Yoooooo-k...

8:25 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
So it looks like I haven't even finished posting my birth story. Yikes. I also now have a seven-month-old that pulls herself up to stand. Seriously, I just want to push on the brakes as hard as I can and slow life down!!!

So, before I forget-- This will most likely be the abridged version of the story.
We went to the hospital and I went to triage before being admitted. It didn't take much time at all to be admitted since my water had broken, but from the time I arrived in triage to the time I was placed in my labor and delivery room my cervix had dilated 4 1/2 cm. . . which was pretty major progress in about 30 minutes. Then, a nurse came in and let me know that if I wanted an epidural, I needed to get it quickly because I may pass the point of no return, so, even though I initially thought I wanted to do it au naturel-- I chickened out. And boy, oh boy, was that epidural AMAZING! I could finally relax! It was the first time I felt good in over a week. I kept dilating pretty steadily, until I was 8 1/2 cm. I got stuck. We decided to wait it out a little and a monitor was placed on Hadleigh's head to keep better track of her heart rate.

I was still "stuck" when they decided on giving me pitocin, much to my dismay, but it didn't seem to do the job. The on call doctor was ready to give me a c-section, but luckily he had to do an emergency one so that gave me 45 more minutes to dilate to 10! By the time he came back in to check on me, it was about 10 minutes before my OB was in the hospital to do rounds. He told me I could hang on and wait for him. This was 7am...mind you, on call dr. said he would have already taken me to have a c-section. I was relieved when MY doctor showed up at the door, he is very calm and would never pressure anyone into anything that wasn't absolutely necessary. He said as long as her heart rate wasn't dropping and I wasn't developing a fever, I could keep her in and try to deliver vaginally. FINALLY, at about 10:40am I was ready to push. I pushed a few times, and I refused to take a break even though the nurse kept asking me if I wanted to "sit out a contraction" NO WAY- at that point, I wanted my baby OUT OF ME! At 11:03am my sweet little baby was welcomed into the world.

She looked perfect, but sounded like a goat when she breathed. I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was pretty scary. She ended up being admitted into the NICU for further care. That was hard, I don't think I was emotionally prepared for that. She didn't get a chance to breastfeed until she was almost 2 days old and she never got to stay in the room with me. Her breathing problem cleared up on its own and she had the "all clear" on Wednesday around noon, we were discharged together around 6pm. Talk about scary, but that is another post entirely.

Birth Story-- Part One

8:51 PM Posted In , , Edit This 1 Comment »
Let's see here, I wanted to document my birth story so just FYI-- this may not be for the faint of heart...I am SURE this contains WAY too much information for the general public!!!

It all started on Wednesday. . . .

Wednesday: September 16
I was having a pretty "normal" day at work until the end of my morning when I began feeling a little light-headed. I was also feeling about as swollen as ever so I called the hubs to see what he thought I should do. He thought I should go to my Ob's office incase I was light-headed because of elevated blood pressure. So, I called my Ob's office, got down there and they sent me to Triage because my OB doesn't work in his office on Wednesdays because that is when he has his surgeries...soooo, long story short-- I went to triage where we found out I was severely swollen, had low potassium in my blood, was 1 cm dilated, and was 80% effaced. My Ob decided to keep me over night for a 24 hour urinalysis and to watch my swelling. While in the hospital I was steadily having contractions about 5-7 minutes apart. I needed to have an ultrasound to see how big the baby was measuring and to see what my amniotic fluid was measuring. At about 35 1/2 weeks the baby was about 7lbs 11oz and my amniotic fluid was borderline too high. My Ob told me that we would not stop my labor if it happened naturally. Knowing that I had an appointment the following Tuesday he said to me that "I could have the baby on Tuesday if I wanted to..." but I knew this wasn't up to me!! After spending the night in the hospital, I was released to go home on bed rest.

Friday-Saturday: September 18-19
I still felt pretty miserable, having contractions all day and all night. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't enjoy eating, I was miserable. My sister kept assuring me that "I would *KNOW* when I was in true labor" and I kept thinking, this haaaaaaas to be some sort of labor! On Saturday night we went over to my sister's house to watch a football game and I continued to complain about my pain...we went home and went to bed.

Sunday: September 20
I woke up in the morning on Sunday in extreme pain, contracting about every 3 minutes. I went back to triage to be checked again and I was still only 1 cm dilated but now 100% effaced. The nurse was a total butthole and tried to give me medicine to stop my labor-- the exact medicine that my Ob said he didn't want me to have because he didn't want to stop my labor-- however, he wasn't the Ob on call so she said she had to take orders from the on call Dr. I refused the meds and continued to contract. Luckily for me (NOT my Ob!!!) my mom tracked down my Dr. @ church and asked him about the meds. He said I did the right thing refusing the drugs and to just try to wait it out. The nurse turned out to be nice in the long run and even told me to take a hot bath when I got home because it was probably the only way to ease my painful contractions. I was given the option to stay for the day in the hospital or go home and wait it out-- I chose going home and waiting it out. I think I ended up taking about three baths that day. Around 8:00pm I realized I couldn't pee-- I felt like I needed to pee, but I couldn't get anything to come out...soooo frustrating.

Monday: September 21
Around midnight I got out of bed to walk out some of my contractions. I had taken one tylenol pm to try to get some rest and I decided that I needed to take another one. I tried to pee again, to no avail, took another tylenol, and then tried to lay down in bed and get comfortable. I tossed and turned for about 5 minutes and then I felt something like gas bubbles in my belly...I thought I was going to have to pass gas until I felt the warm gush of water that now filled my bed-- my water had just broken.