The Story of Lauryn

I know a couple of people who may be reading this already know about Lauryn and her birth but since today marks that one year anniversary, I want to share it again :)

I should start off by saying how much I had always wanted to be a mommy.  Four years after Lloyd and I were married, we decided to start trying.  It took a year, almost to the day and we finally got pregnant.  I will never forget what I felt when I saw the little plus sign!  I immediately broke down into tears of happiness!

About 18 weeks in, we had a big scare.  I called the on-call nurse and she told me everything was probably okay but I should go to the hospital to get checked out.  That was one of the worst days of my life!  When we got there, they ran a few tests and the nurse came in to check the baby's heart beat.  It took her almost ten minutes to find it.  The longer it took, the more panicked I felt.  And that horrid woman was actually telling me, "If you've miscarried, it's not your fault...we women tend to blame ourselves for that" among many other unpleasant things.  Lloyd said if she'd have been a man, he would have punched her.  We went down and had an ultrasound and after the doctor reviewed everything, she said the baby was fine and to take it easy for a couple of days.



(with her little hand by her face :) )

I should also mention that around 6ish months, Lloyd and I bought a house in Belding, the town I grew up in.  We had been living in Grand Rapids for the past 8 years and neither of us wanted to raise a child there.  The house we bought needed a lot of work and every weekend, we would go stay there and do as much as we could.  Towards the end of it, I just became the errand girl because I was too big to do much else.



(big, puffy, pregnant version of me :) )

So we tried very hard to get the house done because we wanted to be all moved in by the time the baby came.  I was due on November 20th, 2008.  I had put my two weeks notice in at work because the doctors were telling me my blood pressure was way too high and my last day was going to be on November 3rd.  On Halloween, which was a Friday, Lloyd to spend the weekend at the new house...it was the first time I hadn't gone.  On Saturday, I spent the day picking up some last minute items so I could start packing our hospital bags.  I washed all of her clothes and finished packing both of our bags at about 2 am.....my water broke at 5:30 am!  I chalk that up to mother's intuition, even though at the time I didn't realize it.  When I woke up and realized what had happened, I didn't quite know what to think.  Not to be too gross but since it was 18 days early, I thought that maybe she finally put so much pressure on my bladder that I might have wet the bed!  I cleaned everything up and tried to lay back down but I kept thinking, "What if it was my water that broke??"  Around 8:30 am I called my step-sister.  She's a maternity nurse at the hospital I was going to deliver at and I wanted to know what she thought.  She suggested that I go ahead and call the doctor.  My first thought was that Lloyd was in Belding, which was about 40-45 minutes away and I didn't want to go to the hospital without him!  So I called him and tried to calmly tell him I thought my water had broken.  The conversation went something like this:

Lloyd:  Hey there, how are you this morning?

Me:  Pretty good, how are you?

Lloyd:  Good.  I got a lot more done than I thought I would.

Me:  That's good.  Um, you might want to go ahead and start heading home now.

Lloyd:  Why?

Me:  Because I think my water broke.

Lloyd: WHAT????

We talked for just a few minutes then he was on his way home.  While I waited for him, I quick took a shower and did up the dishes.  At the time it seemed extremely important to have my legs shaved and to have the dishes done before we left for the hospital.  I figured I could at least have smooth legs when everyone was going to see me in all my birth giving glory :)  I called the on-call nurse just a few minutes before Lloyd got home and she said she'd have the doctor call me.  In the meantime, I had everything ready to go.  Lloyd got home, asked how I was and took a quick shower.  The doctor called and told me to go ahead and go to the hospital.  He said they would test to see if my water had broken and we'd take things from there.  On the way to the hospital I asked Lloyd if the thought it was too late to stop and pick up a lamaze video :)  I had completely spaced and forgot about signing up for the classes.  When we got to the hospital, our very sweet nurse, Ruth, confirmed that my water had indeed broken.  I called my mom and told it was time to head to Grand Rapids.  It was about 11 am when we were admitted.  Once we were all settled in to the birthing room, I made a few other calls.  When I called my best friend to tell her I was in the hospital, I said, "My water broke and I'm in the hospital!"  Her response, "Who is this?"  I had to laugh!  I was calling from my cell phone, which I never used, and she didn't recognize the number.  Too funny!  Around 1pm, the contractions started.  They were very mild.  My mom got there a few minutes later and completely fell apart as soon as she saw me :)  Around 2 pm, the nurse gave me pitocin to help speed things up... and boy did that work!  Almost immediately the contractions went from barely there to major pain without any time in between them.  The nurse asked if I'd like Stadol.  She told me that it wouldn't take the pain away but it would make me care about it less.  All that did was make my vision blurry.  I still very much cared about the pain.  Nurse Ruth checked me and said it was time for an epidural if I wanted.  By that point my back was killing me so I was ready for it!  It was only a few minutes later that the anesthesiologist was standing there waiting for me to stop contracting so she could give me the epidural.  The contractions weren't going to stop.  Nurse Ruth checked me again and said, "No time for the epidural, it's time to start pushing!"  It was just after 3 pm.  Three pushes later and little Miss Lauryn Elaine was here!  I couldn't believe it happened so fast!  She was born at 3:08 pm on November 2nd, 2008, she weighed 6 lbs. even and was 19 1/2" long.  She was perfect!!!



(Lauryn Elaine, 1 day old)