Chloe Mya's early arrival

eec129 · January 2012

Our little Chloe Mya decided to make her early debut on Sunday, Jan. 8 at 2:21 am! She weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. and measured 20.5 inches long.

I was SO sick last week with cold and flu, and seriously had not slept at all. I even called in sick twice last week to work, including on Friday. I kept thinking I was happy that I was sick now and not closer to my EDD of 1/23. Little did I know?.

On Saturday morning, after another restless night, I got out of bed at 10 am to go to the bathroom. As I sat down, I heard a POP and felt a slight flow of fluid. I kind of didn't believe it was my water breaking, since I was so out of it and it was a very faint gush feeling. But then when I wiped, I saw some pink, so that made me think it could be it! Of course, my husband had just left, but only to go to the gym for an hour. I went back to my bed and started consulting my Mayo Clinic book, since I wasn't feeling any contractions or anything. After a few minutes, I got up again to check, and when I coughed, fluid gushed out, so I knew that this must be it. I called my doctor and while I was waiting for a return call, my DH came home and I told him what was up.

The nurse on call told us the doctor wanted us to come in right away. Luckily, we had partially packed, but the nurse told me not even to shower or anything, just come in. I wish I would have not listened to her, because I felt/looked like complete hell as a result of being sick, and I think that would have made me feel better! So we rushed out of our house like two crazy people because this nurse put us in alarm mode!

We got to the hospital, were sent to triage, and were admitted! I was feeling light cramping, but that was it. We got to our room, I was allowed to shower, and we ate. After a while, I noticed the contractions were becoming stronger, but still were very tolerable. Unfortunately, once they took my temp. and noticed I was running a fever, the doctor decided I needed to deliver the baby sooner than later, though my body was clearly going into labor on its own! I started crying at this point, just because the word ?pitocin? has always scared me! Once they started that, things became a little blurry.

My parents came, and at one point, I suddenly kicked them out because the contractions were becoming too much and my mom was making me crazy running around and texting my sister and brother. At this point, I was checked and was about 4 cm, asked for the epi, and was told the dr. was on his way. It seemed to take FOREVER for him to get there and the contractions were insane. I told my DH this was our one and only child! Once I did get the epi, which honestly was relatively painless and no big deal for me, I was feeling great!

I think at 10:30 I was about 7-8 cm, and my parents went home, because we had no idea how much longer it would take, and I didn?t really want them in the room anymore at that point.

Around 12:30 am, they checked me, and I was ready to push! I was scared, because I was already exhausted and so sick. At first, it was great, because I felt like I was actually doing something to make progress and bring her sooner. But I soon started doubting how much I could do. I just kept trying to make it through one push at a time. My DH, who I thought would be more at my head, was holding a leg and walking me through all of the counts! He really coached me through. It was all like a dream, with the pushing, counting, and dark room. I stopped even opening my eyes in between contractions. I kept asking about progress and I felt like I was making none! Soon I started to feel the pressure, though?and I think about 30 minutes of pushing after that, the nurses called the doctor, and Chloe was born! I only had some minor tearing, and received a few stitches, but at that point, totally didn?t care!

Baby girl is perfectly healthy and sweet and we are in love with her! The only issue has been that she has jaundice, and had to be hooked up to a bili blanket during her last day in the hospital, and we also have had to keep her on one at home, which has been a huge pain, since we can?t really move her around much. She?s already been to the doctor twice, though, and we get to take her off tomorrow morning. Yay! She also dropped a whole pound from her original birth weight, but as of today, she is back up 2 ounces (milk just came in).

Now that it?s all said and done, it doesn?t seem like birth was too traumatizing, though I can easily say it was the most physically demanding thing I?ve ever done in my life. It?s just so hard to believe that last week at this time I was still pregnant and so unsuspecting, and now our little bundle of joy is an outside baby!

Here is a going home pic!