The Birth of Lorelai Kate

Lauren's due date was September 19, 2007. This was pretty exciting because Zach's birthday is September 21, so Lauren was hoping to have the baby that day! Lots of other family members had birthdays in the days before and after the 19th, so it was likely that someone was going to be getting an extra special birthday gift!

The 19th came and went with no sign of a baby being born! Lauren's mom came into town and so on Zach's birthday he, Lauren, Lauren's mom and grandparents went miniature golfing at Rustic Gardens. Lauren did 36 squats during the 18 holes (teeing up and retrieving the ball from the hole) and apparently this got things started!

Upon returning home from the golfing, Lauren had some spotting and was very excited! Later that evening, she and Zach walked around the mall a lot and ate spicy hot wings with Zach's family in an effort to get things moving faster. By the time it was getting dark outside, Lauren was having somewhat regular contractions between 8 and 18 minutes apart. She tried to go to sleep but was too anxious, so at midnight she and Zach drove to the gas station for Tylenol PM. They slept until 5:30am.

Saturday morning Lauren's contractions were about 7 minutes apart so her and Zach went on a long walk to speed them up. After the walk her contractions were consistently 4 minutes apart. Lauren's spotting had turned into yellow gooey stuff, so Zach called the doctor, who said to go to the hospital. Lauren hit the shower while Zach packed and vacuumed. Lauren said a teary good-bye to her cats, because she knew this was the last time she would love them like her babies. Lauren's dad came over and followed them to the hospital (Lauren drove!).

Upon arriving at the hospital, Lauren had to pee in a cup and put on an incredibly unattractive hospital gown. They stuck her in Triage room 6 and hooked up monitors to track Lauren's contractions and the baby's heartrate. Zach had fun watching the screen and telling Lauren when a contraction was coming (as if she didn't know!). Finally Dr. Soper came and checked Lauren's cervix. 1 cm dilated, 75% effaced, head at -2 station. Not very far along at all! But that wasn't the big news. That stuff coming out of Lauren wasn't her mucous plus - it was amniotic fluid! AND it was green because of the meconium in it. This meant that the baby had pooped in utero and would have to have a NICU team present at delivery to suction her all out. Lauren was very upset because this voided all plans for Zach to catch the baby and Lauren to cut the cord once it had stopped pulsating. And, of course, she was worried about the health of the baby because she knew that meconium can be bad news if it gets in the baby’s lungs.

Lauren calmed down and really wanted to stand up (laying down during contractions hurts) so Zach got the nurse's ok. She brought Lauren some giant mesh undies and a big old diaper. Lauren stood beside the bed for only a few minutes before her water REALLY broke and green stuff was gushing everywhere. Lauren started screaming and crying (that water gushing out is a horrible feeling, and Lauren wasn’t dealing well with “poop coming out of her vagina”). Zach was kind of amused but did his best to calm her down.

Since Lauren's water had been broken (unbeknownst to her) for over 24 hours, the doctor had her admitted to the hospital.Lauren and Zach spent the next 5 hours playing Yahtzee, entertaining visitors, walking the maternity ward, and trying to relax through contractions. Lauren's dad, Lauren's mom, Lauren's friend Emily, Zach's parents, Zach's brother, Zach's sister, and Lauren's grandparents all came to await the arrival of the baby!

Unfortunately, Lauren's contractions weren't coming hard enough to get the baby out any time soon, so at 6:30 the doctor said she needed to start Pitocin (which induces labor). Lauren was VERY upset and asked for 1 hour before the IV was started. She banished all the family to the waiting room and bawled her eyes out for a second before springing into action. She and Zach ran laps around the maternity ward and tried squats, lunges, nipple stimulations, and anything else they could think of to increase the strength of the contractions naturally. It didn't work. Lauren talked the nurse into letting her eat some dry cereal and resigned herself to the IV while Zach called the doula.

The Pitocin started at 7:30pm. The nurse increased it every 30 minutes. It started making Lauren have "coupling contractions" which were hard, because there was no break between them. It was especially hard for Lauren to go to the bathroom now, because she had to drag the IV pole with her each time. Each time Lauren peed it would be followed with awful pain and the contractions would get worse. By 9:30, the pain was pretty intense and Lauren was out of energy to move. She sat in the rocker while the doula and Zach tried to make her feel better.

