My birth story...long

Here is how it all went down.  I was scheduled for my induction and went in on January 2.  My MW thought this would be the best option for me since I live so far from the hospital and since Zoe was expected to be around 9 pounds.  I went in, was hooked up to all the monitors and was feeling fine.  Apparently I was having regular contractions, but just wasn't noticing them, so they said that was a good sign that labor would go well for me.  When they went to put in my IV they decided to put it in the back on my right hand.  The nurse put the needle in and missed the vein.  After poking around for a bit she decided that it wasn't going to work, so she took it out and switched to my left forearm.  She missed there too a couple of times, but finally got it in.  It was kinda puffy, but she said that was normal and since I had never had one before I believed her and she left the IV there.  They checked me and I was 1 cm dilated, so they started me on pitocin to make the contractions stronger and longer and broke my water to help me progress.

 The contraction got stronger from that point on and I made it for 7 hours before I finally broke down and took the epidural.  That hurt like hell!  The numbing agent that they gave me first hurt so much.  I was shaking and crying, but at least they got it in, but then my ears started ringing, so they had to take it out and put in in a new place in my back, this left a large bruise on my lower back.  It took affect very quickly and after a few minutes I could no longer feel any contractions.

They had me labor for 6 more hours before checking my progress and I was still only 1 cm dilated and 70% effaced.  My MW said that she really didn't think that it was going to happen for me.  She said that she was more that willing to let me continue to labor, but told me that a C/S would probably be the best option since my temperature was creeping up and the baby seemed slightly distressed.  I agreed, so after 13 hours of labor I went in for a C/S.  When the anesthesiologist came in to give me another does of epidural, he saw where my IV went in and how the nurse had left it there even though it was puffy.  He said it wasn't supposed to look like that and had to move again to my right forearm.  I now have a huge bruise down my arm from the second IV.  From that point on it all happened really quickly, they had already started cutting before I realized it and Zoe was here in no time.  She was 8 lbs 2 oz and 21 inches long with lots of beautiful blond hair.  I was stitched up and taken to recovery for an hour where I waited to get to hold my little girl.  It took 45 minutes before I was able to see her.  There was a new nurse in the nursery and she didn't realize that she was supposed to just measure and weigh the baby then bring it in to mom to see, so she was giving her her shots and her bath and everything else before a higher-up nurse went and got me my baby.

We had lots of visitors that night and I was so happy when everyone left and it could just be me and DH and our little girl.  I tried breastfeeding her and she would take it, but she was so sleepy that we had to wake her up for every feeding and she would fall asleep again soon after.  My husband stayed the night with me that night, but since he was so uncomfortable in his little bed that I told him that he could sleep at his parent's house the next night.  The next day, January 3, went pretty well.  Once again we had lots of visitors and once again Zoe was very, very sleepy.  She also kept spitting up a lot and the nurses told me that she had swallowed a lot of fluid and she was just coughing it up. 

That night it was just me and LO.  Around midnight the nurse came in because I requested more pain meds.  She said that I needed to wait 30 more mins before it was time for my next meds.  She said that since LO was awake she wanted to take her to the nursery for some testing and I said that was fine, so that I could get some rest.  An hour later she came back in without my baby.  She said that Zoe was breathing too fast and they took her to the NICU to figure out what was going on.  Apparently her lungs had fluid in them and that is what was causing her to breath to fast and since she was breathing too fast it made her so sleepy that she wasn't eating enough.  She was going to have to stay in the NICU and was hooked up to a feeding tube so that she could get all the food she needed.  I stayed in the NICU with her until 4 AM and then went back to my room for two hours to get a little sleep then went right back to the NICU. 

I kept pumping and luckily I was producing enough so that they didn't need to supplement with formula.  (I got 20 ML from my very first pumping.)  I definitely didn't get very much sleep from that point on since I set an alarm for every 3 hours so that I could pump, then I would walk down to the NICU and would spend a least an hour with my little girl.  I did have to yell at one of the nurses twice since she kept giving Zoe formula even though she had plenty of milk to drink.  Each time she gave her formula, she would spit it all back up because her stomach couldn't handle it.

The next day, January 4, I was discharged from the hospital and I cried so much because I had to leave my baby there.  The first thing I did after I was discharged was I went out and bought a breast pump, pumped milk, then I was right back at the hospital to visit with my baby.  I spent most of the day there with her.  That night I left enough milk at the hospital for her to eat through the night so that my husband didn't have to keep driving my back every few hours.  (At that point my milk had already come in and I was getting about 4-5 ounce per pumping.)

I made sure to get up every 3 hours to pump and we were back at the hospital by 8 AM on January 5.  I stayed with her until 1 PM.  Her feeding tube was removed that day and I was able to feed her breast-milk from a bottle.  They didn't want me to breastfeed since her breathing was still strained, though it was much, much better.  She was eating about 30 ML of milk at that point and they said that if, by 24 hours after her feeding tube was out, she was able to keep 40 ML down then I would be allowed to room-in with her for the night and I would be able to take her home. 

January 6, her breathing was perfect by this point, the fluid had be absorbed by her lungs and she was no longer struggling to breath.  They still didn't let me breastfeed since they needed to measure how much she was eating during each feeding.  They said that she had to eat the 40 ML at 2 consecutive feedings then I would would be able to room-in that night.   Not only did she eat the 40 ML, she did better and took 50 ML!  They sent me home around 12 PM so that I could get everything ready and told me to be back at 8 PM to room-in.  I got everything ready and was there right on time. They took me and Zoe to the family room, and left me there with her, a feeding long, and a reminder to feed her every 3 hours.  She was like a totally different baby.  The last time I had her over night I had to wake her up every 3 hours and force her to eat.  This time, she wouldn't go to sleep until 6 AM and ate 60 ML at each feeding! 

January 7, the nurse came in at around 9 AM and was very happy with how well she did at each feeding, and we were released at around noon.  We went to the in-law's house, where we had been staying for two weeks before baby's arrival.  Everyone was so happy to see Zoe and hold her.  At around 3 o'clock we hit the road to make the 5 hour trip back to our home.  

 So that is my story and I am now home and happy with my little girl!  :-)