Carys Rae's Birth Story! Long! PIP

OurJellybean

 

The short story: 

Carys Rae was born 6 days early on December 6th, 2011 at 5:58 pm after 19 hours of labour (from water breaking to delivery). She weighed 8 lbs 14 oz, and was 21 1/4 " long... Thats a big baby! i had an epidural and she was delivered vaginally with forceps.

The Long story:

At my 37 and 38 week appointment i was 3 cm and 100% effaced and doctor expected me to go early, as did everyone else it seemed. December 5th was an ordinary day, I was exactly 39 weeks pregnant and honestly felt i was going to be overdue so i made a baking list and planned to go buy all the ingredients the next day. Baby had different plans because i ended up going into labor that night! I did my usual bouncing on my exercise ball and drinking some raspberry leaf tea and then went to bed an hour later at 10 pm, with a very mild lower back ache . I woke up at 11 pm to use the bathroom and after i was done I stood up to wash my hands and felt a huge gush of warm fluid. I looked down and saw a puddle, standing there confused and in shock. When I realized it definitly wasnt pee, i yelled to DH who was sleeping, that my water had just broke. I never saw someone jump out of bed from a dead sleep so fast in my life lol. He ran around the house frantically gathering our belongings and calling our parents while i cleaned myself up and laughed at how frazzled he was! i was suprisingly very calm and in control.

We managed to get to the hospital in five minutes because we live so close and immediately we were transferred to the case room in labour and delivery where they confirmed indeed it was amniotic fluid (which kept leaking and leaking in big gushes, yuck). They did a NST and told me I could either go home and wait it out or choose to induce my labour with pitocin, as I was only having mild period like cramps at this point that had just started after my water broke. I chose to go home, but literally ten minutes later I got hit with a HUGE contraction that took my breath away and then they started to come every 3-5 minutes instantly. They checked me and i was 4 cm and told me they were going to admit me after all, which i was relieved about. I walked around for an hour as the contractions got stronger and closer together. I ended up in the shower for another hour or two and my parents and inlaws arrived at this time. The shower did nothing for the pain, which i really thought it would. Instead i found sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning against my mom to be the best position for labor. Contractions were INTENSE and pretty much one on top of the other, while inbetween i had horrible back pain like someone was stabbing or hammering on my back! I soon found out baby was OP (sunny side up) which meant crazy back labor... lucky me! I was now in labor for five hours and about to lose it so I gave in and opted for the epidural at 4 am.

Getting the epidural hurt a lot as it took three attempts and placement seemed to take forever, all while having contractions non stop. It was tottaly worth the pain as once it kicked in it was the best thing in the entire world- zero pain now!. They hooked me up, inserted a catheter, and checked me again; i was still 4 cm after all of that! I sat around waiting, at 6 am I was 6 cm and at 9 am I was 9 cm. I was stuck at 9 cm the rest of the day which was really frustrating. Eventually i was 9 1/2 with a slight lip to my cervix as baby was looking up and to the left. They told me when babies are sunny side up that your contractions are usually very irregular and that they wanted to start me on pitocin to regulate my contractions to make it easier to push, which i agreed to. Once I was 10 cm I had to wait even longer as they wanted baby to turn on her own and they wanted me to feel the urge to push.

 I was then ready to push at 4 pm (12 hours after my epidural and 4 top offs later). This part i found the most difficult as I still couldnt feel the urge to push nor could I really tell when i was having a contraction... this epidural was a little too good. They turned the epidural down and had to tell me when i was having a contraction to push. I pushed for an hour and a half with very slight progress and tried about 4 different positions for pushing. My OB came in and told me the baby was stuck and I would need to have a forceps delivery.  I immediately burst out into tears from fear and my mom and DH looked terrified too. Things got scary so fast and suddenly there was a million people in my room, which i found out later was standard with a forceps delivery. They topped up my epidural again and froze me down below with the biggest needle ive seen in my life (and im a nurse). Ten minutes later, and a big episiotomy, Carys Rae arrived screaming at 5:58 pm. They put her on my chest and DH cut the cord. The NICU team assesed her and gave her apgars of 9 and 9 and a clean bill of health. she only had slight bruising from the forceps on her right temple. She was a healthy, 8 lbs 14 oz and 21 1/4 inches long!

Recovery was difficult, I had to have another catheter inserted because i was so swollen down below. I had a large episiotomy and tore internally from the forceps. I lived off of tylenol and ibuprofen for the first week and the peri bottle was the best thing ever!. Breastfeeding seemed easy at first and Carys latched like a champ first try. It got difficult the next day and until my milk came in as Carys was just so aggitated and screamed 24/7. The nurses were very helpfull but I felt like they really put pressure on me to supplement with formula, which i never ended up doing and am glad I didnt. My milk is now here and Carys is a eating machine! she is such a happy content baby and loves looking around at everything and anything. We are so in love with her and cant believe how fast she is growing already! pics below, but cant figure out how to turn them the proper way

 

LiebeMama

Thank you for sharing. Yes, epi bottles are the BEST!!!

jcsntms06

She's adorable. Congratulations!