Reese's Birth Story | Part Two
Photos from my dear friend and doula, Riah Durick. Riah, you are a treasure beyond words and we will never be able to fully express our gratitude for having you on our team.
To read Reese's Birth Story - Part One, click here.
Tuesday, September 10th
6am - I was checked in the early hours of the morning and the foley bulb was not showing signs of giving (which would happen if it had successfully dilated me to 4cm), so they started a Pitocin drip to help my body get some progress.
7am - Shift change was happening and Hayden came in to give a final hug and to let me know which midwife was coming in next and what the plan was for the morning. Nathan had left to go grab a coffee, so I was alone in the room when she arrived and I’ll never ever forget when she hugged me and asked if she could pray for me before she left. Just the two of us in the room, she prayed such a tender and powerful prayer and I immediately started crying. God’s provision for our angel friend being the one to admit us to the hospital and walk through those beginning hours of uncertainty is a gift I will forever cherish. He is so so good.
9:30am - I was checked again, this time by our midwife JoAnne, and the foley bulb finally came out. I was barely 4cm, 50% effaced, -2 station, and was allowed to eat. My mom and sister came to the hospital around 10am, bringing all kinds of homemade food because Mom’s grilled cheese was what sounded good that morning. I had wanted to feel more “put together” and couldn’t lift my arms above my head from soreness from the accident, so Maddie graciously curled my hair, went with me for a short walk around the L+D floor, and just hung out with me while we ate and relaxed until Riah’s arrival.
11am - Riah arrived bringing iced teas and her beautiful calming presence. She began helping us to work on getting the baby down and engaged through different movements and positions that could be accomplished while hooked up to the IV line.
4:30pm - By 4:30 that afternoon I was checked again, only to discover that I had remained at 4 cm, was 80% effaced, -1 station. JoAnne decided to once again up the amount of Pitocin to see if that could help things along. At this point I was laying in the bed, listening to my labor and delivery worship playlist, trying to relax while Nathan and Riah rubbed my shoulders, back, and feet to help with pressure points. “I Get to Love You” by Ruelle came on and as Riah was sitting in front of me, she leaned over and said “I’m making my final guess on gender. I’m getting girl vibes right now.” I immediately started to cry, because just before she said that, as I listened to the words of that song playing, I had felt the Lord tell me that it was going to be a baby girl and I felt such strength and purpose in that. I looked her in the eyes, acknowledging that I felt that guess, too.
8pm - Around 8pm I was checked again and to our great discouragement, was still only 4-almost-5cm dilated, 80% effaced, -1 station. Very little progress had been made with the extra dosage of Pitocin and yet Baby was moving around happy as could be inside my belly. JoAnne came in to talk next steps and suggested artificially rupturing my membranes (breaking my water) to see if that would help my body kick into gear. She was so gentle with her delivery, knowing how disappointed I was. I had wanted to allow my water to rupture spontaneously and it felt like we were starting up a mountain of more and more interventions. I asked for some time to talk it over with Nathan and I’ll never forget how encouraging he was. He looked me in the eye, told me it was my body, and that he supported any decision I felt was right.
I ultimately agreed to go forward with that plan and as JoAnne sat on the foot of the bed with our nurse by her side to start, I quickly asked Nathan to pray before she broke my water. Fear was setting in because I knew that labor picked up pace and would become more intense once my waters were broken. Nathan prayed for peace and after we all said “Amen” our sweet nurse commented that she had goosebumps. At that moment, I knew the Lord was answering more than our prayer for peace. He was answering my prayer for others to feel His presence in the process of our birth. Quick and easy, JoAnne ruptured my water, more Pitocin was given through my IV and labor continued.
10pm - A little before 10pm I was not coping well with the intensity of the contractions and the struggle I was having to breathe through cracked ribs and the alternating shaking from the adrenaline of the accident and the shaking from the contractions. I was exhausted and the thought that kept going through my mind was being too tired to make it to delivery and needing to have an emergency C-section. I started talking with Nathan and Riah about receiving an epidural. I remember telling them “I’ve been strong enough. I can’t do it anymore. I want a break.”
At this point, JoAnne came in with the strength and resoluteness to remind me of my initial birth plan. She said “Your plan tells me that if you ask for an epidural, I’m supposed to push back hard. You’ve made it 26 hours so far and this is what I can do for you. We can disconnect you from the IV, discontinue the Pitocin for the time being and get you in the shower and tub. You will have to be continually monitored every so many minutes to check on baby, but we can give water a try.” Those words breathed new life into me and I was willing to keep going. I wanted so desperately to keep going without the epidural.
They filled up the labor tub and I alternated from the shower to the tub to the toilet and back again for the next few hours.
Wednesday, September 11th - Reese’s Birthday
1am - Around 1am, I felt like I was going through transition while in the labor tub. At UK, birthing in the tub is not an option, only laboring, so after a series of very strong contractions and the urges to push, I got out of the tub and onto the bed to be checked. When it was shared that I was only at 6-almost-7cm, 100% effaced, 0 station, I was crushed. Back to the shower I went for a while and then back to the bed, exhausted and trying to hang on.
3am - For the next two hours I was having trouble breathing again and feeling a lot more than pain from the contractions. The water had bought me 5 more hours than I had anticipated, but at this point I was emotionally and physically done. I looked at Nathan and said “I’m done. I know I’ve done my best, but I’m so so tired. I don’t want to be tough, I want to be awake when our baby is born.”
