After being MIA for 2 weeks, I'M BACK! (If you ladies will have me)

babyglo350

Long story short, I have birth to my baby boy on June 19th at 40 weeks and 4 days. After 26 hours of labor, a failed epidural, not dilating past 8.5 cm, and cervical thickening I ultimately had to have a c/s. The whole process was extremely emotional and traumatic for me. This is in part why I had a hard time coming back to the board even though I love it. I am just now able to talk about the experience without breaking down. On top the difficult delivery, my son would not latch on to my breast AT ALL. This made me feel like a total failure. With my husbands support I got over it and I'm currently pumping and bottle feeding him breast milk. My hormones are finally settling down and I am ready to once again be part of this awesome community. I am so glad to see so many beautiful babies on the board and I look forward to swapping mommy tricks with all of you.

And with that, I would like to introduce Darren W.

Taymiller

Congrats and welcome back!

LaurelJoy91

I had a similar experience- ended up with an emergency c-section due to baby's decelerating heart rate after 15 hours of labor. They had to rush to do it so fast that they didn't even have time to numb me and instead had to put me completely under, husband wasn't allowed in the OR or anything because of it, and I didn't get to meet my baby until I woke up an hour and a half later. I can definitely sympathize with you about it being an emotional and traumatizing event, but sharing experiences on the forum has been the main thing to help me heal. As for latching on, my LO won't either, but the hospital gave me a nipple shield to use and she can latch to it no problem. The pediatrician gave me the okay to keep using it as long as she's getting the nutrition she needs. Have you tried nursing with one yet? It might be worth a shot. Anyway, welcome back and congratulations!

jshrop

Congrats on the cutie and welcome back!

Rei2metse

So sorry to hear about the traumatic labor, but what a cutie! You're doing better than you think - sharing your story and being so transparent is not an easy task esp when it's still so recent. It's still hard for me to talk about my labor (emergency c/s as well after 10 hrs of active labor) and am just thankful the end result was the birth of my beautiful son. Congrats!

temursgirl

Congrats on the adorable little guy! Sorry your experience was traumatic. Lots of ladies here had things go in ways they wouldn't have chosen and hopefully you will find some support here that will help.

purtz

He is perfect! I had an unexpected c section with my first and a planned c section with my second; that is just the way our babies were meant to come into the world!

k2k2tog

Welcome back! He's a beautiful baby. I'm sorry you had a traumatic experience - there are things about my birth experience that I'm still trying to process and am not ready to share with anyone but DH yet, so I understand your need to take some time. Glad to see you back!

babyglo350

Thank you all so much. It feels great to be back! These hormones are driving me crazy and it's nice to have a place to openly vent about them with people who really understand the feelings and thoughts I'm having.

lest12

Congrats on your beautiful baby!

I had an eerily similar birth experience - 24 hours of labor, a failed epi, laboring down the last hour because baby wasn't coming down, etc., all ending up in a c-section. It was pretty tough to go through and had been really hard for me to process as well. You're not alone. I cried about it, a LOT, especially once I got home.

Not to make it about me! I wanted to let you know you're not alone and that if you need to talk, I'm here I'm glad you've shared your story, tough as it may have been to do so, I hope it helps to let it out.

Congrats again!

Cherylwang

Congrats! I hope you will be able to get the baby to nurse.

Lindsleigh77

Congratulations! Glad to hear you are feeling a little better sorry things were so scary and traumatic. Best of luck

Mia081081

Welcome back!

Carriebear22

Glad to hear things are looking up for you. Congrats on the beautiful baby

babyglo350

I actually forgot that nipple shields even existed! Lol. We had our visit with the ped yesterday and Darren is thankfully right on track. The doc said that the moment I find pumping to be unbearable that I should stop and switch to formula. He said he knows he should say breast is best but that formula has come a long way and I should be proud of everything that I have done. It felt good to hear that.

@lest12 that's almost exactly what I went through! That's crazy! God forgive me but in my darkest hour I felt like it wasn't worth it.

Wow, this is seriously therapeutic. Thank you all so much.

Abenedict2011

Congrats! He is beautiful.

babygabe614

Welcome back! I had an unplanned c/s too and it is still hard for me to talk about some of it. I hope sharing in our experiences will help us both to heal! Hugs.