Lyla's Birth Story

I haven't posted anything about this pregnancy, but we found out on September 13, 2016 that we were pregnant with our little Lyla bean!  It was very shocking because we tried for 3 years to get pregnant and nothing ever happened, even when we used Clomid and after visiting the fertility clinic.  But, I guess God decided it was finally time!  I took the test while Dave was working.  Kortni was at my house recovering from her miscarriage and I was late that month.  I took the test, but really didn't believe what I saw.  I bought another test and took that.  It was also positive, so I took Livvy to buy a shirt that said 'Big Sister' on it, and that's how I told Dave.  Livvy didn't know yet, I wanted to wait for a bit until we told her.  I cried a lot that night :)  Dave was so excited too, and a little shocked.  We ended up telling Livvy later that week.  She was excited to finally be a big sister.  We told our families by giving them a picture of Livvy wearing her shirt.

My pregnancy was smooth.  We had the doctor do a blood test to determine the sex.  We found out when I was 10 weeks that we were having another girl.  We were very excited, even though we had kind of wanted a boy.  It was a bit harder to be pregnant this time, for me.  I am older, so maybe that's why, but I just felt more uncomfortable the whole time.

Lyla was due May 24th, 2017.  During one of my appointments, my doctor scheduled an induction for 5/21/17.  We were very excited!  I started feeling cramps and I started dilated to a 2 at 34 weeks.  It made me a bit nervous, so I tried to relax and take it easy to prevent pre-term labor.  When I was 38 weeks, I had progressed to 3 cm.  My doctor stripped my membranes.  She was very aggressive!  I didn't know if this would make me go into labor, but it sure made me crampy and I was having contractions that day.  Dave and I both had a feeling that I would go into labor early.  On 5/11/17, my work friends had a baby shower for me.  After that, Livvy and I put everything away that we had gotten from the shower, then we decided to run some last minute baby errands.  We went to a couple of stores and I started having contractions while we were sitting in traffic trying to get home.  They lasted about a minute and they were happening every 10 minutes or so.  I started to wonder what would happen if I was stuck in traffic and they started getting worse...
We were rushing to get Livvy to dance class.  We made it, and while I was waiting for her, the contractions started to get more intense and they were closer together.  By this point, they were happening every 5 minutes.  After Livvy's dance ended, we went home and they seemed to be staying consistent.  Dave was still working, so I texted him and he thought we should go to the hospital.  I tried to call the OBGYN on-call number, but I couldn't get a hold of anyone, so we just decided to go in and see what Labor and Delivery would say.  I called my mom and her and my dad met us at the hospital to take Livvy with them.  While I was in labor at home, Livvy was so concerned.  She made me a bed on the couch and kept telling me to lay down :).  She also made sure to tell me that it was not time to have Lyla yet, she said "It's not for 10 more days mom!"  She was the cutest little helper.
We got to Labor and Delivery around 8:30 pm that night.  They took us in to the triage room and put me on the monitor.  She checked me and said that I was 3+ cm dilated.  She said that she would check me again in an hour to see if I was progressing.  When she did that, I was just barely 4 cm.  She wanted to check me again in another hour, so Dave and I went down to the cafeteria and he had dinner while I walked around trying to get the contractions to increase.  When she checked me again, I was barely over 4 cm.  She said that they could send me home with medicine, but that she wanted to talk to the doctor first.  When she came back, she told us that they would be admitting me :)
We got into the delivery room at 11:45 pm.  We were both so tired!  They ordered the epidural for me at that time and Dave started to get his bed ready.  After the epidural, Dave and I both laid down and tried to sleep.  I told him that I would wake him up when things started to get exciting.  I couldn't sleep much, I think just because of the anticipation.  I finished up ordering some Young Women stuff on Amazon while I sat there, waiting.  At 2:30 am, I was dilated to a 7, but it took me until 5:20 am to get to 8 cm.  I thought it would be another few hours, but at about 6:00 am, the nurse noticed that I was bleeding a bit more than I should be, so she checked me again and I was almost 10 cm.  They told me that my doctor was out of town, so they called the on-call doctor in.
It took him a while to get there.  The nurses were getting a tiny bit nervous.  They said that my placenta was separating too early, so they needed to deliver asap.  They put an oxygen mask on me.  Dave and I were getting a little scared, because Olivia's birth was much simpler than this.  However, things went pretty smooth after that.  I pushed for about 20 minutes, and then she was born at 6:27 am.  She was perfect!!  She weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and she was 20 inches long.  The doctor pulled her out and the cord was wrapped all around her.  Dave said he saw the doctor fumble with her and almost drop her, but he was ready to catch her if she fell :)
We told me mom that she had been born, and my mom came and brought Olivia with her.  Livvy got to meet Lyla in the delivery room.  She was so excited to meet her and she held her tight and kissed her.  It was the most special moment!
We then transferred to the Mom and Baby unit.  Livvy got to help us get there, which was cool.  We stayed that day and night, then we decided we could go home early, and we checked out by 2 pm the next day.  We had some visitors while we were there: My dad, Dave's parents and Mark, Matt and Sato, Kortni and Riggs, Kacee and Tolman, Mary and Mallory.
Lyla is the sweetest little baby!  She learned to nurse pretty quickly and she was pooping and peeing perfectly.  She also seems to be pretty calm, but I don't know if that's the case, or if I just don't remember how quiet and peaceful newborns can be :)  We are so happy to be a family of 4 now!

See some pictures below: