Birth Stories

Daniel is here! Induction & emergency c-section - long

Hi all, I don't post much (usually just reply to other people's posts), but I thought I'd share my story. 

Baby Daniel James was born on Wednesday, December 1 at 6:58 am.  He weighed in at 7 pounds, 1 1/4 ounces and 20 inches long.

On the Saturday before his arrival, I had noticed that he wasn't as active as usual.  He was making his kick counts, but his movements during the day seemed smaller and lighter to me. (I realize decreased movement is normal near the end, but this change seemed drastic to me.) I paid careful attention to this on Sunday as well, and it was the same way.  Both of those evenings, however, he was his usual wiggly self... big movements, lots of kicks, punches and rolling around.  

Monday morning I hardly felt him move at all. I already had an appointment that day, so I told the doctor about it as soon as I got there.  He listened to the baby's heartbeat and said it was good, then ordered a nonstress test.  Of course the baby decided to go wild then. lol  My dr said he was moving around so much they couldn't get a good baseline heart rate.  He then sent me downstairs for an ultrasound - the biophysical profile (The BPP measures your baby's heart rate, muscle tone, movement, breathing, and the amount of amniotic fluid).  Baby scored a 6 out of 8.  My ob said that a 6 can indicate something is wrong, but not necessarily.  He decided to have me repeat the BPP the next day (Tuesday).  The baby was still active for hours after I went home, but I still felt like something wasn't right.  During the next BPP, the only movement on the screen was the baby's heart.  The u/s tech tried several times to get him to move, but he wouldn't budge.  He scored a 2 out of 8 that time, so my ob sent me straight to L & D to be induced.  

Around 5:30 pm, I was admitted and given the first of 3 pills to begin the induction (sorry, I can't remember what it was called).  I started having contractions, which got stronger and more painful with each dose.  After the third dose the contractions were right on top of each other, and I was feeling (and fighting) the urge to push at the end of each one.  I was only 4 cm.  The worst part was that during these contractions, my baby's heart rate was dropping into the 50s.  They put a mask on me and made me lay on my side.  I was so scared, but then also relieved to realize my ob was sitting behind me watching the monitor.  It wasn't long before he said we were going in for the c-section. 

Not long after that, my little Daniel James made his appearance, and within seconds, I heard his first cry.  In spite of the rocky start, he's a perfectly healthy little boy.

As much as I'd like to know what had caused all the difficulty (at one point I had heard the words "cord around the neck" but he was crying within seconds of this - it could've been responsible for the heart rate drop tho), I'm just so very grateful for him and all the people who helped him get here safely. 

Re: Daniel is here! Induction & emergency c-section - long

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