Our Birth Story

On Wednesday, August 6th, I had been to see my doctor for my weekly appointment and was told that I was still at 6 cm dilated. An induction was briefly mentioned, but no decision was made at the appointment as Roger and I wanted to discuss our options. We came home and eventually decided to hold off on an induction and give this baby more time to come on it's own.

I woke on Thursday August 7th and started about my normal routine. It happened to be my birthday that day, but obviously my thoughts were more on the baby and not on the fact that I was turning 29 that day! Around 9 pm, I noticed that my water had broken. It wasn't the big gush that you might expect, but rather a slow leak. I called my doctor at 10 pm and we headed to the hospital, arriving just after noon. Our doula, Julie, met us there within a half hour.

When your water breaks and you're in a hospital environment, you're sort of on the clock as far as how long they will let you go without intervening. Julie helped me try to get into an active labor pattern with her "bag of goodies". For 9 hours, we tried walking the halls, aromatherapy, drinking herbal drinks to help strengthen the uterus, position changes, etc. At 9 pm, the nurse on staff with me said that my doctor had called to suggest that we start pitocin since I was still 6 to maybe 7 cm dilated.

We asked for a few more hours. We were told that we had until midnight to try and get labor started on it's own. As the minutes passed by, it was obvious that my body was having trouble getting to the next phase of labor. Around 11:30 pm, Roger and I were siting next to each other on the sofa in the delivery room talking and coming to terms with the situation when we both heard and felt a pop in my pelvis. Immediately after the pop, I had a very intense contraction and the process of transition labor had begun! The best we can guess, it appears that up until the pop, the baby was in a position not suitable for delivery. In weeks past, my body had dilated on it's own until the point of transition and stopped because of the baby's position.

An hour and several position changes later, I was dilated to 10 cm. It happened so quickly that we were actually waiting on my doctor to get to the hospital so that we could begin the pushing phase of labor. For 30 additional minutes, I "practiced" pushed with the contractions, but I wasn't bearing down like you normally associate with pushing.

Dr. Shelton arrived around 1:15 am and the pushing process began. At this point, my contractions were lasting about 1 minute and were 2 minutes apart and I was pushing on my left side. In between contractions, my body was shaking uncontrolably so Roger would place pressure on my right hip and shoulder and Julie was applying pressure on my right knee. As the contraction began, the shaking would cease and Roger helped hold my right leg up and my chin to my chest.

The nurse brought in a mirror for the last 20 minutes of pushing and that really helped me connect with the pushing. Seeing the progress with each push was motivation that I could get through it! I remember asking Julie how many more pushes until the baby was out and she responded by asking me "how many more do you want it to be?". I knew no one had any answers for me, but I was so desperate to deliver our baby!

Julie and Roger were both amazing during the labor and delivery. Julie helped give us the peace of mind that at least one of us had been through this before. She was calm the entire time which helped give me confidence that I could actually do this! I never felt like the situation was out of control and that's entirely due to Julie. So many times during labor I was thankful she was there and couldn't have imagined trying to have our child without her.

My husband always joked about having his place in the delivery room - right up by my shoulder! When it came down to it, he was right in the thick of things helping me through every contraction. He was my biggest advocate and supporter, praising me with every push and motivating me with his words. We both saw sides of each other during that process that we had never seen before. For him, he saw the extreme strength - both physically and emotionally - necessary for bringing a child into the world and for me, I saw Roger's unwavering love and support in a stressful situation.

On August 8th at 2:23 am, our baby made it's outside appearance! Our baby was face down during delivery and my doctor made sure she had our attention before flipping the baby over to reveal whether our baby was a he or a she. To our surprise and delight, we had been blessed with a baby girl.

Lillie Lynn DeJean was 6 lbs 12 oz and 20 1/2 inches long at delivery (thank you Lillie for not being any bigger!). She has her daddy's eyes and mouth and a small amount of blonde hair like Roger and I both had at delivery.

Lillie represents a whole new kind of love like I have never experienced before. Granted, she also represents a whole new kind of responsibility! We're both learning about the other and her little coos and sighs are completely worth the dirty diapers and occasional crying fits!

Welcome Miss Lillie! For nine months, I've been amazed by the miracle of your development and curious to find out who you were. We are so blessed to have finally met you and are honored that you have chosen us to be your parents.