Lucy’s Birth Story

Lucy’s birth was extremely special. I can’t help but cry when I think of the vivid raw memories I have of it. With my first son, Jetson I gave birth to him without the epidural but I did use some pain medications while in labor. The medications wore off by the time it came to push but my brain was still a little foggy while having him. 

With Lucy I didn’t not use any medication at all, this allowed me to be very present and I was in awe at how perfect my labor went! I had nurses sent straight from heaven. Everything was perfect. 

I’ll start the story by saying, at 41 weeks I was completely done being pregnant, I could not fathom the thought of another week. My doctor felt it would be a good idea to induce me at 41 because of my history of big and late  babies —-she felt there was no reason to wait until I was 42 weeks. 

So with lots of prayer and anxiety I made the decision to be induced. They had to reschedule my induction date twice which was frustrating but I had faith it was going to work the way it was supposed to. 

My birth center is all about natural birth, so I knew going into the induction, that the process would be rather slow. The last thing the birth center wanted to use was Pitocin. I was only dilated to 1cm when I got to the hospital. 

The doctor on call was really nice, she had me get comfortable and she placed a little pill near my cervix called Cervadil. This pill is supposed to help ripen the cervix over the course of about 8 hours. 

After this I just relaxed. Because the medication was placed, they had to monitor the baby and I to ensure we didn’t have any adverse reactions. So the plan was to just relax, order dinner and spend the night in the hospital. It was like a mini vacation before the baby was born, had food brought to me in bed, I was chilling. The Cervadil caused some smaller contractions through the night but mostly,  I just slept like normal, the only issue was the monitors were hard to sleep with. 

In the morning I got to have breakfast and the doctor came to see how the Cervadil did, it helped to completely efface me, but I was not dilated. The doctor assured me this is typically what happens and not to worry but I couldn’t help but be disappointed . She assured me the Cervadil did it’s job and that it was time for the next step. 

She said the next step is a pill that they will give me in two different doses. The first dose was tiny-and they cut it in half. I was worried it would get stuck in my braces, it was so small, a crumb.  

This crumb sure had power. Almost instantaneously I started to get some pretty good contractions but nothing crazy, I still ate lunch. After lunch the second dose came and this time it was a full pill. This pill again really got them going and within  a couple hours I was in hard active labor . My nurses were happy because it looked like my body was progressing without Pitocin.  

At this point I was excited about the stronger pill and stronger contractions but still felt like everything was going to take forever! 

Suddenly the pain got pretty intense and I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself— I got restless. I sat on the birth-ball for about an hour. This is when my amazing nurse came in and got mad at me because I hadn’t been drinking enough-she said the babies heart rate had been up and down and it was because I was getting dehydrated, she told me to drink up. I started drinking as much as I could but it wasn’t changing much. She decided to give me an IV of fluids to get my body back in shape that did just the trick. She stayed in the room with me for what seemed like an hour, helping me breathe and moan through my transitional contractions. She could tell I was close at this point but I did not know how close I actually was. 

She left for a few minutes and I was breathing through my contractions. My mom, Dustin, aunt Connie and Kelly were just talking with me as I filtered through contractions. I would be in excruciating moaning pain one minute and then the next I was talking to them or joking . 

At one point I had just finished a pretty painful contraction, and Dustin yawned loudly right after. His yawn sounded pretty similar to my birth moans/groans and everyone laughed because it seemed like he was mocking me even though it was completely unintentional. 

I even had the sense of humor to laugh as well. While I was laughing I felt a big gush -I was super confused at first but then realized that must have been my water breaking! Dustin broke my water. 

We called the nurse in. They all rushed in to check me, I was dilated at about a 6 or a 7. This news frustrated me because I was in some crazy mind boggling pain. 

The midwife assured me that since this is my second baby this would most likely go pretty fast. 

This is when things got extremely intense, my legs were uncontrollably shaking with the contractions, body sweating and I was just not having it. 

The midwife had me go on all fours for a little while and that helped a ton- my water broke at 4:30 PM , I was in this painful state for about 2 hours. This really didn’t feel like two hours though because in between contraction you feel practically dead  so time goes by faster. Either way it still felt like it was taking way too long! My mom and aunt were rubbing my head and back in between contractions which helped a ton to relax me. The midwife suggested I labor a bit sitting on the toilet, the walk to the toilet was brutal as a contraction came on, Dustin was there and he held me and applied counter pressure, being held by him really helped ease my heart because at this point I was freaking out! 

That short walk to the toilet and back really seemed to seal the deal. I felt I needed to push- the midwife said she’d allow me to without checking if I was ready. She assumed it would be obvious at this point if I was or not. I was going nuts at this point shaking, convulsing, squeezing the nurses arm, I knew she was coming and that I HAD to push. Before I began to push Lucy’s heart rate got lost on the monitor so they had to attach one to her head. This scared me a lot and so I felt an even bigger urgency to push, I thought something was wrong with her. Primal crazy mommy instincts kicked in and I was going to do whatever I could to get her out and know she’s okay. In reality, I shouldn’t have worried this much because nothing was wrong, but I was not totally in my right mind lol. 

The midwife told me to start pushing and that my baby had black hair! I was happy to know she was finally coming out! 

So I gave one big push and boom her head was out-and then one more big push and wallah the shoulders and the rest of the body were all out. TWO PUSHES.  The midwife allowed my mom to catch Lucy and put her on my chest. It was super cool. 

They placed her on my chest and I just wanted to know if she was okay. The nurse said of course she’s okay! 

I got to just relax at this point after delivering the placenta and after birth. I did tear once and so I had to get stitches. I was kind of amped up/in shock at how fast she came out. My awesome nurse realized I was a bit tense with the stitches. She asked me if I wanted a little cocktail just to feel relaxed since I seemed a little in shock . She was like “you just pushed that baby out with nothing, you deserve to relax a bit while you get stitched.” She gave me a small dose of fetinol and I got a little goofy. Some people might wonder what the point was since I had just done a natural labor— but that little bit of medicine for the stitches helped me so much! The biggest issue was that my legs wouldn’t stop shaking after pushing her out (body was in shock) and the fetinol helped bring my body out of the fight or flight mode and my midwife was able to do my stitches. I could feel the numbing shots they gave me before stitching me up but the actual stitches were not very painful.  I remember joking to Kelly during the stitches about how you could feel the string coming in and out and trying to gross her out. 

During this time baby girl latched and breastfed for a good half hour! This was super cool because it took quite a while (like about a week)  to get jetson to latch properly. 

I couldn’t have done it without the support I got from my family and husband in the room with me. They were cheering me on and I feel I got a true taste of what heaven is like, everyone cheering you on. My nurses really were literal angels. 

Lucy’s birth was super perfect! And was overall less painful this time around- because I was in hard labor for a much shorter period of time. She was also much smaller than jetson and that helped for sure! 

Lucy Valentine Batistich came at 6:55 PM on February 10, 2020.

She weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces at birth. 

Funny enough just like with Jetson I got exactly what I wanted out of her birth. I feel really fortunate that both my births so far have been so smooth. 

I had told my mom I hoped to have Lucy around dinner time so after I had her I could eat a nice yummy dinner ahah! 

And that’s what happened . With jetson I told everyone I wanted to have him around 12:30 PM and he came 12:36. I am so thankful for Heavenly Father, that he has trusted Dustin and I with another one of his precious spirits. We love you Lucy babe!