Liam's Birth Story (The what-I-can-still-remember Version)

History: I'd had preterm labor since about 31 weeks, and continued with Non-Stress tests and monitoring for several weeks. We decided on steroid shots so Liam's lungs could develop should he decide to make his entrance too early, but after that he seemed content to wait.

December 27th at my Obgyn's office(38 weeks): Dr. Y was concerned with my health and with baby's heart deceleration over the last weeks. I don't remember everything that was discussed (mostly because I was so miserable, physically and emotionally), but the bottom line was he wanted to do an amniocentesis to check baby's lungs and induce the next day. I was upset and didn't like the thought of a needle in my stomach near my baby, but mostly, I didn't want to be induced, especially 2 weeks early.

Eric was with me (fortunately) and thought it was a good idea, but no one could convince me. I needed to have a NST (non-stress test) done for baby anyway, so that gave us time to think, and pray about it. The moment we were done praying, Liam's heart rate dipped enough to make all the monitor alarms beep at us, and even though that in itself was not threatening, we both felt it was a confirmation to our prayer; this was getting hard on both of us.

So after the amnio that showed his healthy, well developed lungs, Dr. told us to go to the hospital at 7 am the next day for induction. This wasn't how I wanted my labor to go, but I will tell you I was excited for my pregnancy to be over and to hold that little guy in my arms!

December 28th at Hospital, 7 am: My mom brought me, while Eric stayed to get the kids all ready and off to his mom's house before heading to the hospital. We all knew this would be an all day event. And why not? It took nearly 9 months leading up to it!

After a billion medical, and non-medical questions (I wish I'd wrote them down. They ask the most random, silly questions in Labor & Delivery!), IV in and Pitocin going, we hurried up and waited...many, many hours.

***Side note: Since I am either a terrible mom, or terribly busy (I suspect some of both), I've neglected to write down my poor 6th baby's birth story and due to 3 months of little to no sleep (Sleeping in the same room with a newborn + a husband with severe OSA(Obstructive Sleep Apnea, translation: He snores like a two freight trains carrying a full load of jack hammers and fog horns crashing into each other. Over and over again)= Sleep deprived Mommy!)

So...I've forgotten the gory details. But who cares what centimeter I was at what hour or how much each contraction hurt until I had my wonderful Epidural? Do you *really*??? I didn't think so :) Oh and I just spent 45 minutes trying to track down not only the time he was born, but his actual birth stats. I swore I'd never be one of *those* mother's who couldn't remember "important" things like that, or even forget which baby/child did what and get them mixed up with each other. Here's a tip: Mothers, never say NEVER! Especially young mothers with just 1 or 2 tiny kids(Hey, I am a "young" mother...I'm 27, but since I have 6 kids, I feel like an "old" mom a lot!). Life happens and you have to change your expectations or go crazy trying to maintain them!!! And a crazy Mama doesn't do anyone any good ;) ***

One cool thing was that my Epi was wearing off, but I couldn't feel the pain. I could feel every contraction and fought every urge to push until my dr got there (His NP was there, and kept wanting to deliver, but since both she and my nurse said the baby was perfectly fine waiting, I wanted to wait too...my OB has delivered all 5 of my other children, and I figured he needed to be there for the grand finale!). He finally gets there, and low and behold, my contractions stop. Completely! I'm at 10, but my "urge" to push was gone too! We cranked up the pit, still weren't getting anywhere, but baby was still fine and dandy. Eventually, we got the little booger out and I felt everything, but the pain. (I barely felt anything with my other 4 deliveries...In fact, they had to tell me when to push because I couldn't feel the contractions) It was such a cool thing! I'm so glad I got to experience that finally!

7:52 pm(13 hours after entering the hospital): Liam Daniel came out perfect and sweet. At 7lbs 4 oz and 21 inches, he was much smaller than my 3 oldest boys (8lbs 10, 9lbs 5 and 9lbs 10), but a pound heavier than the twins (6lbs 2 and 6lbs 3). I wonder how big he would have gotten had he had another week to grow (He was 38 weeks. 3 oldest boys born at 39 weeks, twins at 37). I finally got an "average size" baby. He did "bruise my tailbone" with his head pushing on it for so long, so sitting was none too fun for several weeks.

Liam means Handsome or Determined Protector. It's Gaelic (as is my name, so I thought that was cool ;). It's also a variant of William, his daddy's dad's middle name. Daniel is his daddy's middle name and it means God is my Judge in Hebrew.

He was so good, he tricked me into thinking this 6 kids thing wouldn't be as hard as I'd sobbed about. Weeeeeeell...he's been good, and he still is (at 3 months now), but it's having 5 others, including the twins (2yrs) and Ethan (4yrs) at home all day with him that have proved challenging. Oh yeah, and the fact that I was basically non-productive for 9 months thanks to "extreme" morning sickness, kidney stones, all kinds of other "strange" ailments along with the normal docket of pregnancy misery. Not to mention quite a bit of trouble and several ER visits for me after he was born. So trying to fight my house back into some sort of submission has been a daunting task to say the *very very very* least.

But life goes on, and life is good. Life with Liam is good.