."  I think we were a little past 11:00pm right now.  The big joke was if we could hold out till midnight for this baby to arrive.  I started having pushing urges that I tried to hold off for as I didn't want to push before I hit 10cm.  The nurse came in for something and told us that if I felt the urge to really push, to hit the nurse call button.  Otherwise, they'd leave us alone.  She went out to the desk which was right next to our room and it was just Jarrod and I.  In between contractions we had random conversations and shared how excited we were that the baby was almost here.  It was almost time to discover if our baby was a boy or girl!  Almost time to be snuggling a new little baby!
Megan texted and was getting through security when the next contraction hit.  This one was different and I could not hold back from pushing and in doing so, grunting while pushing, and trying to pant to hold off as Jarrod saw this was a real push and panicked a little because he was the only one in the room (don't let him fool you, he's a pro at this and could have delivered the baby!) and he told me, "Pant Kate, pant.  Try not to push."  After the contraction eased off he said, "I think we need to call the nurse back in now.  That was the real thing."  I said, "Yeah, I couldn't hold off anymore but I don't want to push till I reach 10cm."
The nurse had heard me and walked back in as I was pushing the nurse call button.  Jarrod looked up, relieved and told her that I was having real pushing urges and couldn't hold back anymore.  The doctor came in and told me that anytime I wanted to push, I could push.  The nurses continued to quietly get things ready as they knew this baby was coming SOON!  They all commented how we weren't going to make it to Jarrod's birthday.  Not when I was at 10cm, waiting for a contraction to push this baby out!
Megan walked in at this point.  It was 11:40pm.  She and Jarrod encouraged me through another contraction where I felt like I was fake pushing.  It wasn't a strong enough contraction that I felt overwhelmed to push.  I hadn't heard that I was 10cm yet, just was told I could push.  Jarrod told me that the doctor said I was 10cm but I had missed it so I asked her and she confirmed that I was 10cm and could push for the next contraction.  She laughed and told Jarrod, "Sorry again Dad.  There's no way this baby will wait till midnight."
This is where things got interesting.  All of a sudden, my contractions that had been 2ish minutes apart dropped to 8 minutes apart.  There we were, Jarrod holding my hand, anticipating another contraction, and with it, the baby; Megan standing ready to support my legs with me; the nurses standing there ready to throw blankets on the baby; the doctor sitting on the end of my bed; and me, waiting for that wave of a contraction to help move my baby down and out!  Jarrod started humming along to Casting Crowns and I started singing along as well and then rested as we waited for the contraction to hit as we had no idea at this point when it was going to happen!

Another contraction hit but again, not a strong one and not one with real pushing involved.  At this point we had less than 7 minutes till Jarrod's birthday and we were laughing about how absurd this was!  The whole time they were 2 minutes apart and now they spaced out to 8 minutes?! We sat and watched the clock.  Literally.  Tick tick tick......slowly that hand reached to 12:00am and the comment was made that "Now you can have the baby Kate!  You made it to Jarrod's birthday!"  We laughed again but in all seriousness, no one thought we'd make it to midnight!  The doctor had made a request when we were joking about having the baby at midnight, she asked for us to try a bit after as 00:00 is a hard time to put on for birth as it confuses everyone about which day the baby was born!  She was joking about it though!  

The clock hit 12:01 and I felt a strong contraction coming on.  "Ok.  This is it.  This is the one to get the baby out on", I thought as I felt the intense wave hit me.  I sat up and grabbed my legs as the doctor had told me to do, took a deep breath and pushed.  "It's burning.  Okay, baby's head is crowning.  Push.  Breathe.  Get the baby out."  Were my thoughts at this point.  I pulled in another deep breath and pushed as I heard Megan exclaim "I see the head Kate, you're doing great!" and heard Jarrod say, "Push Kate, Push!"  I thought I clearly heard Jarrod tell me to pant at this point but he says he didn't tell me that.  LOL.  So maybe God was telling me?  I panted and then gave a final push.  The doctor told me, "Mom, reach down and grab your baby!"  The baby was halfway out as I reached down and grasped underneath her arms and pulled her up as I pushed her out.  That was really special, I've never been able to do that before!  As I pulled the baby up, it was just Jarrod and I that could see what the gender was.  The doctor asked, "Is it a boy or girl?"  And Jarrod answered, "It's a girl!"  

First moments with our girl!

Liliana Serenity born at 12:02am on April 3rd.  (Another God thing-who would have thought she would have been born on Jarrod's birthday?!  We didn't when transition hit!)  She weighed 7 lbs 7 ozs and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Liz and Abby arrived shortly after Liliana was born and shared in our joy of another precious girl!  (my bad-  I didn't time their arrival correctly.  Of course they were just thrilled that the baby was here and healthy!)

Snuggling my new girl while we wait to move to a postpartum room

God's hand was all over this delivery.  When active labor started, to when Liliana was born was 4 hours 45 minutes.  I prayed for a quick and easy delivery along with a healthy baby.  God heard me.  He asked me to trust Him.  When I did, He came through, just like He always does!  Every detail that I had wanted in labor, He blessed me with.  I wanted to be able to be relaxed.  I wanted it to be peaceful with Jarrod and I.  I wanted someone there in time to take pictures directly after the baby was born.  I wanted enough time to get the antibiotics so the baby wasn't effected.  I wanted doctors and nurses I was comfortable with.  I wanted to labor at home and know when to go to the hospital.  We wanted (at that point in the evening) the baby to be born on Jarrod's birthday.

God did that.  All of it.   He didn't only give me my needs, he gave me my wants too.  I am blessed!  He is so good!