We decided to call in the anesthesiologist for an epidural. I’ll never forget when our nurse came back in and said that the anesthesiologist had just left for a C-section and that it may be another hour or so before they could start my epidural. The look on my face must have been panic-stricken, because JoAnne was out of the room so fast and two minutes later, she was coming back through the door, with the anesthesiologist close behind to get me my epidural before their next surgery. You all, that woman. I love her, I love her, I love her.
The wonderful thing about epidurals at UK was that it was self-administering, which allowed me to push a button to determine how much medicine was admitted at certain intervals. This allowed me to keep the dosage super low, like I wanted, and I was able to keep some feeling in my legs and toes. The epidural (and the control that I felt like I had in giving myself small amounts of the meds) helped me to relax and I was able to sleep for an hour, which is exactly what I needed to help my body to dilate from 6/7cm to the end.
4:30am - After an hour of sleep, I woke up to the realization that I was numb on my left side, but could feel everything in the right side. JoAnne and our sweet nurses helped me to lay on my right side, hoping the medicine would filter down that direction, but to no avail. I was checked again to find that I was now 9cm, 100% effaced, 0 station, but with an anterior lip in my cervix, which would make pushing and delivering baby’s head complicated. JoAnne recommended the highest dosage of Pitocin to soften and get it out of the way, to which I eagerly agreed. I was so ready to be done with labor and the half-working epidural. With this final dose of Pitocin, the pain and intensity of the contractions with the meds overwhelmed the level of epidural I had admitted myself and I felt frantic from the immediate onset of the pain. I told Nathan and Riah that I was not coping well and that I really needed their help.
5:30am - By this time I was begging for the anesthesiologist to come back to provide a higher dosage of medicine. I could feel everything on the right side of my body and honestly wished that I was either feeling everything on both sides or nothing at all. JoAnne said that it may take an hour before the anesthesiologist could give me more medicine OR she could check me and see if it was time to start pushing. I agreed to be checked and PRAISE the Lord, I was at 10cm and was told I could start pushing if I wanted to. I replied that I "needed to be done" and around 5:30am I started pushing. They asked if I wanted to do some practice pushes, to which I passed and wanted to just go for it. JoAnne smiled as she told me she was going to get her “birthday party outfit on” and she scrubbed up.
Pushing, thankfully, felt very instinctual and energizing. Productive. Efficient. And strangely like a “tuck” in Pure Barre, which I was very accustomed to. They asked if I wanted to have a mirror to watch, which I eagerly agreed to. Thankfully, because of the dulled epidural, I was able to feel the urge to push and do so without having to be told or counted down. At one point while pushing, just as baby’s head started to crown, JoAnne quickly told me to stop pushing because she could see a tear starting. She placed a warm compress and told me to take deep breaths rather than push. Again, so very grateful for her, I walked out of birth with a teeny tiny, 1-stitch tear that was described as “like a paper cut.”
6:03am - Just after 6am and 30 minutes of pushing, baby’s head was born. Once her head was birthed, JoAnne attempted to unwrap the cord from around her neck and she just slid out the rest of the way, no pushing required. It was a rush of water, a rush of emotions, a rush of tears. JoAnne instructed me to reach down and grab my baby and I pulled them onto my belly, still in utter shock and disbelief that it was all over. JoAnne tilted our baby towards Nathan and had to move the cord so that he could determine the gender. Nathan announced that it was a girl and I immediately started to sob. A girl. A baby girl. She had fooled everyone and she was perfect and healthy and here. Reese Madelyn Dilly was born at 6:03am, weighing 7lbs, 4oz, 19 ¾ inches long.
They dried her little mouth and eyes off while I brought her up to my chest. We waited a while to deliver the placenta and allow Nathan to cut the cord. JoAnne brought my placenta around so that I could see it and explained everything to me – I’m fascinated by birth and wanted to take part in all the things, so I was so grateful for the extra care in this step as well.
After an hour of skin-to-skin, Nathan went with Reese to get her weight and give her her first checks. Once he had her swaddled and carried her back into the room, I burst out in tears seeing the two of them together. My precious little family, our baby was finally here.
9am - After three hours of quiet resting and soaking up time together, we finally had our families come back to meet our little babe. Time felt so fuzzy after birth as I dozed in and out of sleep that I didn’t even realize our poor families had been sitting in the waiting room for HOURS after her birth, just waiting to come back. Whoops. However, everyone was so excited to be able to meet our baby and to find out the gender. As everyone began to file into our delivery room, my brother spontaneously FaceTimed my mom from Spain (where he was living at the time) and he was able to be a part of the announcement as we shared that Maddie had her little namesake and it was a GIRL! Again, the Lord’s precious provision to nudge my brother to call at just that moment to check in on my progress. It was such a gift that he got to be a part of that moment even from across the world.
Friday, September 13th - Finally Going Home
After a week in the hospital, we finally were able to pack up all our things + our snuggly baby and head home. It had been the wildest week of our lives, but in every single moment, the Lord had provided for us. In the many, many, many people he placed in our path to serve, help, care and pray for us. The many ways He revealed himself and His presence in our midst. The protection, health and safety we all experienced. And His gentleness with my heart and mind as I released control and expectations for a story I had hoped for to receive a story only He could have orchestrated.
Our Lord is so faithful and kind, and He cares about the details. That is the theme of Reese’s birth story and I pray the theme over her life as well.