12-2-08
Well, it's been almost 8 months since my sweet baby was born. I guess I've been thinking about the day she was born and thought I would share.
I should start out by saying that I had a very normal pregnancy with no complications at all. I gained about 35lbs total, which I thought was pretty good considering I'm only 5'.
My labor started at 2am on Dec. 2. I was due November 30, so I was glad to finally have something happening. I labored at home till about 8am and left for the hospital when the contractions were about 4 minutes apart. The hospital was about 45 minutes away so we wanted to make sure we didn't wait too long. When we arrived and they got us all settled in they checked and I was dilated to 5 cm. By noon I was dilated to about 7cm and at that point decided to get the epidural. At that point I was reaching my pain limit. I knew if I had waited any longer that I would be pushing it. The epi was incredible! I did experience some itching and tightness in my throat once they administered it, but it wore off and everything was ok. DH and I just chilled in the room watching Cash Cab and I continued to dilate. At 8 cm they broke my water and there was merconium in the fluid. My doc thought that I would be at 10 cm in no time, but I stayed at 8cm for almost 2 hours. So, to get things going, they started me on pitocin. By this time it was early evening. They had thought I would have had the baby by the afternoon cause I was progressing so well. The pitocin helped get me to 10cm and the pushing started. It went ok for the first 30 min or so then the doc came and checked me and found that the baby's had wasn't facing toward the back like she should have been. I was having a hard time moving her down, and the contractions were getting much worse. The epi at this point wasn't working properly and I could feel every painful contraction. I finally decided that we would have to do a c-sec. I knew that my body couldn't handle any more. They took about 30 min to prep and then they sent me on down. The spinal block was even more incredible than the epi. I felt nothing. They got the c-sec started and then we heard her cry! The most amazing thing I ever heard!! Tears started flowing immediately. They brought her over for me to see and she had the most incredible black hair, and it was thick. DH went with her to the nursery and they continued to work on me. I lay there for awhile and I remember thinking that it seemed to be taking a long time to close me up. Apparently, my uterus was not contracting back down and I was bleeding so bad. They tried everything they could to stop the bleeding and get my uterus to contract. The only way to stop the bleeding was to remove my uterus. So, I ended up having a hysterectomy that same night. DD was born at 9:23pm and it was almost midnight before I got to hold her after everything was over. It was quite the surprising delivery, but I had an excellent doctor who did the best she could. DH was the one who told them to do what they had to do. I can't imagine what he went through that night, but I can say I am so glad to see my little girl grow so much each and every day.
That's my birth story. I never expected it to be what it is.
Re: 12-2-08
Thank you for sharing. It must have been scary when your uterus wouldn't stop bleeding. Glad you're okay though.