Lillian Jeanne

I'd like to introduce you to Lillian Jeanne Fries. She made her grand entrance into this loving family at 1:06 AM on Friday, May 13, 2011. She weighed in at a hefty 8lbs. 7oz. and 20.75 inches long. It was a long and eventful labor. She definitely took her time getting here. After being kicked out of the hospital twice (I still need to blog the second time), we decided to start pitocin and get the show on the road. On Wednesday, I woke up to 10 minute apart contractions that continued all day and increased in intensity and got closer together. I didn't sleep at all on Wednesday night. By 3:30AM on Thursday, I knew it was time to go. I couldn't handle the contractions on my own any longer. My Mom, Jon, and I headed to the hospital for the third time. The nurse checked me, no change. I had been continually contracting now for 22 hours, and I was still the same as I was a week ago when we checked came to the hospital the first time. I was so frustrated! We walked for a few hours, with still no change. The nurse told me "you're not in labor". I wanted to deck her. I WAS in labor, thank-you-very-much! I had been in labor for over 24 hours now. Not to mention the contractions that I had been having for the past week!

We decided at this point that we should start pitocin. Obviously my body was not going to do this naturally in any kind of timely fashion. Pitocin was started at 9:45AM, and my water was broken at 2:45PM. As soon as my water was broken, my contractions increased ten fold. They were so intense. I was no longer able to work through a contraction and be able to relax enough between contractions to allow my body to do the work it needed to do. I remembered this from Cecilia's labor. I was checked again around 3:45 and was only at about a 6. Clearly this was going to be a long one. I requested an epidural around 4PM. Just a few minutes after my request, I lost vision in the bottom left quadrant of my left eye. My midwife did a series of neurological exams. I had no other symptoms. She called the OB doc in who recommended we consult a neurologist. About 20 minutes had passed and I stood up to go to the bathroom and my vision returned. Never the less, the neurologist came and I told him what I had experienced. He determined that I had what is called a TIA (transient ischemic attack), basically a mini stroke. He ordered an immediate MRI and Ultra Sound of my carotid artery.

I was not allowed to have an epidural until after these tests were done, and I was writhing in pain from my contractions now. They were about 2 minutes apart and lasting about 1.25 minutes. This meant that I only had about 45 seconds to a minute between contractions. It was all I could do not to cry, because I knew that crying would only make it worse. I was given a dose of fentanyl and then I had to move from my labor bed to a gurney, then the gurney to the hard MRI table. If you've ever had an MRI, you know you have to lay on a hard board flat on your back with your head strapped in and you can't move. This was horrible while in hard labor! They were able to get the scans they needed in about 7 minutes, and one of the orderly's came into the room and held my hand through some of my contractions. Even with the drugs, it was something I will never forget. Then I had to have the ultrasound done. It was no fun!

We got back to the L&D room and all I wanted was that epidural, but I was informed that I had to wait until my results were back. My mom, Jon, Ma, the nurses, and my midwife were all so supportive. They helped me through that time period, which felt like forever. I was in so much pain, and I was so exhausted at this point. The results came back and looked normal. There was no evidence of any stroke, which is common with a TIA. The anesthesiologist came in and my epidural was placed around 7PM. Only the left side of my body was numb from the epidural. At 8PM the anesthesiologist was called back. I told him that he better make it work, or I was only paying him half. He fixed it :) Finally, I was able to rest and let my body work. Due to my earlier excitement, my midwife wanted my body to labor-down as much as possible so that the pushing phase would not be too long or difficult. I was not a fan of this idea, because I knew delivery was not going to be an issue. But, it wasn't up to me. By about 12:55AM I couldn't resist the urge to push. By the time the midwife got set up and "allowed" me to start pushing, it was just about 1:00AM. At 1:06AM a new baby girl was born! It was so incredible, and an amazing reward after such a long and adventurous labor. So worth it.

Best of all, I had so many people in there to witness her birth. All three of my brothers happened to make it for her birth (the waited in the hall). Nick was able to get his truck fixed in time to get to the hospital. Patrick happened to be flying through Denver from Portland on his way to Kansas for his wife's graduation and missed his connecting flight, so my Uncle Dan was able to pick him up and get him to the hospital in time. And Petey decided last minute to drive in from Sterling. It was amazing to have the entire family there for such a momentous occasion. I was so tickled! I was also able to share the birth with my Godmother, Aunt Jenny, and my grandparents, Ma & Pa.



Lillian Jeanne is named after Ma. There are many Jeanne's in the family, but this honor goes to the amazing woman that is my grandmother. She is the glue that holds this family together. I love her so much, and I am so blessed to have her in my life and in my children's lives.
The following morning Cecilia got to meet her little sister for the first time. She was very cute about it. She just kept saying "baby" over and over again. She gave her a kiss on he forehead. It was all very sweet. Cecilia was mostly interested in all of the fun things in the room though. Who could blame her, this was uncharted territory with lots of cords to pull on, stethoscopes to play with and drawers to open.

Our time at the hospital was very restful. We had a fair amount of visitors, but not an overwhelming amount. My parents took Cecilia with them to Petey's graduation and then she stayed with my Aunt and Uncle's family for the weekend and played with her cousins. We were so lucky to see family and friends in the hospital to introduce them to Lilly.

Lilly's Grandad was one of our first visitors, and he brought the most amazing bouquet of lilies! One of these flowers is easily 10 inches across. Everyone that came in the room commented on them.
We had a little scare on Saturday afternoon. I noticed that Lilly was really shaky and asked that her glucose level be checked. We were warned when she was born that the bigger babies sometimes have a hard time managing their blood sugar and are prone to low glucose levels. She was in fact low, so she had to have a little formula to supplement the colostrum from me. Jon was happy to be able to feed her a bottle.


Mom and baby got a clean bill of health on Sunday morning and we headed home. Cecilia met us there shortly after we arrived, and she is adjusting to being a big sister.