The big day has come!
Our 5th daughter, 7th child arrived Thursday morning (March 13th).
We named her Quinnly Lakin. She was 8 lbs 9 oz and 20.5″ long. Here she is……
Isn’t she just precious?!
Quinn means 5. Quinnly is our 5th girl, so we thought it was a very fitting name for her! Not to mention we just think it’s cute!
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Moms love hearing a good birth story. If you want to hear more about her birth, feel free to read on, but if you find it awkward to talk about or just plain embarrassing, I suggest not continuing on…..as there are details that you may not want to hear. Just enjoy the cutie pie baby picture above.
The Birth Story of Quinnly (long)
You may remember that with my last baby, I had to have a C-section due to a short cord and baby not descending. It was my first C-section, and a traumatic recovery compared to my previous 5 births. That was something that I knew I didn’t want to repeat unless it was absolutely necessary, so I set out to find a doctor who would be willing to perform a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean). I did find that doctor in a town about 30 minutes away. Because I’d never been to this doctor before, I was always a bit suspicious, thinking he was going to try and force me into that C-section anyway. Well, let me tell you, I’m glad I stuck it out with this doctor as he was amazing and I got the VBAC I knew I wanted, despite some complications that very easily could have gotten in the way.
Besides not wanting a C-section, I also had another specification. I did not want a pitocin induction. Every time I’ve ever experienced pitocin, it’s been a miserable experience. I knew that may just be something I’d have to fight the doctor on when the time came and I was dreading that. Well, it turns out that I was having high blood pressure which they feared was leading to pre-eclampsia and they were inching closer and closer to requiring me to induce with pitocin.
To keep my blood pressure under control, my husband and I decided that I needed to rest as much as possible, with my feet up and eat a high protein diet (The Brewer Diet) in order to combat any Pre-eclampsia symptoms. While our efforts worked did keep my pressure down while I was off my feet, it wasn’t good enough. The blood pressure was always high when I went in for my nonstress test and at my doctor appointments. At my last non-stress test, the doctor asked the nurse to check to see if I had begun dilating yet or not. If I had been, he would’ve requested that I be induced right away. For some strange reason, at 39 weeks, I was not dilated at all. (I think that is a first for me!). He let me go home, with the stipulation to come back and get checked again on Friday, just 4 days later. He was waiting for any sign of progress.
Knowing how much I hate medical inductions and being chained to a bed while in labor, I decided to try as many at home inductions as I could to see if I could get the ball rolling before I returned to the hospital. I’ve had good results in the past with castor oil and decided to try that as a last resort, when nothing else worked.
I took my first dose at 3:00 on Wednesday and by 7:00 p.m. that evening I began having little bitty baby contractions that felt like a joke. As the night went on though, they got stronger. By 2:00 a.m., they were hard enough that I could not sleep. So I got up and paced the house. Round and round the house I went. They were coming every 2-4 minutes and I was getting exhausted. Knowing we were 30 minutes away from the hospital, I finally decided to wake my dh up to see if he’d take me. I felt like there was no way it could be much longer as these had been going on and were just getting harder. I was sure I’d be hitting transition before I knew it.
We got to the hospital around 6:00 a.m. The first thing they did was take my blood pressure. It was really high. Wonderful….. Next, they checked me to see how far I’d progressed. I was dilated to a 2. Surely they stuttered, right? A 2? You’ve got to be kidding me! I had thought I was close to transition. How in the world was I going to survive the rest of this labor being chained to a hospital bed?
They continued to let me labor while consistently monitoring my blood pressure, which was staying sky high. Finally, they decided that they needed an internal monitor on baby to watch and see how the contractions were affecting her. This is the point where I was suddenly OK with any and all interventions…as I was just miserable. The next time the doctor checked me, I was dilated to a 4 and he informed me that I could get an epidural if I wanted.
I never want to get an epidural either. I hate the way recovery is after an epidural. I feel so much more drugged and hard to come back. Not to mention that I get weird adrenaline surges through my back for a whole year after I’ve had an epidural. I always hated that sensation, but amazingly, I eagerly requested an epidural. They informed me it will be a bit because the anesthesiologists were quite busy that day, but they’d squeeze us in when they could.
They came in and wanted to put me on a magnesium drip to help get my blood pressure under control. The drawback of that is that it could stop my contractions. If that happened, I’d have to be put on a pitocin drip. I was not happy, but I knew they were monitoring me for pre-eclampsia. My feet and legs were beginning to swell more and when they checked my urine, there was more protein in it than when I first arrived. This meant, I could be heading towards toxemia and they could suddenly decide that we could no longer wait and baby had to come out right away. We were mentally preparing ourselves for a C-section. My husband called a few people letting them know that I had been in labor and that I would probably be several more hours as things were just moving very slowly. The babies heart rate had dipped lower than they’d like to see on some of the contractions, too, just making the chance of a C-section even greater. Around 11:00 a.m., the doctor said that he was going to break my water and put the monitor on the baby. I agreed. He said he didn’t think it would take long before I had the baby, but I figured that he was just saying that to make me feel better. Honestly, I just wanted it over with and hoped that they would just take me away and get it over with. (I can’t believe I was even thinking that!)
I begged again for the epidural and they let me know that it could be another 30 minutes. That sounded unbearable, but what can you do? The next few contractions I suddenly felt a lot of pressure. I was glad that maybe was moving down more, but I was still thinking it would be forever. These contractions had been extremely hard since 2:00 in the morning and never let up, despite the magnesium drip. After a 2nd contraction full of pressure, the nurse decided to check me to see how close we were. During that check (and in the middle of a contraction), I moved from 7 cm dilated to 9 cm dilated. That kicked things into high gear.
They wheeled the baby table in and started prepping for a baby. I was still in disbelief that it could be happening any time soon. I had resolved that I may just be miserable forever. The doctor was there and ready and told me I could start pushing. In past births I’ve always had an uncontrollable urge to push, so this seemed weird to just start pushing without it, but I was willing to do anything I could to get the birth over with more quickly. After 2 good pushes, the baby came out so quickly that the doctor nearly dropped her. He caught her by the leg, with the nurse ready to make a dive for her had she gotten away.
My husband had talked to my kids at 11:30 when he said it would be a while and at 11:41, the baby was born. They were so surprised at how fast she arrived and so were we. It had been both a long labor and a short delivery. I guess once the water broke, things just went super fast! I came away in shock….yet so excited to be done with the hard part. They put her right onto my chest and let me just study her and cuddle her for the next 30 minutes before we even weighed her or measured her. She was covered in vernix and had beautiful chubby cheeks.
I was so thankful that the doctor and nurse pushed for me to have the VBAC that I wanted. I thanked them both and the nurse said, “I wasn’t going to let you give up on it!”. Thankfully she was in her right mind, as I certainly wasn’t in mine. Since the anesthesiologist never showed up and there was no C-section, my recovery has been so easy. Of course, I’m still trying to take it easy so I don’t get too exhausted, but it’s nice to know I can be on my feet a little quicker this time.
Mom, Dad & Baby Quinnly
Big brother holding her for the first time!
Her very first car ride in the 15 passenger van. This is the first trip where we had a real need for this large of a vehicle, as everyone came to pick me up from the hospital!
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