Lyla's Birth Story
Miss Lyla Jo has entered the world!
We welcomed a healthy, beautiful girl into the world on October 21st! Our little Lyla Jo. Here is her birth story.
Choosing Induction
Lyla’s due date was October 25th. However, after a very uncomfortable pregnancy, David and I decided we wanted to schedule an elective induction once I was 39 weeks pregnant. I had 3 key reasons for doing this:
Not being pregnant sooner (I was so over it)
Knowing I could establish planned childcare for Charlie while I went into labor
Minimizing the risk of missing the window to get an epidural (I dilated fast and furious with Charlie, and I knew that I would likely dilate even faster with my second delivery)
Since we were an elective induction, the hospital would call us to when they had a room ready. Which makes sense - they had to save space for spontaneous labor, any emergencies, and medical inductions. Our induction was set for Saturday October 19th, but we didn’t get the call until Sunday at 4pm. Apparently, this time of year is very popular to have babies…sigh.
The waiting game was KILLING ME. I kept thinking ‘This is my pregnancy’s final test of patience for me.’ Patience has truly been the theme of this past year for me so I guess it just made sense, right?
I was so ready to meet my baby, and time moved ever so slowly while I was just sitting around and waiting for a call. But David kept reminding me of something important: how lucky we were that we were healthy and able to do this and not in any sort of emergency situation. Yes, exactly.
Remembering this and holding onto that gratitude was important.
Let the Labor Begin!
After starting to really feel frustrated with the waiting game, David and I decided to go out and get smoothies to get out of the house and distract our minds. And of course, it was on the way to get them that we finally got the call!
We headed to the hospital and the induction process started at 6pm. I was 2cm dilated at check-in. Woo hoo! Since I was group strep b positive, I knew I’d have to be on an antibiotic for at least 4 hours before they broke my water. So the plan was to check how dilated I was at 10pm and possibly break my water then.
I was a huge jumbled ball of nerves for this labor. I was oddly a lot more afraid of labor this time around. The worst fears kept creeping in - what if something goes wrong? What if baby isn’t healthy? What if it hurts like hell (because contractions do indeed hurt like hell, friends).
With Charlie, I had no plan because I had often heard that ‘birth plans’ can go awry. I thought maybe I’ll get an epidural, maybe I’ll have a natural birth because I didn’t love the stories I heard from others about how “drugged up” they felt during childbirth. But wow - my lack of pain management resulted in some very painful hours before Charlie’s birth.
Because of that past experience, I kept reiterating to my nurse this time around: I want the epidural. Help me time getting the epidural.
A lovely nurse suggested I get it around 8:30pm and that’s exactly what I did, despite having pretty minimal pain with my contractions. This was the best decision in the world. Because of this, we were able to relax, watch movies, and basically just sleep until I hit 10cm. Are you kidding me? My dream labor experience!!! (PS: The movies we watched were Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret and The Haunted Mansion).
They checked me again at 10pm and I was dilated to 4cm. The plan was to check again in 4 hours.
Quick fun fact to add - during this time we were chatting with our nurse only to discover she lives in the same neighborhood as us! She shared on there’s a running group she’s a part of in the neighborhood and we connected on Facebook afterwards! How insanely cool that I made a new friend during labor?
After more sleep and movies, I was checked at 2am and I was only at 6cm. I’ll admit this felt discouraging. I thought I’d dilate wildly fast and I wasn’t understanding why my doctor wanted to wait to break my water. I could sense David was getting frustrated by this too, but we couldn’t do much so we figured we’ll just sleep until the next check at 6am. Buuuut baby girl had other plans…
The Delivery!
Just one hour later, our nurse came in after noticing my contractions were really close together. She checked me again and I was at 10cm! I guess there was that speed I was expecting… 😅 I let her know I was feeling some back pain so she suggested positioning me differently until the doctor arrived so we can try and make sure baby was in the right position for pushing. And as I was turning to roll on my side, my water broke on its own… The doctor walked in, looked at me and said “Well, the baby’s head is right there.” Well, that escalated very quickly… like, all within 5 minutes. Time to push!
I was really nervous about pushing because this is where I got stuck and struggled with Charlie. I pushed for hours with her, only to end up needing a vacuum for delivery. Let this be a lesson to myself: No need to worry about things that haven’t even happened yet. Because pushing this time around was the complete opposite experience. Lyla was out in 2 pushes!!! (I’ve NEVER felt like more of a bad ass or more proud of my body. I’ll brag about this forever).
Our girl was born at 3:26am.
There are no words to describe the moment you meet your child. They feel familiar somehow, yet you stare at them in complete disbelief. This is the human that I’ve carried inside me for 9 months. I’ve made these bones, these hands, this face. Just look at her, you think.
After a pregnancy that was rough physically and mentally, having a dream labor experience felt like answered prayers. Several people reached out to me leading up to this labor to let me know they were praying for me. It was very specially that phrase: “I’m praying for you.” I’m not very religious, but to those people: thank you. Sincerely. I think all those prayers truly worked.
I’m currently writing this while holding our little Lyla bean in our arms. Charlie is playing in her ball pit in front of me. My first week postpartum has been tiring, of course - but reassuring, confidence-boosting, and full of simple joys.
Motherhood is the most meaningful experience to me.
Thank you to all the family and friends who have sent us love, support, and well wishes during this time. It means everything ❤️