My Birth Story

It all started on Sunday June 13th. I wasn't feeling very well at all that day. I was super restless. I wanted to pack my bag (just in case at my doctor's appointment the next day I was admitted lol) I wanted to wash bottles, and clean my whole house in general but, restless as I was, I was too tired to do anything. So I kinda just laid around all day feeling crappy. Dinner time came around and I just didn't feel like cooking or eating so Hubby went and made himself some dinner and I went to take a bath. I took my bath and shaved my legs and just hung out until my water got cold and I got out and started drying off. I start from top to bottom and as I was drying my legs I noticed I had some water on the inside of my thighs. I couldn't remember if I had dried off there already or not (hello pregnancy brain) and wiped them off just thinking the water was sittin in the area where my thigh touches my body. I went downstairs and forced myself to eat and went to bed hoping I'd feel better in the morning.

I woke up the next morning and felt better. I got in the shower, finished getting ready, and went to have a bit of breakfast. I was on the phone with my mother and I had a contraction (which was not unusual for me at all; I'd been having them since month 6) and felt my tummy and I thought to myself, wow, I can really feel her in there and I looked down and I could see her in my belly better than I usually can with a contraction. I didn't think much of it cuz I was getting closer (I was 36 weeks on the dot that day) and I just figured it was normal.

I had my AFI (ultrasound to monitor my fluid levels) before my NST (to monitor the baby) and I had jokingly told my hubby the night before that if my levels were low they'd induce me. Well little did I know, the joke would be on me. In the middle of it the tech asked if I ever had a problem with my fluid levels and I said no, this was my first AFI and all other ultrasounds had shown no problem. She asked if I'd been leaking and I said no but I mention what had happened the night before after my bath. She told me to mention it to my doctor and they sent me upstairs for my NST with the report from the AFI in my hand. Walking upstairs I thought to myself oh boy, I'm not ready for her to come yet. What if this is it? I told John what she said and I told him if anything I might be slightly dehydrated and they'll give me an IV or something.

I get upstairs and they weigh me and I hand off my report to the nurse. She looks and it and has me go into the room right away and takes my blood pressure and I tell her about what had happened the night before. She walked out of the room and next thing I know my husband is walking in and I thought it was a bit weird but I just figured they were doing my checkup first before my NST. Next thing I know the doctor walks in and goes so your water broke? I was like, uh, I don't think so. She looked at my AFI report and says well it appears it has, I'm admitting and inducing you. You're having a baby today! You could probably hear our jaws hit the floor. I was totally shocked! A million emotions were running through me as I'm trying to text my mother and he's furiously texting his.

His mother answered back first saying no no no when he told her I was being induced today. Everyone had wanted to be there for the birth and she was a month early. My mother wasn't responding so I texted my brother asking where she was and he said she was sleeping and I told him to tell her I was being admitted and induced. He responded with are you serious? I was like, yeah lol. Next thing I know my mom is calling and I told her today was the day. In the midst of everything they are trying to check me for dilation (I was at 0) and check to see if indeed my water had broken. She had me push and said she saw some fluid leaking and we were on our way up to Labor and Delivery.

Once up there I had nothing to do but wait. I got my gown on and sat there waiting while John went to fill out all my admission paperwork. Finally they came in and hooked me up to the monitor and IV'd me up and after about 4 hours, they started me on Cytotec. Almost immediately I started having frequent and strong contractions. They came in a while later and checked my cervix and...nothing. Not even a fingertip dilated. They started my on Pitocin that night and I had some pretty good contractions after that. The baby's heartbeat at this point was slowing quite a bit so they upped my IV and gave me oxygen and made me switch positions. Amazingly I ended up falling asleep that night.

I woke up the Tuesday morning feeling tired and nothing else. NO CONTRACTIONS. Not one. I was still on the Pitocin but apparently it wasn't doing anything. Neither was the Cytotec. They took me off the Pitocin, gave me another pill (and the real breakfast I pretty much demanded lol) and waited. By my last cervix check I was still just barely a fingertip and the baby's heartbeat was slowing more frequently and it was getting harder to get her heartbeat back to normal. I had to keep switching positions cuz lying on my left side made her heart slow the most, lying on my back killed my tailbone, and lying on my right side made her go up into my ribs. I was very uncomfortable at this point and would have much rather had my contractions back.

Around 3pm her heart rate had dropped to about 60 and it wasn't really coming back up so they brought the doctor in to decide what to do. Well, she came in and decided I needed an urgent C-Section. I panicked. I had this huge fear of dying while giving birth and surgery just made that possibility higher. After signing paperwork through tears and horrific shaking, they wheeled me into the OR and did my spinal. That SOB poked me about 5-7 times just to get the spinal to work. (May I add here that it is utterly disgusting to feel a catheter in your spinal column) They lay me down to get started and I can still feel and I am freaking out. The guy didn't believe me so he pokes me with a sharp stick and I'm like uh, yeah thanks, I can still feel that. He asked if I felt pressure and I said no, it feels like you just stabbed me with a sharp stick! Well, it finally kicked in and I waited for them to begin and for my husband to come in. (Little did I know they had already started before he walked in).

And then, at 4:04pm (after much pushing and pulling on their part to get her out of my ribs) I heard the most amazing thing ever. Our baby girl crying! They showed her to me over the curtain and all I could say was she's so pretty and bawled my eyes out. Then they announced her birth weight and I couldn't believe it. 4 pounds 14 ounces. So tiny! I knew she was gonna be smaller but I didn't expect that small! She was small but perfectly healthy. Her blood sugar was even fine (which leads me to believe I didn't have gestational diabetes after all).

They stitched me up and wheeled me into their "nursery" (I say "nursery" cuz it's a room with one heating lamp table in it and nothing else. They didn't have an actual nursery which worked out nice cuz she stayed in our room the whole time). I got to spend a short amount of time with her before I needed to go into recovery. Well, due to my sever nervousness before the surgery and everything they give you for the C-Section, I was feeling pretty sick. No sooner than I tell the guy who did my spinal that I'm gonna puke, I do. All over myself. I go upstairs and they changed me which ended up being pointless cuz I puked on myself again. I continued to puke for another 15 minutes before they gave me something to stop it. But it didn't work. So after puking some more, they gave me another "anti-nausea" med which ultimately knocked me out.

Finally at 8pm (4 hours after she was born) I was wheeled downstairs and got to meet my beautiful little girl! She was soooo perfect and tiny. Our little dream come true. Daddy had already gotten to feed her at this point but I was glad they could develop that bond. Especially since he will be deploying soon.

It was a crazy couple of days waiting to have her and I was disappointed I didn't get the thrill of hearing how dilated I was or the experience of pushing, but I am just glad that she came out fine despite everything else. I just hope the drama of her being born isn't s precursor to what's in store for us when she gets older!

***(Sorry for any typos or grammatical errors. I was tired and it took forever to type this lol)

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