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Chris and Julie Lloyd's Page
Profile Information
- Due date/birthday:
- April 25, 2007
- Birth location:
- Cedars Cini
- Birth story:
- So after a month of ½ day Braxton Hicks…do you think I realized I was in labor on the day…nope!!
Of course at 5 days late I hoped this time it was going to be the day but also just expected the “Hick’s” to go away as they had before…
Contractions were irregular and 5-10 apart for the morning and getting stronger as hiked the Hollywood Hills with Chris and the dogs. You’d think as I showered and relaxed and they were still there that I may have thought..hmmmm this may be it.
We then went for my stress test at the doctors which clearly showed regular contractions at 6 mins apart…I was 3cm dilated. The doc recommended Chris not go back to work although she was only placing money on my having the baby before the following Monday. This of course immediately made me dismiss the possibility of today being the day from my mind.
Chris and I took the opportunity to go for a leisurely lunch, laughing that I was still feeling some cramps. I had a couple of errands still to run…..of course I had to get the perfect paper to draw the perfect giraffe for my lil boys nursery wall. …..essential to be done right then (the rest of the list had already been exhausted so I was really scraping the barrel to think of more tasks!!) By the time I got home it was 4pm already and I decided it may be time to start timing….so as we repacked the hospital bag and tidied the house to a …ok this is perfect to bring our newborn home to standard we discovered we were at 3 mins apart and after 1 ½ hours the pain was definitely intensifying…..but I hadn’t had time to make my cake! So determined to have a bit of chill time at home on the balcony I decided a cup of tea and a carrot bun cake would have to suffice instead until we really need to go….pretty soon I was complaining of being hot and then cold…Chris was getting quite nervous, the bags were in the car and on hour 3 we were leaving for the hospital.
We entered the car park at 7.37pm and walked into Cedars to be greeted by our Doula Carol …boy were we glad to see her! We were whisked into triage straight away where we were kept for far too long..1 1/2hours. My blood pressure was very high and they were concerned. They measured me at 3cm again, which I hard a hard time believing as the contractions were much stronger but I remembered Ana’s words and knew that the numbers meant nothing I just knew I was progressing. Luckily the doctor took one look at me and after proclaiming he was going home for dinner and would be back in a couple of hours, decided to measure me again himself – I was 5cm dilated and was given the green light to be re-united with our Doula and taken to the delivery room. We ran the bath, put pictures of Chris and I as children around the room and settled in for what we thought would be a long journey. The contractions were really strong by now and I was very thankful of my slack jaw and deep breathing to ride them in and out. The bathroom floor was my friend as I started to feel waves of nausea….that cold tile felt so good…..9 out of 10 women annot be wrong! I guess I was well in the zone at that point, I could barely talk and couldn’t verbally express what I thought I needed.
I wanted to move about and try different positions to find one that felt better and tried the yoga ball on the floor for a minute…then took the yoga ball on to the bed as I knelt down and hugged it swaying. It mustn’t have been more than 5 minutes before the pain made me want to move so out with the ball and on all fours I went, I must’ve instinctively known which way to turn to get him in the right position my waters broke straight away followed by me finally throwing up and getting rid of the nausea I’d been feeling for an hour. Carol asked Chris to call the nurse now, I was feeling enough pressure to know the baby was ready..or very close. The room was suddenly full of people and Chris who was as stunned as me by the speed of things asked the doc if the baby was coming now. I was 9 ½ and the doc confirmed I was ready…Chris asked the doc if he had time to pee…he did….just! Six contractions a little oxygen and not even an IV line Ryan Thomas Lloyd was born. He latched on immediately and had the biggest brightest eyes …I’ll never forget that first hour with him. Chris took him to the nursery for a quick supervised bath before being brought back to our room. Meanwhile I was being stitched up – only minor cosmetic tears thankfully.
Thank you to Ana and Jennifer for the education and advise which helped immeasurably. I kept remembering Jen’s words that you knew the pain was peaking and it was as bad as it was going to get and that you were only moments away from it ebbing away again. I remember thinking that I didn’t know how women went through that level of pain for 16 hours, I questioned myself but Jen’s words stayed true and Chris & Carol helped me to stay calmly focused on the breathing which I know was the key to feeling at peace with the experience. Afterwards we laughed as we realized I’d done it again - In true Julie fashion I was running errands and making calls up until a couple of hours before and Chris was most amused that I’d kept the birth on a tight schedule and that we would still be able to make our 11 o’clock dinner reservations (he was joking…I think!!).
11 days in, Ryan is doing very well as are Chris and I. No problems feeding (is it normal for newborns to binge feed for 2 hours at the midnight hour?! ) We are loving getting to know our little boy and have barely left the house for 2 weeks. I am pleased to announce this is the first time my laptop has been opened in over 2 weeks……….and you know what, it feels great!
Sorry I rambled on – it’s all just so exciting.
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