Introducing....

Lyv Autumn Clymer

Stats: 36 weeks, 3 days gestational age
Weight: 6 lbs, 13 oz
Length: 19.75"
Born 7:56 am, 8-8-10

Here is the story of her birth:

Went in Thursday, 8/5/10 at 8:00pm to begin scheduled induction due to medical complications with my pregnancy. All night long I was given cervical ripening drugs to prepare my cervix for the actual induction to be brought on by pitocin. The drugs through the night caused a lot of painful cramping for which I was not allowed to take any pain killers for that would slow the process. Friday morning, 8/6/10, there was no change to my cervix at all. (Fingertip dilated, with the goal of 10cm). We began pitocin and I eventually began having weak, but steady contractions. They increased the pitocin at a slow pace so as not to overload my body. However, we kept increasing the pitocin all day and the contractions were not really making much difference on the dilation of my cervix. By 8:00pm Friday evening, after enduring an entire day's worth of cramping, contractions, back pain, and food deprivation, there was still absolutely no change to my cervix. I was allowed a meal and shower, and at 9:00pm we began once again the cervical ripening drugs.

Another night of cervical ripening drugs and more of the cramping, as well as significant back pain. Keep in mind too that this entire time I am on a delivery bed... a bed designed for short term stays... not numerous nights of sleep. The mattress was very thin and very uncomfortable. At all times, I had 2 monitors on my abdomen, a pulse monitor on my finger, a blood pressure cuff on at all times, compression stockings that each had their own cord attached to a pump, and an i.v. Talk about being shackled up! The whole process was beginning to wear me down physically and emotionally.

By Saturday morning, my cervix had changed finally! 1cm! We were encouraged that something was finally happening and felt optimistic. So all day, more pitocin, more contractions, more cramping, and more back pain. Every pain all day long encouraged me that something was happening; however, we found out at 6pm that it was all for naught because I was still only 1cm dilated. It was discouraging, to say the least.

We spoke with the doctor who basically said that as a last resort we could break my water and see if that changed things. She also told me that if I wanted to just go do a c-section, we could do that too. However, a c-section poses extra risks for someone like me with a clotting disorder and I really didn't want to go that route yet. First I received an epidural finally and experienced pain relief for the first time since Thursday night. The doctor then broke my water and we started up the pitocin at a higher dose to increased the contractions. I also had a catheter put in, as well as an internal contraction monitor to get a more accurate measurement of how strong my contractions were. Yes... more shackles.

The epidural, along with the narcotics that were being pumped with it, was wonderful.... for about a half hour. Then it started to fade and I began experienced all the pain again. I endured it for a while, but it kept increasing, so we had to call back the anasthetist to see what was happening. The first time we called him back it was because the pump was malfunctioning. So that was replaced and we thought we were good to go. He also gave me another direct shot into my epidural site which once again eased my pain..... for about a half hour. :-(

Meanwhile, my cervix finally started making small changes. Yah! Progress!

The anasthetist came back and changed my epidural and narcotic to a higher dose. Once again I found relief for about a half hour. Then it began to fade until once again I was in a lot of pain. At this point I started crying because it didn't seem like the pain meds were going to work and my cervical changes were happening VERY, VERY slow... so we knew we were in for a long night. The anasthetist came back and changed my narcotic to something more powerful altogether. He said it was almost equivalent to what he gives patients who get c-sections and it should render my lower half completely immobile. It did offer relief once again, but I could still lift my legs straight up off the bed with no problem. He was dumbfounded and could hardly believe it. About a half hour later, those super strong narcotics had once again worn off. Apparently I am one of those rare individuals who is resistant to the effects of an epidural and the effects of narcotics. I'm so lucky. :-/

Small but steady changes in my cervix were occurring all through the night.... albeit at a snail's pace. My contractions were slowing down as well to only 6-8 minutes apart. Making the process take much longer than if they were 1-2 minutes apart. By 6am I was finally 9cm. Pretty crazy considering how much pitocin they were pumping in me. And the off again, on again pain from the whole epidural process was... well beyond words.... and difficult to even think about.

Around this time my contractions started to wimp out completely... dropping off to almost nothing.... even though I was 9cm. Apparently my uterus had just endured too much and couldn't do anymore. I was not ready to go for the c-section though... despite the situation. The nurse asked me to push anyways to see what would happen. (No contraction to help me) I did and the pain was intense but everyone could see some significant progress in the baby's movement and we decided we could keep trying that if I was up for it. I agreed and began pushing every few minutes... sometimes with the help of a weak uterine contraction, sometimes with no contraction at all. However, the pain began to become excruciating until I was writhing in tears and screaming that I couldn't do it anymore. My mom and Daniel were both with me and crying too because of all the work I had done to get to this point only to have my uterus tire out and my epidural and narcotics to quit on me completely.

The anesthesiologist came in and suggested we try taking out the epidural, redoing it, and seeing if that fixed things. So I agreed. After it was over, I virtually collapsed on the bed and felt extremely weak and faint. I had gone all night with no sleep, and the two nights before with only a few hours of sleep. I also hadn't eaten at this point (Sunday 6:30am) since Saturday morning. I laid in bed for 15 minutes or so feeling completely weak, faint, tired, worn down emotionally, but wanting to finish this task.

About 7am we started up with the pushing again. At this point, there were no more contractions to help me. I was doing it all manually with my abdomen... but slowly and surely moving Lyv down my birth canal. At about 7:20am I could feel the epidural and narcotics beginning to fade once again. I continued to push and push.... so tired, so worn out, so exhausted. Words can't describe where I was emotionally at that point. Each time I pushed I felt more and more pain and more and more exhaustion pushing back against me.

About 7:45ish, the doctor came in and suggested at this point that we use forceps to speed the process and get her out. I had little to no pain medication left at this point and I readily agreed. He suited up, got the utensils ready and inserted the forceps around Lyv's head. I gave one series of hard, painful, tearful pushes and finally her head was free. Within about a minute, her body slipped out as well.

Sobs immediately came pouring out of me, Daniel, and my mom as we realized the moment we had been working towards had finally arrived. My body broke out in shivers and I had to endure the painful release of my placenta. It was more difficult than usual and had to be forcefully removed by the doctor since my uterus was not going to push it out for me. It too was a painful process that lasted another 15 or so minutes. I also tore and had to be sewn up... but thankfully it was only a 2nd degree tear and could have been much worse.

The whole process took about 59 hours from start to finish. Lyv and I are doing great despite all that we endured together. She is such a sweet baby. She is very calm and chill and has to be woken every 3 hours to feed.... otherwise she would probably just sleep. She is doing great with nursing, despite being preterm. She is also maintaining her temperature just fine. She did not have to spend any time in NICU, and we have just kept her in our room with us. We think she is just perfect! And she is also a spitting image of her daddy. (Her hair is dirty blonde by the way). It seems that the only trait of hers that she definitely got from me are her long, flat feet and long toes. The poor girl! I will have to get a picture of them at some point.

Thanks for reading. Sorry it was so long. But it was good for me to write down all the details while they were still fresh.

Also, we will be accepting visitors in the hospital on Monday between 4pm and 5:30pm. We are at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood in the maternity ward, room 5-155.