Lola Rae Griffin made her grand debut July 6, 2016 at 12:38 AM; she missed her due date of July 5 by just a few minutes. Here’s all the events leading up to the grrrandest event ever! DISCLAIMER: Photos (by the fabulous Celeste Nield Photography) and events are the real deal here….
Lennyn came a few days early, so I had been verrry antsy for about a week at this point. My midwife (D’Anne Moon, Certified Nurse-Midwife at The Lodge) and I had thought that this babe may follow about the same timeline.I had been using essential oils, doing lunges and squats, bouncing on the exercise ball, going for walks with one foot in the gutter and one on the curb (yes…I was desperate people!), and just about every other “safe” and “natural” induction method by this point.
I had been extremely lucky with this pregnancy and didn’t get swollen or truly miserable until the last few days. With Lennyn, I was feeling pretty crappy about the entire last two months (diet, exercise and supplements made a world of difference this go around).
On July 5, I was having contractions that felt a bit different, but still wasn’t getting my hopes up. I had been having fairly strong Braxton-Hicks for about a month at this point and didn’t have any other “signs” that labor was truly on it’s way. I had finally been able to get in with my Foot Zoning lady at 2:45 that afternoon; she did a regular Foot Zone Session, then did a specialized zone where she “stripped” my membranes. OUCH! My whole body was sweating by the end of it….but obviously it was worth it!
After my zone I headed in to my doctor’s appointment and D’Anne checked everything, tried to strip my membranes (but Lo was at too high of a station for it to truly be effective, she thought) and found that I was measuring slightly small. This caused concern that the amniotic fluid may be low, which can cause the baby distress. We did an ultrasound and it confirmed the fluid level was slightly lower than what they like to see. At this point I was told that we would monitor her heart rate and if there was any distress, I would be on my way up to the hospital to be induced. UGH. I felt sick! Being induced (typically started on Pitocin, the synthetic form of Oxytocin, makes STRONG uterine contractions and most people find it impossible to labor “naturally” with it). I called Tay and we both were pretty stressed.
While being monitored for 30 minutes, I started googling people’s experiences trying to labor without an epidural when induced. It did NOT give me hope that I would be able to have the labor and delivery I had planned, prayed and prepared for. I was praying that I would be inspired to know if my baby truly would be ok and debating on whether I should fight being induced or if it truly would be in mine and my baby’s best interest to have this medical intervention (which I believe is HIGHLY over-used). I knew that D’Anne was in my corner to help me have the most natural labor possible, with the fewest interventions, so that brought me some peace.
While being monitored, I started getting fairly strong contractions. With false labor, they stop when you can get up and move around or change positions. I figured these weren’t stopping since I was strapped down with monitors on my belly and couldn’t get up and walk them off. D’Anne came in, saw the contractions, and said, “Hey! Baby’s heart looks like it’s doing ok…AND…It looks like we may be meeting up at the hospital sometime tonight!”. BIGGEST RELIEF EVER. She told me to go home, get some dinner and go on a walk to see if they kept building.
I called Tay again to let him know what was going on around 5 PM, and told him I was having contractions, but not to get our hopes up….”Stay at work and I’ll call you if this is legit.” I decided I should maybe start timing the contractions while I drove and they were getting close to about 5-7 minutes apart. (They say with second labors to go up to the hospital when they are 5 minutes apart…I STILL didn’t think this was real at this point haha). I stopped at Mo Bettah’s (BEST FOOD EVER)… had a few contractions while waiting in line, got back in the car and drove to my Mom’s where Len was being watched by my sister.
When I got to my moms, the contractions kept coming stronger, harder and closer together while I was porking down my delicious rice and chicken. Luckily, I had Lennyn’s overnight bag in the car. Lenny was SUPER pumped about having a sleepover at Papa Eric and Grandma Kim’s. I gave her a big kiss and told her we would come back and get her tomorrow…and baby sister would be here hopefully! Tay met me, we went out to our home in Richmond, watered the flowers, fed the dog, changed clothes, grabbed the hospital bag (contractions coming about 4 minutes apart at this point) and hopped in the car to head out!
