Renna Yovayla was born at 1:19 pm March 6th 2008
The midwife who attended the birth was Beth! She was very encouraging and really helpful! I really liked having her there (she also said "Renna is a beautiful baby, and I see a lot of new borns so that is saying something.") ;)
Lily was REALLY excited to see her little sister, though by the time this picture was taken we'd all taken naps and Lily was a little upset to wake up and not get Mommy (still). She wanted to wear her robe because I was wearing a robe and she also just wanted to sit by me a little bit (she still is sitting by me).
Deeply asleep and blowing bubbles.
She likes to have her hands by her face (right after she was born she scratched her eye lid a bit so it's a little red, but she held my finger before making it too bad. She has a good grip!)
Little foot!
The birth story...
I'd been having so much pre-labor that of course I had some last night. So I didn't get to sleep till midnight and then woke up at 2 am because I was starving. I ate something and then tried to go back to sleep, but the contractions (again) were keeping me awake. Then I felt a pretty good punch or something from Renna that popped the sack of water (at 3 am) and when I stood up it gushed. I thought to myself "Oh good. Finally." It was nice to know that she'd be coming and the pre-labor was over.
All the labor that I'd been having felt just the same as the real labor except that I hadn't gone through transition. My Mom came at 7:30 and about 15 minutes later I felt some contractions that were all piled up on each other and that's when I got to get into the bath (love the "aquadural"!) It slowed the contractions just right so that I could deal with them really easily. When Beth showed up she checked me at 9:30 and I was at 5 cm. She also did a lot of setting up and taking of blood pressure and so forth that kind of distracted me so that they weren't coming as hard, so she said that Youssef should time them and we should get them going a bit more. I sat up in the water and swayed a bit to help them get going and had about four that seemed to be working better. Then I had the gigantic contraction that I'd counted 5 peaks before laying down then after 7 peaks I sort of lost track. There must have been about a dozen and the whole thing lasted 6 minutes! Ok... no more sitting up. They were working hard enough.
This labor and birth was SO different from Lily's! With Lily I didn't get to be in the water for transition and had thoughts like "I'm not having any more than one child" and "why in the world to people have more than one after this?" etc. With Renna the transition was so much more bearable in the water! It was still hard work, but I never had those sort of thoughts. However, when it came time to push I had a cervical lip that I had to get past. It hurt SO much to be pushing against that and Beth had to hold it out of the way till I'd pushed past it (the contractions were also so long for the pushing time that I got at least 7 good pushes and for part of them I had to just breathe or groan through the contraction because I wasn't suppose to push.) I kept getting cramps in my legs and the worst cramp I'd ever had in my life I got in my foot of all places! It was because for one contraction I tried pushing on my hands and knees and my toes were bent (not much room in my tub) and the top of my foot cramped. Youssef rubbed it and it was better, but the lip was still killing me. Once I'd pushed her past it (with Beth's help) She came REALLY fast. Pushing was a breeze with Lily and even though Renna is 3 oz lighter than Lily was, pushing her was insanely harder. I made much more groaning/grunting/pushing noises with Renna and didn't need to when I pushed Lily. I was also reeeeally tired by then because of the week of pre-labor and also dialating from 5 to 8 in an hour and a half (the dialation from 7 to 8 was while she was checking me and when she said how good I was doing and how I'd soon hold her I almost started to cry. Partly from being so happy and partly from how intense that one contraction was while she checked me.) I started pushing at about 12:50 and she was born at 1:19 (fortunately didn't tear, even though she came so fast.) The cord was wrapped around her neck when she came out and was too tight for Beth to get it off, but after she was born she didn't have any trouble breathing and didn't cry a whole lot. She mostly tried to look around at the bright world and couldn't focus for a few minutes. She kept hurting herself with her sharp fingernails so I let her hold my finger and she gripped it really well and didn't want to let go! By then my Mom and Lily came in to see Renna. Lily was pretty excited and interested in her little sister. There are a few pictures on my mom's camera of when we were still in the water that I'd like to get from her that I'll have to scrapbook!
Renna nursed really well! On both sides more than once and also on both sides while I was laying on my side. I was leaking colostrum and thought that maybe my body was so prepared because of all the pre-labor. It was good that she waited till today to be born. Beth thought she might have had a little harder time if she'd come earlier and also I noticed that all week while I was contracting on and off Renna started out being mostly Posterier and by Wednesday she'd gotten good and being Antierier during contractions.
I'm holding her now while I type and she's finally starting to wake up. :)
10 comments:
Way to go Lynne! I can't wait to see and hold her. She does look beautiful and just like Lilly I think. How fun for her to have a new sister! ALl our love, Natalie
We're so excited for you! It was fun to read the birth story, I wouldn't have written one that soon afterwards so it's really cool that you felt up to doing that!
Yay! That's a great birth story. I had a cervical lip with Kyrie and it hurt so much to push!! You did great getting through that. We're so excited to meet sweet little Renna. She's beautiful!
I forgot to say that the day before she was born I made Youssef stay home because I thought that maybe him going to work and being gone for 12 hours out of the day was a mental block for me. I act like I don't miss him, but it's only because when I let myself miss him it hurts too much to deal with. Each time the real contractions were going and it got to be close to the time he'd have to wake up and leave they'd slow up and then turn into braxton hixs (apparently to stay busy inbetween the set of real ones each day.)
