She’s such a pretty baby. I never updated anyone on her birth or anything, so here goes nothing...

I started having contractions in April, strong enough that I had to breathe through them. They lasted for NINE WHOLE DAYS and I had only progressed to 3cm and 75% effaced when they finally put me out of my misery and started a Pitocin drip. The contractions then became super easy and short; I was laughing and having a grand old time. This was the early morning of May 5th.

They kept upping the Pitocin and the contractions started to double up, showing them what they had thought was happening. Baby’s head was off-kilter, making things difficult to progress. After 6 hours, I had only made it to 3.5cm, and they wanted to break my water. Last time I gave birth and they broke my water, everything started going wrong and I went from 7 to 6, with a stall. So I told my doctor no and continued labouring.

My husband was getting antsy and felt like nothing was happening after several more hours, so they came in and checked again to see that I’d made it to 4, and they broke my water. Several hours later, I was only at 4.5! Her head was still off-centered and I was getting pukey. The back labour was killing me, the lack of food was killing me, and my hips felt like they were being ripped apart from behind. I asked for them to try an epidural, even with the scoliosis. Last time it had made everything worse and I almost had a c-section because it doubled the pain and I was passing out.

This time, the anesthesiologist was extremely careful, and although it took a couple tries, it finally kicked in and within ten minutes of it working I relaxed enough to progress from 4.5 to 9.5. Another ten minutes and I was pushing. Thirty minutes before, my husband had told my mom and grandma that they could go get food since it looked like it was going to take a long time. Thankfully, they’re experienced and knew that birth can be unpredictable.

Ten minutes of pushing and she was out! I didn’t tear, she was very healthy, and there were four generations of women in the room. Such an amazing moment.

Lydia Alexandra, born 5:45pm on 5/5/19, weighed a perfect 7lbs and was 18.75 inches.