finally-Madeline Pearl PIP and birth story

Short version: Born 1:33 am June 2nd. 8 pounds, 13 ounces. 20.5 inches, C-section (not our hope, but you do what you need to do to have a healthy baby!)

Longer version: Went into labor at 40w3d. We had hoped for a med-free birth. Began contractions 8-10 minutes apart at 4 am June 1. By 11 am, they were 2-4 minutes apart, and much more intense. Went to hospital. 3 cm dilated, and 75% effaced, was checked in. Had all kinds of drama with nurses trying to draw blood and give me antibiotics for GBS (I have the easiest veins ever, but this lady just blew it, big time), so a 20 minute monitoring session became 2.5 hours. During this time, contractions sort of spaced out again to 4-5 minutes... not much progress was made. 4 cm and 75% at next check. I wanted to walk around but after having 3 different people come try to get needles placed, and do that, now it was time for my next antibiotic dose. Laying in bed made the contractions that much worse, and after 13 hours of labor, I opted for the epidural. Which was not bad at all, really, and obviously eased the pain. 

Unfortunately, my progress continued to be very slow. We broke my waters, got to 5 cm dilated, added very very low doses of pitocin, as they added significantly to my contractions but also put baby in distress and were not progressing the labor. We began discussing options. My doctor was on call that day, so the good news was, I had someone I really trusted, and who really tries to help natural births and vaginal births happen, there to guide us. She felt that the fact that baby's head was super low, into the cervix, but was not progressing the dilation, was a sign that the baby may be having trouble with decent and that my cervix may not be appropriate for vaginal delivery, without significantly more pitocin, which of course, we couldn't do because it put baby in distress.

Anyway, we finally opted for a c-section, so we didn't have to make that choice when it became an emergency... I cried a little, but it ended up being fine, although apparently my "very strong abdominal muscles" caused it to be more difficult for the surgeons, and they think could have even impacted my vaginal birth attempt (eg, abs fighting uterus? who'd have thought?!) and we have a happy healthy 6 day old baby girl to show for it. Recovery has been much easier than I anticipated, so I am thankful for that. I love every minute with this baby girl, and breastfeeding, although sometimes painful, has been going well. 

So happy to have an outside baby, and hopefully can participate more. I know I have tons of questions and things I'm interested in now, even though I officially didn't have the baby til June.

Hope everyone is doing well!