So anyway, I was saying... I just wanted a day for us to hang out without having to deal with tenent things or business stuff. I told him he couldn't use his phone or computer all day either. Just a day to pretty much do nothing except follow Lily and me in our day and be apart of it. I also got a nap in the morning while Youssef took Lily to the park, and in the afternoon I finished the last scrapbook page that I really wanted to do before Renna's birth. In the evening we walked to the Starbucks on Buckeye and Division (I think it's like three miles round trip.) Unfortunately I didn't get a good dinner and was contracting till 12:30 (I took a long shower hoping that they'd stop or turn into something.) Then woke up starving at 2 with contractions again that were keeping me awake. I think I wrote everything else. :)
Rachel, I didn't know you'd had a cervical lip with Kyrie! I also didn't know how terrible they are! I was trying to explain it to Youssef, at least the way it was for me. I thought those contractions were the most painful and with wishing to push and having it hurt more when I did and then sometimes hurt more when I didn't like I couldn't do anything and they'd never end and she'd never come. Those contractons were really long though too (I kept wondering why it was getting harder when I was suppose to be getting to the best part!) Of course, if I'd had as easy of a time pushing Renna as I did with Lily then the whole labor/delivery would have been just too easy to brag about. ;) Though even "easy" labors aren't really easy as they are such hard work, but it's good work with such a huge reward!
I love having a new born, they are so nice to hold and take care of. I've been listening to her sounds so that I can learn when she needs to burp or nurse. Youssef is relearning how to burp a baby ("Honey, you need to keep her head up higher than her bottom when you burp her." "Oh, yeah, I'm remembering this now.") I've only put her in her hamock bed a few times because I want her to learn to breathe really well and I'm still learning her sounds so when I'm not holding her it's harder to know what she needs, and of course when I hold her it regulates her breathing and so forth when she hears my heart beat and breathing. I can also tell if she wiggles a little bit that she needs to burp or when she licks her lips or mouths about, that she needs to eat. The U.S. is one of the only countries that finds it necessary to keep their newborns so far away from them. ... And people wonder why the U.S. has such high infant death rates and has the second highest maternal death rate in the world! Human babies are so completely helpless. We need to realize that we should act more like Kangaroos. Marsupials keep their babies with them all the time because their babies are helpless. If we were like other animals that could leave their babys, woman would have to deliver the size and knowledge of a one year old! ... I'd rather not. Plus, humans wouldn't be able to learn language and other things as well in the womb, so it makes so much sense that God made us the way he did. :)
I need to take a nap, so I should stop ranting about stuff. hee, hee.. My Mom is coming soon though to take Lily to the park so Youssef and I can get some rest. Although, Youssef seems to be pretty alert now, but it would still be good for him to rest as he and I were up a lot last night. I actually got more sleep then I have been getting with all the pre-labor and so forth, but I'm pretty tired from climbing Mt. Everest as they say.
Renna is a happy little girl. She hardly cries when I change her diaper and I wonder if it's because she knows my voice so well (because I talk to Lily all the time) that when I just talk to her it really calms her down. It's really nice when I have do something that she doesn't like, like change her diaper. Lily cried more than Renna does and Lily didn't cry that much either! I'm probably better at knowing what to do before their little world gets to that disaster point though. :) Ok.. this "comment" is getting a bit long. It's nice to be able to talk to friends right away though and still be in my own house and having (mostly) quiet and rest. Though soon I'll have to have people over, probably more often after Youssef has to go back to work. :):):)
This is what happens when my computer goes out for a few days!! We are so excited she is so so so pretty. You did a great job Lynne'.
I had a cervical lip with Isabella. I remember it hurt so bad and I kept telling the midwife it didn't hurt to push with Victoria. When she noticed I just stopped pushing with bella because of the pain she said she had to pull the lip back herself. I didn't really know what she was going to do until she did it and I almost hit her when she did. Of course I said I was sorry right away it was just instinct to try and hit her. It was VERY painful. You did a great job and you didn't try to hit the midwife. ;)
Lynne,
Congrats on the little one finally coming! The twins for me came too soon, but they are doing super now that they are home! They are almost 3 months now, can you believe it? It goes fast and I don't think I have to tell you to enjoy it because I can tell that you already do!
Love,
Heather
Fortunately for you and me, Taneisha (aka "ryan"), we at least knew that there was something wrong when we were pushing (since for both of us it happened on our second kid), but I keep remembering what Rachel had said about what the midwife assistant said to her and how long she was pushing on that lip. I think it would have been a lot harder on a first baby. I was pretty panicky because it just didn't feel right at all. The midwife kept saying how I was making really good pushing noises only she didn't know that I didn't make any noise with Lily and that I was making so much noise because I was freaking out.
So... did you actually hit the midwife or just come close? Beth had to hold the lip down for two or three contractions WHILE I was pushing so I could get her past it, but it felt better to do that than not to have her hold it out of the way.
Hey, you guys need to come over soon so you can hold her!
Yeah, just let us know when you are feeling up to it and we will hopefully beable to come. I REALLY want to meet her!! I have been so excited to meet her every since you guys named her. I think the name just made her more real to me. She is so pretty!
Taneisha
You could come tonight if you aren't busy! Lily would probably like to see her little friends and I'm going to take another nap soon so I'll be up for company. :) I'd really like to see you all!
Give us a call if you get this and would like to come!
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