Millie Taylor's Birth Story

When we found out we  were expecting our second girl, we were overjoyed.  What a blessing!  The kids were so excited at having a second sister! 

My pregnancy wasn’t uncomplicated.  We were faced with the prospect of a c-section more than once, and our faith in God’s plan, regardless of the outcome, was something that pulled us through!  We were very relieved when my previa resolved itself.  We were relieved, once again, when she flipped from a frank breech, to head down!  We truly felt the prayers of family and friends throughout our entire pregnancy!

At 35 weeks, my blood pressure began to go up.  There were no other complications, but as it continued to creep up, my doctor decided that she wasn’t comfortable with me going past my due date of April 10^th. 

At 37 weeks, I was finally considered fullterm! I would head to my weekly appointments, hoping there had been some sort of progress made that allow my induction to go smoothly.  Every week, there would be no change, but I refused to get too discouraged.  She was following the rest of her siblings…not wanting to arrive before her time!

My induction was scheduled at my 38 week appointment.  Unless she decided to arrive earlier, she would be born on April 9^th!  I was very excited to have an end in sight.  My 39 week appointment showed some progress, and I was finally measuring 3cm and 60% effaced!  It was a relief to know that my body was moving in the right direction!

That last weekend before my induction was hard!  It was filled with choir practice, church services, Easter egg hunts, some last minute cleaning….and not much rest!  John could see the toll on my body and I was able to get some much needed rest after the Easter service on Sunday.  He was a bit nervous that I would go into labor, and he would have to deliver a baby at home….more than once he asked me if he thought we should go to the hospital.  I wasn’t having any contractions, and I was feeling a lot of movement from the baby, so I always said no.  I could deal with the nausea and tiredness…and I had my end in sight!

I woke up at 5am, Monday morning.  We were expected at the hospital at 6:30am, and I wanted to have some quiet time and didn’t want to be rushed. Our good friend, Amy, arrived at 6am to watch the kids for us.  It was such a blessing to know that our children were in good hands!

We arrived on time and brought to our room.  We settled in and then the waiting began. The nurse’s shift change was at 7am, so it wasn’t until the new shift settled in that we met our nurse, Chenoa.  She was very nice and made us feel very comfortable.  She had read of our history and knew this was our 7^th baby…and we told her there were only a few things that we didn’t want to happen.  First, I did not want to be close to transition and have that frantic feeling that no one was in the room with us. John did not want to deliver a baby…and I didn’t want him to either! Second, I did not want to have to wait for the doctor to arrive.  I wanted the staff to be prepared and know that once the intensity of my labor heightens, it won’t be long, and they are to have called my doctor before I reach full dilation.  She was very assuring and put us at ease.

Ha…more on that later!

Around 7:45am, the iv was placed and I was hooked up to some fluids. My doctor came in around 8am, checked me and broke my water.  I hadn’t made any change since my appointment the week before.  I was still sitting at 3cm.

The Pitocin began dripping around 8:20am.

The contractions began very mild.  They were immediately regular, but way too manageable.  I labored sitting in bed, figuring that maybe by sitting, gravity would help things along.

My nurse would come in every half hour or so and see how I was doing.  She would ask me my pain level, and I was not at the point of having to even concentrate through the contractions.  On a scale of 1-10, I would say, maybe a 2 or a 3. 

At 10am, she decided to check me to see if I had made any progress.  She said that I was still 3-4cm.  I really think that at this point, she began to wonder if this labor wouldn’t be as fast as we had warned her about.

For the next hour, things continued about the same.  I could tell that the contractions were getting a little stronger.  John would check the monitor, and I was in a very good pattern, but still missing the intensity that we knew was necessary!

Around 11:30, I asked to be checked again, and I was measuring about 4-5cm.  Since the contractions were still very manageable, I began to think that maybe I would have a long labor without the intensity I was used to.  I thought back to my previous labors. I had never labored sitting the way I was sitting.  I had always laid on my side.  It was at that time, I decided to change my position and proceeded to lay on my left side.

I felt an immediate change in the contractions.  I felt a little more pressure, so I knew that I had made the right decision!  I could tell the baby was moving down into a better position.

Around noon, things really began to intensify.  The nurse was having a hard time registering the baby’s heart rate and my contractions weren’t showing up on the monitor either.  She had to depend on me for how the labor was going!

 

The first time John heard me give a low groan during a contraction, I heard an excited ‘YES!’.  He knew that once that begins, it won’t be too much longer!

Around 12:30, I knew the contractions were doing more than they had all morning, so I asked the nurse to check me.  I was now at 6cm, and the baby had moved much lower.  At this point, John told the nurse that she had better call the doctor.  Her response was…we’ll just wait and see.  She had been warned early on that once I hit a certain point in labor, that my babies come quickly. But I think she was thinking that because the morning had been so slow, that this labor would be different.

It wasn’t.

Right after I was told I was at 6cm, I had 5-6 back to back contractions within 10 minutes.  Earlier that morning, I had told John that when my labor gets really intense, I would ask for prayers and encouragement.  When I asked him to pray for me, he did.  When I asked him for encouragement, he said “Baby, you’ve done this before!  You can do it again!  Just think, within the next hour, she’ll be here!”  To which I responded, “DON’T SAY THAT TO ME!!”  In my mind, there was no way I could continue breathing through these contractions for another HOUR!!

 I urgently told John to get a nurse because I needed to push.  We were once again in the situation of being completely dilated and were the only ones in the room.  John did not want to deliver the baby by himself!

He jumped up, screamed HELP!, ran across the room and yelled into the hall….”We need a nurse!  She needs to push!”

Then the scurrying began.  My room was filled with nurses prepping things for delivery.  This is when they finally called my doctor!

I rolled onto my back and said….I need to push NOW!

That is when the nazi nurse got right in my face and firmly told me to BLOW IT OUT!  To which I sternly replied….BUT I NEED TO PUSH NOW!  She then proceeded to blow in my face with such force and annoyance, John was surprised I didn’t slap her.

The nurses told me that Dr Yang was 3 minutes away and that they wanted me to wait.  Again, in a situation that we did not want to be in!

The moment Dr Yang arrived, one of the nurses asked her if she was going to put her scrubs on….her response was ‘no, just gloves!’

I immediately started pushing and within one and a half pushes, out came Millie!  John wasn’t able to get the bottom of the bed fast enough to see her crown!  She was out before he knew it!

One of my concerns with delivery had been about the placenta.  With my last birth, my dr had to manually extract it, since the cord began to unattach and it wouldn’t deliver. Thankfully, due to the red raspberry leaf supplements I had been taking since 32 weeks, it was not even an issue!

Millie came out screaming and was immediately laid on my chest.  She was beautiful!  She weighed in at 7lbs14oz and 20 inches long.  She received an 8/9 on her APGAR scores!

After giving her a quick once over, they handed her back to me for some skin to skin contact, and I was able to nurse her for about an hour! 

I have been blessed to have extremely easy recoveries after having babies.  Once again, I did not tear or need any medications afterwards. After she received her bath, I was able to get up and take a shower and get dressed into some comfy pajamas.

We named Millie after my great-grandmother Amilda.  Her middle name, Taylor, is after the Chinese missionary Hudson Taylor. 

Our family is complete….and we are so thrilled to have been able to end it with a pink caboose!

Millie was able to meet her brothers and sister on her birthday and they remain completely smitten with their baby sister!!

Since coming home, they just want to keep coming over to her to just stare at her because she is so beautiful.  The boys are having a hard time playing, because they can’t stop thinking about her!  I have been abundantly blessed and am so incredibly grateful to God for my family!