Leo's birth story is unique as his older sibling's birth stories. His goes back a week before he was born.
At my 37 week appointment, I had a sonogram to check on his kidneys. My doctor was about to go on maternity leave and I would be seeing a new doctor starting next week. During the sonogram they noticed that he was breeched. I was told that either I could have a procedure where doctors manually try to move the baby in the correct position or I could have a c-section at 39 weeks. Neither of these sounded like fun options. I went home and tried different home remedies to get this baby to turn. After a few days, I called my doctor to say that we would go ahead with the manual procedure to get baby to turn so that I could have my best chances with a vaginal birth.
I had a few days before the procedure and gave all of my worries and fears to God because the process scared me. I was scheduled to go to the hospital on Monday and I would be in the Labor and Delivery Wing in case something went wrong and they needed to conduct an emergency c-section. After signing paper after paper and hooking me up to several machines, the doctor came in and checked the baby on the sonogram. And sure enough, this baby had turned on his own!! What a relief. We were sent home and I kept my 38 week appointment that was scheduled on Wednesday.
At my 38 week appointment, I was dilated at a 1. I wasn't in any pain and we scheduled my 39 week appointment for Friday, July 14 with another new doctor as this new doctor would be on vacation the next week.
That night, I woke up around 2am with contractions. I started to time them for the next few hours and became concerned. They weren't very close together at first, but then started to become 5-7 minutes apart. About 5am, they tapered off. They became less intense and were about 20 minutes apart. I just thought they were Braxton Hicks and went about my day.
Thursday night, same thing. I started having contractions for a few hours that were intense and 5-7 minutes apart, but once again they tapered off after 5 hours. I was in a lot of pain and told Chris that we needed to go to the hospital to make sure I wasn't in labor. I got checked in at the hospital and I could already tell that my contractions were about 10 minutes apart and not as intense. I was pretty tired from lack of sleep and annoying pain. The nurses said that I was only dilated at a 3 and wasn't in active labor. And because I was only 38 weeks (I would be 39 weeks the very next day) they couldn't electively induce me. I walked around the hospital for about an hour, stopping every few minutes to breathe through contractions. I went back up to the Labor and Delivery Wing where they checked me again and told me to go home and rest. I felt so defeated and exhausted. I went home to research my contractions that would start and then stop, (DON"T GOOGLE YOUR SYMPTOMS..when will I learn???) and found that someone went through this for weeks before giving birth. I couldn't go through that pain for another week.
I went home to try to rest. I would fall asleep for about ten minutes and then be jolted awake by my contractions that would last about a minute. They were getting more intense, but not any closer than ten minutes. I would start singing my favorite Marian hymn "Hail Mary, Gentle Woman" in my head to get me through the pain. Around 8pm, Chris brought me dinner, but I couldn't eat much because the contractions were making me so sick to my stomach. About 10:30, we decided to try to sleep. By this point, when I had a contraction I would have to grab Chris' hand to breathe through it. During one of these contractions I felt my dinner coming up. I ran to the bathroom and everything came up (sorry TMI). I then felt like my water broke. I told Chris to get dressed because we were going back to the hospital. We alerted our family and headed to the hospital.
Because it was so late, we had to go to the emergency room and then walk over to the Labor and Delivery Wing. They asked if I wanted a wheelchair, but I couldn't sit down at this point. Everything hurt and I just wanted some relief.
The nurses checked me in and I was at a 4, which meant I was staying!! They also checked that my water wasn't broken, but it was leaking. They asked if I wanted an epidural and I couldn't say yes quick enough. I had thought that I would go natural, like I did with Andie, but at almost 48 hours of agonizing pain I was DONE.
I met the on-call doctor, who reminded me of my former doctor. He was very soft spoken and to the point. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural, after missing once and making my back bleed for a bit. Once that epidural kicked in I was a different person. Almost all of the pain disappeared and I just felt so happy that we were about to have a baby that we'd been waiting to meet. I could no longer feel contractions so they had to tell me when I was having contractions. The baby was still a bit high so I wouldn't be pushing for a bit. My sister came in to visit and hung out with us for a bit.
At about 4:20am, they checked me and I was at a 9. They told me that I would be pushing soon and all I could think was that they better tell me when because I couldn't feel a thing. They asked if I wanted my sister in the room too and I said if she wanted to. My sister came in just in time before pushing.
I felt so happy and elated during delivery, mainly because I wasn't in any pain, and that we were finally going to meet this baby boy or girl. I pushed through 2 1/2 sets and our baby was here. The doctor said, "It's a BOY!" We were so excited!!
They put him right away on my chest. He was just perfect. He was so tiny and cute. I couldn't believe that after all that pain that he was finally here, our little Leo.
This delivery was so special. To have my sister and husband both in the room made this experience much more comforting. My parents patiently waiting in the waiting room wondering if they would get a grandson or granddaughter meant so much. We immediately called Chris' family in the UK and Spain to deliver the good news. Everyone was eager to hear what Baby G #3 was.
Leo Richard Gilburt
July 8, 2017
4:40 am
6lbs 13oz
19.5 in
