A Birth Story

I feel bad. I have neglected my blog so much, especially in February. Here is my birth story for my new baby girl!

I started feeling some contractions on Monday night (Valentines Day / My Due Date), nothing painful, just some annoying pressure. The next day, I kept feeling the contractions on and off all day long, but again nothing painful to indicate that I needed to go to the hospital. The next morning, Wednesday, I woke up and the contractions started to become painful. I had a regular doctor's appointment scheduled for 4:00PM, but I called in to see if they could get me in earlier, but the earliest was 3:00PM. Around 1:00PM-ish I decided that I really couldn't wait until my appointment and decided that we needed to head for the hospital. Now, with my first I hadn't really felt "real" contractions, my water broke, we went to the hospital and once I felt a tiny bit of pain I asked the nurse for pain meds, so this time around I wasn't sure how things were going to go. When we got there, the triage nurse hooked me up to the monitors and check my cervix. I was 3cm, which was promising. I had been 1cm for a couple weeks. The monitors would tell if I was in active labor, which to them means a change in the cervix due to contractions over a 1-2 hour time period. Well, unfortunately after the 2 hour mark my cervix didn't change at all. I was so worried that they were going to send me home, even though the monitors did say that I was having pretty good contractions. Since I was already two days overdue they decided to go ahead and keep me and start some Pitocin to help things move along. A nurse came in to start the IV, I was very relieved at this point because my baby would be here soon! Around 4:30PM a nurse that took me to my room and said that the doctor would be in around 5:00PM to break my water. The doctor came in closer to 5:30PM and broke my water, there was some meconium in the fluid, which meant that my little girl already had a bowel movement in utero. Some complications can arise from this and there were a couple extra nurses present in case she aspirated some of the meconium. Moving on, when my water was broken my cervix was about 4-5cm, so I was progressing. Shortly after my water was broken
I asked for my epidural. I am a wimp when it comes to pain and as much as I wish I could do the whole natural birth thing, I just can't handle it. I was in quiet a bit of pain when the anesthesiologist came in to place the catheter and start the medication. Once he was done and the meds were starting to work, all I could feel was pressure, but not a lot of pain. I felt a considerable amount of pressure, a lot more than I did with Big Sister. Around 7:00PM I told my nurse that it felt like I needed to urinate, however, after you get an epidural you aren't allowed to get out of bed because you are numb from the waste down. She said that at 7:30PM they would come in to empty my bladder, which I was fine with, however as time passed the intense feeling to go got intense. After my bladder was empty, the pressure seemed much more intense and I asked if they could check my cervix again. This time, the baby was right there ready to come. They called the doctors and the time to push was getting closer! Just before 8:00PM they were set up and ready for me to push and at 8:16PM on February 16th Little Sister was born. Unfortunately, I was not able to see her right away because she was blue as she was coming out, evidently she had some of her cord around her neck, which they didn't tell me until much later. They took her to straight to the warmer and suctioned her mouth and nose, gave her some oxygen and cleaned her up a bit. She let out a cry and I knew she was just fine. My baby girl was born weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. The kept her under the warmer for a while because she kept pooping, they had to change the table cover at least 4 times, so she was full I guess. I was very pleased at how everything went and so relieved that she was finally here. I fell in love with her when I heard that first cry and when I held her for the first time it felt like everything was perfect and just right.

The hospital stay was really nice and I had a couple of great nurses during our stay. I honestly can't complain at all about the care my daughter and I received. I was impressed with the hospital the first time with Big Sister and was equally impressed our second time with Little Sister! The nurses are very responsive and when you call them they are usually there within 5 minutes or less. They also make sure that you nurse at least every three hours whether the baby is in the nursery or in your room. The food is great, room services will call if you haven't ordered your meal, they serve three times a day and make sure the mamas get the nutrition they need, plus they have snack packs at the nurses station in case you get the munchies! The rooms are AWESOME! They are like hotel rooms, have a couch, rocker, lazy boy, table and chairs, flat screen tv, and bathroom. I loved the fact that when I you get admitted you stay in the same room the whole time, no changing rooms/beds... the baby is born in your room and you stay there until you are discharged. The security is great too, as soon as the baby is born it gets an ankle bracelet that matches the mother's. It has a device on it that plays a melody when the baby is brought to the mother, if it isn't the right mother it plays a negative sound tone and if the baby gets too close to the outside doors the whole hospital goes on lock down. No one can get into or out of the hospital. Which I thought was really cool and so did my husband...especially with Big Sister because his worst nightmare was either our baby getting switched at birth or the baby getting stolen at the hospital.

Well, that's it for now! Thanks for reading dear followers!
Kelsey