Once a Child, always a Child

Welcome Lizzie

At 4:33 p.m. in Fort Collins Poudre Valley Hospital on Tuesday, September 4th Elizabeth Christine Child was born to our family.

I was in labor for 31 hours! I went to the hospital when the contractions were 5 minutes apart as the doctor told me to do and expected to be sent home because I was dilated at only 1 centimeter, but because it was a vbac they had me stay; so most of Labor Day I was laboring in the hospital. I was having very regular contractions that were close to 2 minutes apart but by 4 a.m. I was only dilated to a 3. By then I was so tired because they gave me nausea drugs that made me want to sleep yet I still threw up almost 10 times. At 4 they gave me an epidural so that I could sleep and rest before pushing. After the epidural the contractions stopped coming so frequently, but miraculously I was still progressing. At 7:00 a.m. I was dilated to a 5 and at 10:00 I was to a 7. By 9:00 I couldn't feel my right leg from the epidural but I could feel everything on the left so the needle was inserted wrong into my back the first time. So I had to have that epidural taken out and another one put in; so both of my legs were numb. It was after 1:00 p.m. before they told me that I could start pushing and it took 3 hours to push. By the end of the pushing the epidural was almost worn off and I could feel most of the contractions. Needless to say I was very happy when she finally was born. There were so many times the doctor was about to give up and make me have a c-section because it was taking so long. But thankfully it is all over, and of course she is worth it! Recovery has been about as hard, maybe a tiny bit easier than the c-section with the boys because I tore 4 inches and 2 layers during pushing and had to have an episiotomy also. Thank goodness she is a cute kid!