Xeilani's Birth Story

Finding out that we were expecting our 2nd child was a huge shock for me. I knew I wanted another baby after having Xayden, but I didn’t have a time frame for when it would happen. I remember feeling off and since Xayden was only 8 months I had not yet had a period. I walked into work this day and was talking to one of my co-workers and as a joke I was like “maybe I should take a test and just see”. For whatever reason she had pregnancy tests on hand at work and she gave me 1. I went to the bathroom, took the test and shoved it in my office desk drawer. I worked in HR so my days were always busy- I totally forgot about the test until I opened my drawer to grab a sticky note during an interview. 

To my extreme surprise, I saw a (+). My jaw dropped and I literally lost all my thoughts in the middle of an interview I was conducting. Honestly, these next few minutes are a black hole and I just remember going back to my friends office and asking her for another test. I TOOK THREE TESTS AT WORK and they were all (+). On my way home, I remember sobbing and thinking “this literally cannot be happening”. Izzy was not home- he was gone for military duties and I was literally en route to pick up my 8 month old son. That evening, I sobbed as I held him because that was my baby and he wasn’t going to be my only baby anymore. I went to Target and grabbed 2 more tests just to make sure & a cute shirt for Xayden to wear so we could break the news to Izzy.

5 tests later and it was clear that I was pregnant. There was no denial! On July 9th, was my first ultrasound where we confirmed I was 8 weeks pregnant! Holy Crap! 2 months pregnant and I had NO IDEA! I waited to say anything and that weekend my little cousin came to visit since Izzy was gone. We were sitting down eating pizza and I remember after eating the pizza I really wanted Ice Cream with hot sauce (lol). So not thinking anything of it, I served myself a bowl of Ice Cream, with some Red Hot and my little cousin said “that’s gross. Liz, are you pregnant or something”? I looked at her and said “yes”. The moments after this were a blur, but I remember crying again and then that evening we facetimed Izzy. Xayden had on his little shirt saying that he was going to be a big brother and that is how we broke the news to Izzy that he was going to be a daddy again. 

My pregnancy with Xeilani was very different. I waited a long while to announce to anyone that I was expecting because I was just in denial. I think that is pretty normal when you have an unplanned pregnancy creep up on you. While pregnant -  Izzy landed a job in Columbus, OH so I quit my job, we sold our house and moved from Indiana to OH again. At this point, I became a stay at home mama, focused on my Masters degree, started the idea of a blog and enjoyed my last snuggles with Xayden as an only child. 

38 weeks into my pregnancy I was over it. I remember that week I walked so much and ate tons of pineapple. The night before going into labor, I took a hot shower, leaned against the wall and swayed my hips left and right for about 20 minutes. I had reached that point of “this shit sucks and I want her out”. That week I took a photo every night just in case it was THE night- I wanted to make sure I had my “last baby bump” photo. On February 13th at 3:15 am I was laying in bed when I felt a little trickle. I had already lost my mucus plug 3 weeks prior and was 2 cm dilated. I checked my underwear and it was a little moist, but nothing like when my water broke with Xayden. I changed my underwear and laid back down for about 30 minutes and I checked again. It was wet, but nothing crazy. This time there was a light tint of pink so I got a little nervous and thought maybe it was time. So I called the doctor and was told that if I thought my water was broken that I could come in, but I was not having any pain or contractions so I held off to see how the rest of the morning went. At about 5:45am I started to feel contractions and I was in pain and kept having small trickles of water come down. I woke Izzy up, called my aunt and told them that I thought it was time. I was sobbing, not only because the baby was coming, but I was TERRIFIED of labor. We grabbed our bags and Xayden and went to the hospital (our family was in Cleveland so we had no care for Xayden). We made it to the hospital by 6:30am and I was in a lot of pain at this point. Because I transferred midway through my pregnancy everything was jacked up and I had to get all types of tests done again that they could not find from my previous doctor. So they checked to make sure my water had broken and sure enough as soon as she checked- water just gushed out and I was 4cm dilated. I thought to myself YES! This will be a fast labor and delivery (Xayden was over 30+ hours with no medication so it was miserable). I really wanted to go unmedicated again so we shot for that. 

I was progressing great! By afternoon I was already at 9cm and we just needed that one extra cm before I could push….we were so close...until Lani turned herself and I could not dilate that extra cm. I was stuck at 9cm for EIGHT hours. Yall, I felt like I was going to die. I was begging, screaming, crying. It was miserable! We tried every position possible, they put my legs in all types of angles and because she was coming out sideways I was just not dilating properly. I was in labor for 20 hours before I started screaming for them to knock me out and cut her out. I did not want the epidural (I have a huge fear of needles), so I really just wanted them to put me to sleep and cut her out lol!! They gave me every excuse as to why that was not the best option and so I finally gave in to the epidural because I was in excruciating pain and her heart rate was dropping (so she had to get out).

I got the epidural and in about 15 minutes I felt like I was on a vacation sipping on a pina colada - it was heavenly. I practiced a couple pushes and they had to immediately call the doctor in because 2 pushes later Xeilani made her debut. Nearly 21 hours later and it was not until I got the epidural that I was able to relax and get to 10cm and to evict little miss thing. At 1:32 am on February 14th we got the best Valentine’s Day gift ever. All 7lbs and 15oz of her was perfection and she had the chunkiest little cheeks that basically took up her whole face. We were in love and our little family was complete. 

A few hours into labor, our entire family arrived and took over the waiting room. My aunts, mother in law and Izzy were present for Xeilani’s birth and I am not sure I would have made it without them. Between the ice chip feeding, the yelling during contractions, motivation, trying to keep me calm and holding my hand while I got the epidural they were blessings in disguise. While the thought of being a mama of two under two terrified me- Lani was the perfect addition. Her and Xayden are so close and love each other eternally. Mom life is not easy, trust me, but it is so so worth it. Xeilani is the sassiest, most beautiful little drama queen you will ever meet. We will definitely have our hands full with her in the future.