At 10:30 pm, with the actual birth seeming years away, Lauren broke down and asked for a moment alone with Zach. She told him that the contractions were coming too close together for her to get any rest and she was worried she wouldn't be able to make it all the way through the birth without breaking down. Lauren wanted to make sure she had plenty of energy to spend hours loving on her new baby after delivery! Zach was 100% ok with her getting an epidural, even though the plan had been for an unmedicated birth. And so the doula was sent home, the epidural was inserted and the medicine started flowing at 11:30.

Lauren had been absolutely terrified of the epidural but it wasn’t as bad as she had anticipated. She could still move her legs and could feel the contractions. Luckily she had done all of her peeing before the epidural was inserted, so she never had to be catheterized (her greatest fear). The nurse checked Lauren and she was 5 cm dilated, 75% effaced, and station -1 (0 during a contraction). She said should would be back to check Lauren again around 2am.

Zach invited all of Lauren's family in to visit again, since Lauren was in much better spirits now! Even though the purpose of the epidural was to let Lauren rest, it actually gave her energy and she chatted nonstop. Lauren's brother and his fiancee finally arrived and visited with her for a while. At around 12:25 Lauren finally decided she’d better try to get a nap in since the nurse was coming back in an hour and a half.

Around 12:30am, the monitor started having a hard time keeping Lolli's heart rate. It was showing big decelerations and sometimes no heartbeat at all. The nurse turned Lauren from side to side and repositioned the monitors but the heartbeat was still looking bad. The nurse called for the doctor.By the time the doctor arrived, Lauren was feeling a LOT of pressure in her bottom. She said to the doctor, “I’m pretty sure this baby is trying to come out my butt.” The doctor checked - "She's complete - time to push!" (The heart rate decelerations reflected on the monitor had been caused by the baby twisting and turning and trying to get out.)

Upon hearing Doctor Soper declare, "Time to push!" Zach sprang into action. He hooked up the video camera, called some family members into the room (who were quite surprised – this was an hour earlier than the nurse was supposed to even check Lauren’s progress), and took his spot at the head of the bed. Lauren's brother's fiancee, Annie, held her right leg and Lauren's mom held her left leg. The doctor was standing to Lauren's right. Zach’s mom was at the end of the bed videotaping.

Each time a contraction would start to show on the monitor, Lauren would be instructed to push for 3 sets of 10 seconds. Between contractions Lauren was laughing, waving to the camera, and making jokes. She was so glad to be able to feel when a contraction was coming, even though she couldn't feel the actual pain or anything.

After about 20 minutes of pushing the doctor called for the NICU team and Lauren gave one more 10 second push and out came the baby, all at once! A beautiful, screaming, meconium-covered little girl! Lauren said, "Oh no baby, please don't cry yet," because she didn't want the baby to breathe in the poop. But the doctor said it was ok, that at least the cries were letting us know the baby was vigorous and healthy. Then the doctor said, "She's a good size baby - a little chunker!"

The doctor quickly clamped and cut the cord before rushing the baby over to the NICU team. Lauren watched from across the room as they suctioned her little baby. Zach was stunned at first and Lauren had to remind him to get over there with the baby! It took about 10 or 15 minutes for the NICU team to be satisfied that the baby was meconium-free and could be taken to Lauren. During that time, Lauren delivered the placenta, which was green from the baby poop. Ew!

Finally the NICU team handed the bundled baby girl to Zach, who was stopped several times by photographing family members as he crossed the room to show Lauren their daughter. "Why am I the only one who hasn't seen my baby?!?" Lauren was hollering from her bed. Zach dodged the paparazzi (ha) and finally arrived at Lauren's bedside. The whole new family was together! Lauren held the baby for a while and laughed because she had nappy dark hair.

The nurse weighed the baby before Lauren started to feed her. 8 pounds, 6 ounces! Not huge, but definitely a good size baby! Lauren stripped the baby down to her diaper and put her to her breast. Instantly the baby because sucking! Smart little kid!While Lauren was feeding the baby, the rest of the family came in from the waiting room with tears in their eyes to meet the newest member of the family - Lorelai Kate aka *Lolli*