We got to the hospital around 7 PM and checked into our room. I had been dilated to 4 cm. at my appointment and the nurse said we wouldn’t “officially” admit me until I had made quite a bit of progress from that point, because I “was wanting to labor naturally, and we don’t want to have to do unnecessary interventions to make you progress faster”. I was bugged. I knew at this point I was really in labor and I was NOT going home haha. I didn’t progress much in the next hour, so when she checked me I was only at a 5, and she said she would call D’Anne and see what she thought…but I would probably be heading home. (UM NO…I wasn’t going to let that happen haha). D’Anne said to try some nipple stimulation and more walking to see if that would pick up my contractions again. As awkward (and painful) as it was to do nipple stimulation on myself…it did the trick of producing more Oxytocin and got the contractions coming HARD again!
I had forgotten my Birth Plan at home…woops…but told the nurse the gist of it and she was great with doing the intermittent monitoring so I could move about freely.She would come in every so often with the Fetal Doppler to check mine and the baby’s heart rate and it was fabulous!
The next few hours Taylor and I walked around, ate some snacks, and watched “Enough” with J Lo (nothing like a show about a lady wooping her abusive husband’s butt to get you all fired up about being a strong woman!). Whenever contractions would come, I followed my instincts, and the thing that felt best was to lean over a table, the sink, or the exercise ball on the bed and have Tay or D’Anne rub my lower back. While these got harder and closer together, I would focus on their touch, breathe in essential oils (Nutmeg was my favorite during labor) and repeat my affirmations to myself in my head while I breathed through them. A few I focused on were: “I am calm, confident, assured and assertive. My baby feels my calm and confidence. Each surge brings my baby closer.”
Around 10 PM I decided I wanted to labor in the Jacuzzi for awhile. D’Anne dimmed the lights and I stole the bath stool that D’Anne brought out for Taylor (woops haha) and put it in the tub to lean over while D’Anne and Tay put the warm showerhead on my lower back during contractions. SO LOVELY. At this point I didn’t know how far I had progressed and was starting to get a little nervous. When laboring with Lennyn, I got stuck at 7 cm. for about an hour and it was pure hell. That 7th centimeter seemed like a big obstacle to get past in my head. So I told the baby, “When we get out of this tub…we will be at 8 cm…ok?”. Well….she listened! We were at 8 cm. and moving along great!
Around 11/Midnight, I moved into the transition phase of labor, which is undoubtedly the hardest. I couldn’t walk much because the contractions were coming so close and hard. I started to feel the urge to push and the baby descend while I was standing and leaning over the exercise ball on the bed. D’Anne checked me and asked, “Baby is coming…is this the position where you want to deliver?”. I was in the zone at that point so I said, “Yes!”. This made it a little difficult for everyone…haha the nurse was squatting on the ground to monitor the baby’s heart rate, D’Anne was down there too and Tay was leaning over them all to rub my back. Your support crew is SO important and mine was amazing.
I pushed for about 10 minutes standing this way, and then Lo’s heart rate started to drop, so I climbed up on the table, layed on my side, D’Anne had to do an episiotomy like we had to do for Len (OUCH…I definitely felt this part again), pushed a few times, and she was out!
The moment when your babe is born is the most surreal, spiritual experience. I had requested delayed cord clamping and immediate skin to skin; so the NICU people were there just in case, but they didn’t weigh or measure her until about and hour later so I could bond with my sweet babe. I had told them I was keeping my placenta for Placenta Encapsulation so the had it all saved after Tay cut the cord (which has been SO amazing by the way).
Lola came out so peaceful and was absolutely perfect. She has a TON of hair (all over haha), didn’t have any stork bites and came out perfectly bright eyed. She is an angel baby and we are SO blessed we got her here in such an amazing, perfect way!
The Griffin Adventure 