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Dolly Llama's Birth Story



Greetings, boys and girls!

As you may have guessed from the blog post title, we had a baby. A year ago. And I'm just getting around to posting her birth story.

Based on my previous experiences of giving birth I was expecting Dolly to come early but it's always a guessing game. I went into my doctor's appointment on January 22nd (37 weeks along) and he told me that I was 1 centimeter dilated and 60-70% effaced. Not only that, but baby was super low. I was thrilled! I was so sure we were going to have the baby that week, so I moved up all of my plans or cancelled them. It was baby time. And then, day after day, it wasn't baby time. What the heck, baby?

I was glad she was being polite about not coming on Lil Spits' birthday, but I found myself coming into the next week and thinking "she's never going to come out!" I was so frustrated and done with being pregnant.
So done that a stranger came up to me at the children's museum and told me that she could tell that I was "so done" by the look on my face and that I also looked ready to pop. Personally, I thought it was hilarious--she was calling it like it was. It also made me realize I need to maaaaybe work on my resting face.

I went to my daughters' well check appointments and after being at the doctor's office for 3 hours they came in and talked to me about how I seemed overwhelmed and that I should be monitored for postpartum depression. I started bawling. Of course I'm overwhelmed! I'm taking care of two rambunctious girls, I'm extremely pregnant and uncomfortable, and I'm a week past when I thought I was going to have this stinkin' baby! Not to mention this appointment is going on for-flipping-ever!

Well, one of the nurses was nice and said "I bet you're having this baby in a week." BLESS HER. She was right!

I woke up at 6 am on January 30th with pelvic pressure and on-and-off contractions. At the time Spouse Unit was commuting 40 minutes to work, leaving me without a car, so I told him to sit tight while I called my doctor. He told me to come in to the office so he could check my progress. While waiting for the office to open, we called one of my besties who was designated to watch the girls for us and told her to be on standby. We got our house ready and made sure our bags were packed. Because my other two births had been so nerve-wracking, I had prayed for Heavenly Father to give me a heads' up for this birth. In the midst of all our preparations that morning, I had a peaceful confirmation that we were going to have our little girl that day. It brought me to tears, knowing that God really does hear our prayers and cares about us.

We said "see ya" to our kiddos and headed for the OB's. He checked me around 10 and said that she was pretty high (did you know that babies do pretty much whatever they want? Including retreating back into your uterus!?) but that there was bloody show and that I was 3 cm dilated.

Boom. Knew it.

I checked into L&D round 11 with no pain. I felt like I was on vacation! No kids, no pain, no baby yet. Just kicking back a quiet room with my husband and all the juice and ice chips I wanted. Part of me felt like "what if she actually isn't coming? This is too easy. I'm a fraud!"

Thankfully, I actually was in labor. They checked me at noon and I had dilated another centimeter. They broke my water an hour later and I was dilated to a 5! I was making great progress, and still little to no pain.

I told Spouse Unit and my fantastic nurse that I wanted to see how long I could go without getting an epidural to test my endurance (it was starting to get a little more painful at this point). Basically they both said that that was a weird game to play and that I didn't have to prove my toughness to anyone because they already knew I was. So I got the epidural. They had Spouse leave the room during (new policy, plus he was starving) and I got nervous but my nurse just held me and made me feel like everything was going to be okay. She really was the best nurse. And spoiler alert: That was the most painful part of my whole labor and delivery experience.

Around 5:15 PM they checked me and said I was dilated to a 10! I pushed exactly 1.5 times and at 5:27 PM Dolly Llama was outta there, with her cord tied in a perfect knot. She weighed in at 7 lbs 10 oz, my biggest baby to date!

Her entrance into this world was peaceful and calm and I remember feeling so much love for this tiny little baby with a dimple in just one cheek. Up until the time she was born we had had a hard time committing on the middle name for our little girl, but after the ease of the birthing experience we decided the middle name we had chosen was perfect, the meaning being "God's gift of light to me." She truly does feel like a gift to our family, and definitely worth waiting a little extra time for.

Many people tell me that they don't know how I do it all with 3 kids. I have two answers: 1. I don't do it all. There are moms that are way better at parenting their kids and do more and have more kids. God bless them.
And 2. children are absolutely worth the sacrifice. Each one of my children has been such a blessing to our family that we couldn't have done without. My daughters and my husband are my greatest adventures, even on the days when I want to donate them to the circus (they'd fit right in, I promise).
 It's hard, but so worth it.







 Bonus photos: Being super pregnant and how I felt about it ft. my weird haircut


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