Barfuss Life: October 2013

Last monthly post before lyla turns one. Where has the time gone? Seriously. This month lyla decide that her favorite thing is to empty anything she can get her hands on. It started with the Tupperware draw, then moved to the bathroom drawers, then taking all of her clothes out of her dresser. To complicate things even further, she just figured out how to open my kitchen cupboards too. There's pots and pans and Tupperware all over my kitchen floor, baby clothes covering lyla's room, and toothpaste tubes and contact solution on my living room floor. Keeping things clean around here is getting very tricky!

Lyla also stood up all by herself twice, but both times was playing with my camera case and didn't really seem to know what she did. She clapped once when she saw the neighbors cat. She is pretty good at giving high-fives. Oh and she learned her first real word, "hi"! It's really cute and she goes around saying it all day long.

Love this girl and can't wait for her birthday next month!

As Lyla's birthday rapidly approaches, I am realizing that there are a lot of things that I have not documented on here, including her birth! I am quoting most of this from my journal where thankfully I did write it down, since its already not as vivid in my mind as I always thought it would remain.

Lyla Jean Barfuss Birth Story

At my 36.5 week doctor's appointment on October 25th, the doctor checked me and said that the baby was really low and that I was dilated to 1 cm and 75% effaced. I asked her if that meant anything, and she said that it didn't mean I was going to go into labor any day, but that things were moving along. Based on what she said, I didn't think that I would have the baby right away, but I think I did start planning on her coming a little early.

Fast forward 2 days and we find out that Chad ad Des had baby Baylor .We went and visited him in the hospital on Sunday. Then on Monday, Todd and I went to work as usual, went to dinner at Zupas, and then went home. We had FHE where I gave a lesson on having faith vs. fear related to our baby, which was mostly meant for me in response to the words of a blessing that Todd had given me the night before because I had been feeling really nervous about becoming a parent. then we watched "Happiest Baby on the Block" and Todd gave me a foot rub, after which we watched Monday Night Football and I fell asleep.

I woke up and felt the gush that people talk about and said "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!". I think I put together fairly quickly what was happening, and I just remember wanting to make it stop coming because this couldn't be happening already. Todd was asking me what I was freaking out about and I told him that I thought my water broke. He peaked under the blanket I had on and told me that he thought so too. I got up to go to the bathroom since I was still leaking everywhere (yum!), and tried to process everything. I kept saying that I couldn't have the baby yet, I wasn't ready, the house was a mess, and I had too much to do at work, especially the next day because we were in the middle of Quarter Close testing which I was supposed to lead. Todd just said that all of that stuff didn't matter.

It is a weird feeling having your water break because you know that there is no turning back. with contractions, they might go away, or can be stopped, but when your water breaks, you are having that baby.

I didn't have a hospital bag packed or anything so i was going around getting things in order. i got myself pretty calm and was trying to get things done, but Todd was getting frustrated and kept telling me we needed to get to the hospital. I literally ran a brush through my hair and put on a coat of mascara, and he accused me of "getting ready". haha. He was in more of a hurry than I was. I grabbed a piece of pumpkin sheet cake on my way out because I had been planning all day long to have it for dessert and was sad that I wouldn't get a chance. I was also adamant that we take my work laptop, which of course I didn't use :).

We got to the hospital around 10:30 p.m. (my water broke at 9:35 p.m....cute Todd wrote the time down on his hand). They took us to triage to "see if my water really had broken". That was humorous. Turns out it had (big surprise) and I was dilated to a 3.5 and 95% effaced, but not really having contractions. They admitted us and put us in our delivery room.

Since I wasn't having much in the way of contractions, they suggested pitocin, which apparently they like to give when your water breaks. I didn't really want it so they told me they would give me an hour to walk the halls and see if they would start getting more intense on their own. This is what I decided to do--I wasn't against pitocin, I just really wanted to see what my body would do on its own. Todd and I walked the halls together and talked about how crazy it was that we were going to have a baby that night. I was having some small contractions but they weren't too intense. I noticed that they were mostly located in my back. I wondered if that meant that she was facing the wrong direction like i'd heard about in my birthing class.

The walking around didn't really help my contractions, so we started pitocin an hour later. This made the contractions stronger and closer together. They started getting pretty intense. I was on the phone with Jamie and had to have her hold on probably 4 times for contractions. While I was on the phone with her, and thanks to her persuasion, I decided to get an epidural. I hadn't been opposed to getting an epidural, but I had wanted to see how it felt, and to make sure I felt true labor pain and didn't get it too early. In the end, I decided that I could probably suffer through the labor if I really wanted to, or I could enjoy the time with Todd. Plus, since it was the middle of the night, I thought it would be great if we could get some sleep.

I think I got the epidural at about 2:10 a.m. It was amazing :). Really uncomfortable to get, but awesome after. I was able to fall asleep shortly thereafter. I was dilated to a 5 when I got the epidural. The nurse came back to check on me at 3:30 a.m. because Lyla's heart rate dipped a few times. I was now dilated to a 10 and almost completely effaced. She said she would come back and check me in half an hour, but she didn't come back for an hour, which was really annoying. When she finally came back, we started pushing with just the nurse, me, and Todd. Todd held one leg and the nurse held the other. I pushed for what felt like a long time (maybe 40 minutes) until she said we were realdy and she went to call the doctor (also annoying that htey waited till then to even call). So we hung out for what felt like forever. It felt like even longer because even though I had an epidural, I still felt a ton of pressure and the urge to push. FINALLY the doctor came and we started pushing again. Maybe 4 or 5 round sof pushing with the doctor, but not sure. Right before she was born, the doctor said she was posterior (head up...which explained my back labor)and this made the pushing last longer. I still didn't push for too long for a first time, but it would have been a lot faster if she were facing the right way.

I was so tired from pushing and I pushed finally for the last time (I remember in the middle of the pushing process, feeling like I wasn't making any progress and I didn't know how much longer I could keep it up for) and Lyla was born at 6:04 a.m.! 7 pounds 3 ounces, 20 inches long. I honestly don't really remember hearing her cry or anything. I think I was mostly relieved to be done pushing. I do remember how thick and gross her cord looked. She was covered in the white cheese, and her hair was really matted and curly from the womb. I forgot to mention that while I was pushing, they kept talking about her hair, and they had tried to put the heart rate monitor on her head, but it didn't work because of all the hair :).

It was really all kind of a blur. She started lapping her tongue like a little cat/lizard from the second she came out. She continues to play with her tongue a lot. I didn't feel an immediate connection with her when she was born. I didn't cry like I thought I would, but the bond did come very quickly later that day. I remember being so starving after giving birth and being jealous that she got to nurse but I didn't get to eat :).

I wasn't much for pictures while I was pregnant, but I did ask Todd to snap a few at 37 weeks. Turned out to be good timing when my water broke the next day!