Leyna's Birth

The last pics of Leyna in belly. My friend Precious happened to shoot these photos of me and belly at it's max just in time, taken 4 days before Leyna made her appearance!Now here's Daddy's run-down of Leyna's birth...

July 2, 10pm…watch Gran Torino? or fold Leyna’s clothes? We decided to fold and sort all of Leyna’s baby gear...build her pack n’ play which will act as her temporary crib…and start packing the labor bag. Car seat we decide to install tomorrow. 1am…finally went to bed for what turned out to be a very short nap.

July 3, 2:30am…Loralee nudges me and asks me to go turn on the light. She suspects her water might have broken. We spend the next half hour looking on Google and our baby resources to determine if we need to go to the hospital. We called the hospital and they told us to come in to check. Time to finish packing the labor bag and install that car seat!

July 3, 3:15am…we arrive at the hospital and Loralee gets monitored and checked by a nurse. False alarm. Phew! Water didn’t break, and she was only 2cm dilated. Contractions came every 5 minutes but she was unable to feel them. They sent us back home saying we’re far from early labor and it could be anywhere from a day to another week until Loralee gives birth. On our way home we enjoy breakfast at McDonalds (McDs is delicious out here!)

July 3, 5am…back home and ready to sleep. Loralee tells me that she’s finally starting to feel contractions now. She starts keeping record. I tell her to try to sleep off the contractions and get some rest because she needs energy for the actual labor and delivery. I pass out to re-energize. I wake up around 11am. Loralee was hunched over the bed on the yoga ball with a pen in one hand, her notes in the other, and her cell phone as her stopwatch. Apparently she wasn’t able to sleep off the contractions. They’ve been consistent every 4 minutes lasting about 60-90 seconds in length the whole night!

July 3, 4pm…Loralee soaks in a warm bath to help alleviate the pain. Nothing. Contractions come closer to 3 minutes apart.

July 3, 5pm…Loralee and I called the hospital again and told them about the past 12 hours of contractions. They suspect it was probably due to her exam earlier that day, told her to take a warm shower, take some Tylenol, and come in when contractions are so bad they make her cry. Loralee takes Tylenol. Nothing. She endures another 2 hours of strong contractions...without shedding a tear, though very painful!

July 3, 7pm…we decide to head back to the hospital, thinking we shouldn't get sent back home this time. Turned out she was way past “early labor.” Loralee was already 7cm dilated! (for those of you that don’t know, 10cm is time to push!) We get settled in the labor room…an inexperienced nurse missed the veins twice for the IV leaving some nasty bruising…Loralee enjoyed some lime otter pops and ice chips…the epidural went perfectly, she didn’t feel a thing and it reduced the pain at least 50%...They wait until 11pm to manually break Loralee’s water which was like a water balloon ready to burst. I called Russ and asked him to cover for my duty that I was scheduled for on July 4.
July 3, 11:20pm…They break her water, and we wait for the contractions to naturally make more progress. Loralee gets a quick lesson on how to push in preparation for the home stretch…

July 4, 12:48pm…Three sets of pushing, Leyna is born 6lbs 13 oz, 21 inches...screaming and crying her head off. She was absolutely adorable and with some mighty strong lungs. Docs did some routine reflex tests and told us she got an apgar score of 9/9 which is really good. I stood by to cut the cord. They quickly return Leyna to momma and Loralee falls in love with her baby girl. Later I watched her get measured, weighed, foot printed and helped with her sponge bath.
July 4, 3am…We spend this joyous 4th of July together as a family in the postpartum department, where we stay for the next few days. The feeding sessions every 2 hours and the diaper duty begins!
July 6...We return to home sweet home, and same night pick up Grandma at the airport whose staying with us for a whole month. Perfect timing! =D