A's Birth Story

It was appropriately Labor Day when I was scheduled to go in. The actual induction would take place the next day but my doctor wanted me in night before for monitoring and cervadril. So, at 7pm hubby and I took our final picture of just the two of us heading to the hospital. We checked in fairly easily and were sent to room 3. I took that as a good sign since 3 is my second favorite number and the induction day was for the third. They hooked me up and then around 8 or so gave me the cervadril. This is not supposed to start labor but just to soften the cervix as mine was not soft yet. Around 11 we tried to get some sleep as we knew the next day our lives would be changing forever!

I woke up and really had the urge to pee. It was around 3am and I called the nurse so she could take me off the monitors so I could go to the bathroom. I was almost there when I felt a gush. I thought I had an accident but found out later that my water broke! Around 5 or so (sadly the details are already fuzzy I should have written this sooner!) the contractions started. They were not bad at first and I felt I totally had this.

I was excited because I didn't need to have the pitocin anymore since I went into labor on my own! Around 6am I got to take a shower and after that I was basically hooked up to the monitor the rest of the time. Around 8 they started to get really intense. They were coming every minute and a half and lasting a minute meaning I only had 30 seconds down time. It was brutal. Going in I wanted to avoid an epidural but knew I might need it. I set a goal of getting to 7 centimeters. Well I finally had enough and called for epidural. The doctor was there to check me but decided to do it after epidural. I wanted him to check so I at least knew how much longer but oh well. I finally got the epidural a bit after 9 thank God as they were just getting worse and worse! Right after I got it I saw on the machine I was having really strong ones and was so happy I couldn't feel them anymore! The doctor finally checked me and lo and behold I was 7 centimeters! I made my goal. That made me feel like I hadn't failed.

Hubby and I then tried to get comfy as we waited. We listened to music, Disney station of course! And but tried to imagine and give one final guess on what was going to happen.

At around 11, they said I was ten centimeters and could push soon! 11:30 my doctor showed and pushing began! Now nurse had told me my doctor had a 12:30 c-section to get to but told my doctor I was a good pusher and it would be ok.

I pushed and pushed. The head showed pretty quickly but then it seemed stuck. They kept pushing me to push and push. A bit after noon my doctor suggested an episiotomy. I was not sure as I had heard to avoid those. My doctor asked again ensuring it would be a tiny cut just to help. I finally agreed. Once she cut I did one more push and out came baby!

The doctor and nurses said they would let hubby announce sex. When born baby was passed to me and they kept asking hubby so what do you see. He said nothing because baby was positioned the wrong way for him to see. The doctor misunderstood and said that's because there is nothing, it's a GIRL! I looked down at her and cried happy tears!

We wanted to do the golden hour where we get baby for an hour to bond and try to feed before any tests. Well I only had her for a few minutes and they took her.

I was to busy staring at my baby to realize what was happening ay first. They kept asking if I was ok and again just staring at my baby trying to ser her from across the room I was distracted. It wasn't until I heard, I need this from the OR that I realized things were not quite normal. Turns out the little cut that I wouldn't notice became a fourth degree tear! I also had started to hemorrhage. It also turns out that I was supposed to get pitocin to help placenta get out but they put med in wrong so instead of going to my IV it went to the bed... Super helpful! So that meant they basically pulled it out. Thank God I got the epidural! I overheard something about 70 stitches and felt like I was on Grey's Anatomy as they counted and double counted the lap pads saying we had 10 and you brought in this many from OR and counted again. Needless to say all their effort to fit me in before her c-section didn't work as they had to work on my for a long time to fix me.

Then they took A away because she wasn't breathing well so hubby went with her and suddenly I was alone. No fun! Hubby was with A and our families were waiting to find out as they hadn't heard any news. My bff arrived just as hubby and A were being wheeled to nursery and told our family. They were trying to mime to hubby asking what the baby was but he didn't say. Then the nurse came to say what happened to me and then said and isn't SHE beautiful! Whoops gave away the secret! Everyone was thrilled though!

Finally, I was wheeled to recovery and after 2 hours apart I got to really hold and cherish my beautiful daughter!