Birth Story

When I say I’m a planner.... I really mean it. I love making lists and writing everything out. So naturally I planned my birth preferences and had a pretty clear vision of what I wanted in a birth. From the moment my water broke spontaneously Monday evening, I knew nothing would be as “planned”.

So here is my traumatic (triggering) birth story...

Monday evening at about 8:45 I was changing for bed and I felt a gush. I waddled to the bathroom and knew instantly that it was my water. My birth preference was to labor at home as long as possible going between the bath and my TENS machine. I think I scared Husband a bit since I laughed hysterically about my water breaking and my whole plan being thrown out the window. But I knew well enough to call the OB if my water broke and was told to start making my way in. I hadn’t had any real contractions yet.

We got to the hospital around around 10PM and confirmed that yes my water had broken and no I wasn’t having contractions yet. however, within being admitted to a room I did start having contractions and continued to have them through the night till I asked for IV meds so I could get a few hours of shut eye before getting the show on the road. The OB came around in the AM to tell me I hadn’t made any progression through the night with my contractions I was still only 2cm dilated and about 90% effaced. Since it has been about 12 hours since my water broke they wanted to induce me with Pitocin. AGAIN definitely not part of my birth preferences. I knew Pitocin was going to make my contractions more intense and I wasn‘t prepared for that so I also chose to get an epidural.

Getting my epidural was kind of intense. My IV wasn’t working so they needed to put another IV in while the anesthesiologist waiting to place the epidural. In all honesty she did great at the placement and I didn’t have a horror story of an epidural that I had heard so much about. I still had a lot of mobility in my legs so I was confident I could still push on hands and knees or using the birth bar.

The Pitocin is started and I go on laboring until about 9pm. During that time I was not checked, I was told I would be at 4 but then they said the night shift would do it. I had already started to feel pressure of pushing far beyond the 9pm check. And that check confirmed I was “ready to go”. I pushed for 2 full hours before the OB noted that D was sunny side up and just banging into my pelvic bone. They wanted to manually shift him so they upped my epidural and then I lost all feeling below the waist and couldn’t hold my own legs anymore. They turned him but every time i pushed he turned back and his vitals were dropping. The epidural meds hit again as they did every hour and I started to violently shake. I had a fever of 103. OB said it was time for a c section.... AGAIN not a part of my birth preferences. but I could barely keep my eyes open and most certainly could not push.

I went straight into the operating room, I wash shaking and freezing because of the fever. I couldn‘t keep my eyes open, my teeth were chattering, I was very afraid. When they pulled D out, I didn’t hear any crying, they held him up for me to see but I couldn’t and then he was gone. He was born just after midnight on Wednesday. They told Husband he was having trouble breathing and they were taking him to the other room to help. Husband had to make the call to go with D or stay with me. I’m thankful he went with D. They finally got my some meds for the fever and as it came down I was able to calm as they stitched me up.

Husband came back and showed me photos of D while they stitched and told me he is doing okay, that he is breathing and they are just concerned since I had an infection. When I was finally out of the surgery recovery area, Husband wheeled me to the NICU where D was hooked up to a CPAP at 3:30AM and I finally got to meet my son.

He stayed in the NICU for 26 hours before they finally brought him to my recovery room. Now he is doing well. He’s eating and pooping like a champ. He weighed in at 7 pounds 7 ounces and 19 inches long at birth and came 5 days early. We spent Thanksgiving together as one I will never forget being the scariest and happiest day of my life with so much to be thankful for.

We are now home getting the hang of the whole new parents thing and enjoying every moment of it.