Natalie Elizabeth

It was only one week after my last post that I delivered a beautiful baby girl named Natalie Elizabeth. She weighed only 6 pounds, 10 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. She is a terrific baby! Once again, God has blessed us with a little girl to love.

On Wednesday, I went to the OBGYN for him to tell me that NOTHING was happening in Baby World. After having had two days of contractions the weekend before, I was bummed to say the least. He suggested that if I hadn't had the baby by July 4th, that he would hospitalize me and break my water. Having studied enough childbirthing books to start my own library, I know that doesn't always start labor. Because Mackenzie was a c-section, he couldn't give me anything else to induce labor. If breaking my water didn't work, he would have to do a c-section. I came home and sent an email to my praying friends and asked them to pray for a natural labor. Be careful what you ask for!

Thursday, June 28th started a little early for us. Around 4:00 AM, I started feeling "crampy." I knew something wasn't quite right and tried to lay there and rest but sleep wouldn't come. Evidently, excitement was brewing in the air because Mackenzie crawled into our bed at 5:00 wide awake. I went ahead and got out of bed because I wasn't sure I could deal with her. I really wasn't feeling well. Stephen tried to get Mackenzie back to sleep to no avail and he got up at 5:30 to get ready to work. We put her on the couch with a sippy cup of chocolate milk and a cartoon. It wasn't too long after that when the contractions started. These contractions were different than the weekend prior and I told Stephen I thought I was in labor. He had the typical male response. "Are you sure becuase I don't have much time off work and can't stay home just to help you with Mackenzie?" No, I didn't smack him.

The contractions continued to get stronger and Stephen took Mackenzie to the sitter's house around 7:30. When he got back at 8:00, the contractions were pretty intense. He timed them and said they were only about 2 minutes apart and thought we should leave. All I could think about was the 19 hours of labor I had with Mackenzie. I really didn't want to spend that long in the hospital again but I agreed. We left around 8:30 for the half hour drive to the hospital.

The car ride was pretty agonizing. I think I came close to understanding how Mary felt on the horse. Okay...maybe not but it was bad. I was using the armrest and the center console to hold myself up because sitting hurt so much. The contractions were coming so close that I hardly had time to catch my breath in between. It was somewhere on this 1/2 hour drive that I decided I might just need drugs to get through this...forget the natural childbirth. During labor with Mackenzie, I was pretty calm. I talked on the phone and just said "Hold On. I am having a contraction." So...it was pretty obvious that this was a different labor. I yelled at my mother when she asked me why I was on my way to the hospital (perhaps she forgot I was pregnant??). I hung up on the pastor's wife when a contraction started. I screamed at Stephen when he told me to do this whistling type of breathing to help. After all, I could barely breathe, let alone do synchronized breathing! And...I did some pretty good yelping and moaning.

I am sure it was those yelps and moans that caused the nurses to come out of the back room once we arrived at the emergency room. Or perhaps it was the screaming I was doing as I was trying not to rip the chair apart that I was holding on to. To his credit, Stephen very calmly told the admittance clerk that I was in labor. The hospital staff had told us prior that when we came to the hospital to be patient. They see hundreds of women in labor and would get us to a room after we registered. Obviously, most of the women in labor don't come in screaming like I do because they insisted on taking me up immediately. It took 3 nurses to convince me (okay, force me) to sit in the wheelchair to be transported to labor and delivery. I was terrifed that once I got there, they were going to gently pat me on the back and say "Congratulations Lisa! You are dilated 2 centimeters."

Instead, after much persuasion (okay...again, they had to force me) I was up on the table being examined. I felt like an olympic athlete when she said 9. YEAH! I did ask if they could give me anything to take the edge off these crazy contractions. They all just laughed at me like I was the funniest thing. The doctor arrived about 10 minutes later and announced that I was now at 10. Lucky for me, they were out of labor rooms and labor tables. I was transported to a brightly lit operating room and moved to a small, hard metal table. No stirrups. No arm rails and about as wide as my pregnant rear end. Thankfully, I only had to push about 5-6 times and little Natalie was born. Of course not before the nurse told me I wasn't allowed to scream during pushes. Okay. I won't scream. Just come over here and let me rip your ears off instead! My doctor won the hero award though when two pushes later he told me I could scream because it made my pushes better. I did my best to accomodate him! From start to finish, my labor and delivery was less than 6 hours.

Then, it was off to the Great Land of Demerol while they stitched me up. They took us to a holding area until they had a room for us several hours later. Stephen had to make all the calls because I was totally out of it. They brought the baby to me to nurse but I was so loopy I wasn't even sure I could hold her. When they handed her to me, I fell in love with this little tiny baby girl. I must say that it was all worth it! Isn't she gorgeous?