My Birthing Story
 |
| Our super blurry 1st family photo |
Before you scoff and say "Why would I ever want to read about what happened when you delivered your baby?", let me explain. When I was pregnant I was super nervous about the actual labor. Typical thought process of mine was: What is it going to feel like? Was I going to bleed to death? Death... is my child going to be okay??? OMG... my water breaking!!! Everyone told me about those awful contractions... TEARING!!!!
Yeah, so you can imagine how relieving it was for me to read other people's birthing stories. I got a sense of "I can do it" and "Everything will be fine" and for me that was priceless. So I'm sharing my birthing experience for those nervous mothers-to-be and for my sweet Camila to read one day.
WARNING: Super Long
September 23, 2015: I had an exam 2 days prior and I was 2cm dilated and baby is at -1 station. I was warned of minor bleeding after exam but it should go away. Nothing major... except that two days later the bleeding got heavier. I called my OB's office and they suggested I go to labor and delivery to get checked out. I went... another exam was done. I was put on monitors and apparently I was contracting a good bit and was told that the process has begun and I should have a baby any day now. Went home. I felt like Superwoman because I literally was not feeling any of these contractions people were scaring me about. The only thing that I began feeling was tailbone pain!
September 25, 2015: Still not feeling contractions and aside from the major discomfort I felt in my tailbone I was doing okay. I went to work and worked a short shift. I left early on account of the tail bone and swelling. I felt super, super drained. I laid in bed all evening through Sunday. The contractions started to be felt with noticeable pain but again nothing I thought was terrible.
September 28, 2015: This was my first scheduled day of maternity leave and I was so ready to have her. I wanted to meet her so badly and my tailbone needed relief. Alas, starting feeling more consistent contractions but not enough for me to think labor was beginning. We literally went to Chuck E Cheese that night with my sister's family and enjoyed the evening. As we went to bed that night, I thought to myself "I think I'm having this baby soon." I just felt different.
September 29th
3am: I wake up because contractions are starting to get consistent and sleep is impossible. I stayed up on my phone timing contractions. At about 4:30am a definite pattern begins to occur. I get up out of bed and use the restroom. I had a terrible bowel movement. It begins to hit me that I'm in labor. Again contractions are hitting me but the pain isn't crazy. I can walk, I'm not out of breath, no yelling and they are comparable to long menstrual cramps.
5am: Shane wakes up and I let him know that we will be meeting our baby girl today and he won't be going to work. He gets up and gets his things ready. I lay in bed continuing to time contractions with my phone because I'm crazy.
6am: At this point, the contractions are 5 minutes apart and it had been at least an hour. I called labor and delivery, get transferred and no answer. :( I wasn't in excruciating pain and I had some things to do like shower and make sure I was really all set for the hospital so I did that.
7am: I got through with all of my chores and tried the hospital again. I got through and they advised I go in. We pack the car up and do a once over to make sure we are all set. My contractions feel like menstrual cramps still. I'm in great spirits and so anxious. We ran into some traffic so we made it there in about 40 minutes.
8:15: I'm once again in an examination room and being monitored for 20 minutes. I'm 3cm dilated and baby is at -2 station. I am officially in labor. Still not in any major pain. I get wheeled off and begin the waiting game.
9a-1pm: I literally just waited around. Walked around for about 5 minutes and contracted away. My OB decided to manually break my water. It just feels like a gush of warm pee. lol At this point, my doctor alerted me that meconium was in my water so NICU staff would be on hand for delivery just in case she swallowed anything. I was dilated to about 6 cm at this point. Mind you I was also told that she could see baby's hairy head. I was super excited about this. Yet nervous because I was also constantly being told that the baby was going to be very big.
4pm: Well I dilated to about a 7.5 at this point but I wasn't progressing much. I was told that Pitocin would probably be administered if I wasn't dilating much more. The contractions were happening but it wasn't anything I couldn't bear. As soon as I was told that Pitocin would be administered I got nervous and decided to go for an epidural. It was super easy and NOT painful to get this done. My reaction wasn't too bad... just got the chills a good bit. My teeth were chattering at one point. Also, you have to watch positioning cause I did feel contractions with Pitocin on the right side of my body and they were coming hard and fast... but oddly enough not enough to make me yell in pain. In fact, I am kind of disappointed I took the epidural. I think I could've handled it.
5-730pm: Well guess who isn't dilating still? ME! I was at a hard 8 for 3 hours. The kept upping the Pitocin. I thought for sure that by the way my labor started I would've had the baby by 6pm but I was wrong.
about 8pm: Its close to show time. My doctor feels that even though I'm not at a 10 that we were close enough at 9cm to do this. She felt there was enough space and with baby possibly swallowing meconium we didn't want to wait much longer. So... of course pushing regularly didn't work for me. I had to push while playing tug of war with poor Richard, the med student. Finally, that wasn't enough. I pushed for about 35 minutes before they got the bar out. I played tug of war with that awesome bar and pushed her out!
8:31: Camila Ann was born. It was the happiest and most frightening moment of my life. I see her immediately being passed to the NICU nurse and I don't hear a cry. I don't hear a cry for MINUTES! A team of 4 nurses are all around her trying to get her lungs cleared because she had in fact swallowed meconium. Shane goes over to see what's going on... he is asked to move back. I am crying my eyes out cause the worry wart in me is already thinking the worst and she looked a tinge blue from what I could see. Finally all is well and they roll her over to see me for about 1 minute and take her down to the NICU. Takes me a moment to settle down. My heart was broken cause I wasn't able to carry her or really get a good look at her. Meanwhile that is all happening, I was being sewn up cause I had a 2 degree tear and I also managed to remember to ask to see the placenta. I'm a weirdo. My doctor was very kind and reassured me that Camila was okay and that it was all procedural for her to go to NICU and that she was fine. It was really what I needed to hear. I was a mess. Oh and let me mention another nurse walked by while she was being worked on and called her a big potato. Lol She was a nice sized girl at 20 inches and 8.2lbs.
11pm: The nurses are hoping that the epidural has worn off. I go to the restroom and take a few steps. Not feeling 100% ready to roll. I'm feeling tired and I'm anxious to go down to the NICU. They get me out of delivery and into my new room. I go in to mommy and baby room. I'm being examined and they set me up with a breast pump. I ask to get in touch with NICU. They were supposed to call my room but the genius who was in my room before turned the ringer off. So we waited like 45 minutes before we all realized what was happening. My nurse told me to rest for a while to see the baby but I'm a stubborn Latina and request to go down to see Camila as soon as I was done pumping and eating my snack.
1am: I finally see Camila. It was hard to see her hooked up to monitors and an IV but I fell so in love so hard. I couldn't hold her fast enough.
 |
| Angry Gnome |
Comments
Post a Comment