Layla's Birth Story

On Monday September 12th me and the boys headed to the doctors office for my weekly check up! Since I had gone from 0 to 2cm & 50% the week before, I was so excited to see how far I had progressed. We made a little progress, was now at 3cm and still 50% thinned. I was excited!
We left the doctors office and headed to chick-fillet. ( which is what I think helped move things along! Spicy chicken sandwich!!!!! lol ) After doing a little shopping, we headed home. Around 7pm my contractions started to become a little regular. They were about 8 minutes apart. 10 o clock rolled around and they were still at 8 minutes apart, but nothing too painful. At 11 I decided to give the doctor a call since they hadn't stopped yet, just to see what he thought. He said to come on in, and they would see what was going on. So we got everything together, and headed out. And of course stopped at McDonald's for a cheeseburger just in case I was admitted, I knew it would be awhile before I would get to eat again! lol
Saying goodbye to Landon as we dropped him off at Nana's was by far our hardest good bye yet. I didn't know for sure, but there was a chance the next time I would see him, he wouldn't be my only baby anymore.
We arrived at the hospital a little before 1am. My contractions got to be about 4 minutes apart on the way to the hospital, but still weren't too painful yet. ( I swear it was Dane's driving!!!! lol)
They hooked me up to the monitor to check my contractions and checked me. My contractions were back to 6-8 minutes apart and I was almost 5cm and 70% thinned. They were shocked since I had just been checked 12 hours prior to that. but they told me IF doctor Snowden decided to keep me, there was nothing they could give me to help me along since my original due date was on the 28th and I was still technically 37 weeks and 6 days. Doctor Snowden suggested I walk for a hour and see if I progress any and we would go from there. So me, Dane, my mom, sister Brandi & sister Amber head off for our walk. There is only so far you can walk in a hospital before your standing at a elevator for 5 minutes stopped, so we headed outside. The weather was great so we circled the entire hospital. About 45 minutes later we head back up to the floor where we run into the nurse and she said she had been looking for me to tell me Doctor Snowden has said to go ahead and admit me.

Woohoo! We were staying!! They check me again and I was almost 6cm and still at 70%. I got into my room around 3am and attempted to get some sleep. Snowden came in around 8am to check me. I was a solid 6cm and still at 70% so he decided to go ahead and break my water. And the real contractions then began! They were stronger, but stayed about 5 minutes apart. I lasted about a hour before I decided to get the epidural. Let me tell you, that was probably the worst thing I have ever experienced. With all the horror stories about epidurals, I think everyone goes in terrified to get it. He poked and dug around in my back 7 times. Took over 45 minutes before the other anesthesiologist decided to take over and got it on one try. Trying to sit still for 8 contractions was incredibly difficult and painful. But within 15 minutes, the medicine had started working and I was able to get some rest.

1pm rolls around and the nurse checks me and tells me that we are at 9cm and 90%, but Layla is still pretty high. So once we reached 10cm we will "labor down" which is basically to just wait it out. Even though I would be 10cm I still wouldn't be ready to push. About 15 minutes later I was feeling tons of pressure with every contraction. She told me that she would check me again shortly, but if baby was ready to come-- I would feel the pressure constantly. I think it was next contraction that felt like If I didn't push against the contraction, I was going to explode!!!!!! That was by far the most pressure I have ever felt in my entire life. I started to wonder what getting poked in the back 7 times was for because there was no way there was medicine helping what I was feeling!!!!! It had worked for the contraction pain I was having in my stomach, and that was it!!
The nurse sat on my bed and told me to try a couple practice pushes, since it took me 2 1/2 hours to push out Landon, They didn't want to call the doctor out of his office yet unless it was for sure time. I start to push with my next contraction and she makes me stop and tells me not to push again. She calls the other nurses and doctor right away. Felt like they were all in the room within 2 minutes and we were ready to go! I push through two more contractions and
Ms. Layla was born at 2:06pm.

Weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces

21 inches long!
Our awesome team. I couldn't have asked for a better nurse and of course, Doctor Snowden, the best doctor in the entire world!!!!!

While we got moved up to a room, Layla was taken to the nursery for a bath and to get checked out. Her blood sugar was low, so they had to give her a bottle of formula. This upset me because they didn't ask if it was ok to give her formula since I was nursing, and they also didn't offer me to give her her first bottle. I know it was necessary to get the blood sugar up, may have been hormone overload, but I cried. And since my milk wasn't in yet, there was nothing I could do but to supplement her after each time of nursing. She had to be checked every 3 hours, and it had even dropped to a level where she had to be seen by the NICU nurse. They gave her once more chance to be fed by mommy and supplemented, and if she got 3 positive results back, she would not be admitted to the NICU. I was incredibly stressed out, and felt whatever she needed from me I was failing at giving her. But luckily the formula was able to give her what I couldn't and brought her levels up to a safe level and the NICU was quickly put out of the picture. WAY out of the picture!!! I was SO relieved!

How is big brother Landon doing??

He has adjusted so well!!! At first he didn't have much interest in her. Pretty much just ignored her. Then he realized how much mommy and daddy love her and were giving her so much attention, he wanted to be next to her at all times. He is always asking to hold her, and give her kisses. Everytime a nursey would come near her, he would tell them "no no!!" Already protective of his little sister! so cute!!!

getting his first good look at her.

First hug!

First nap together!

First kiss!