Avery Elizabeth's story!

cubsfan1 · March 2009

I will try to keep this short....

So I had my first internal on Wednesday, 2/18, I was 38w6d and I was so disappointed to here the doc say I was only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced...The next morning I woke up for work and was walking to the bathroom and felt a trickle down my leg. I was not sure what it was, my bladder was full and it was a small trickle....so I went to the bathroom and then decided to sit on a grey t-shirt to see if I was still leaking. I was- about a dime size spot every couple of minutes. I called the dr. thinking he would just say it was normal and no big deal. Instead he said to go into L&D. So my DH came home and we went, I was sure that we would be discharged later that day...but they did the test and sure enough, I was leaking fluid! So they started pitocin at 11am on Thursday the 19th (one week before I was due)...It took me a very long time to get to 4cm and then I stayed there for 3-4 hours, the doc mentioned if I had not made progress in the next 2 hours we would have to talk c-section. 2hours later I was at a 7!!! Thank god!!!I got the epi and it was glorious, until it wore off around 8cm (oh my lord the pain!) so they boosted it and it was all good again. I was told that the baby was "sunnyside up" which is why the pain was so strong...they warned me that pushing out a sunnyside up baby could take hours, and sometimes they cannot be pushed out. C-section was mentioned again...So I opted for no more epi boosts so I could feel myself push. I pushed harder than I ever imagined I could..Turns out I only pushed for 30 minutes and she was here!!!! She was born on 2/20 at 2:32 am and weighed in at 8lbs 2oz and was 21 inches long!!!! Definitely worth every minute of the long labor!!!!

Unfortunately she was re-admitted the hospital the following Monday night with high billirubin levels and jaundice. After 36 hours under the lights she had dropped enough to go home. It was very hard going back to the hospital, and not being able to hold her unless I was feeding or changing her (she had to be under the lights at all times other than that)...but then she was home and her levels stayed down so we don't have to worry about that anymore! It was tough, but we got through it...and we didn't have to supplement either! woot!

Ok so much for keeping it short. Sorry!

All in all, great experience- the pain, the soreness, the exhaustion- all worth it. We are so in love and are savoring every moment with our little girl!

Good luck to all of you!