Looks like I'm a February Mom, not a March mom! (Birth story)

Well it's a little late, but I haven't had time to sit down and tell Melodi Rose's birth story. :-)

It started on Saturday Feb. 25th about noon when I started leaking more and more clear fluid. I was a little concerned that maybe my water had broke, but it didn't seem like there was quite enough coming out. DH wanted to take me in right then but I decided to wait. I hadn't been having hardly any contractions and I didnt want to go in and have them say it was nothing. About 11 that night I woke up and had been leaking even more, so DH and I want into the birth center in the hospital. They tested the fluid and turns out that it was amniotic fluid, and they did a check and I was already 4 cm dilated! It was funny because the nurse hooked me up the the fetal and contraction monitor and I was laying there, and she asked me how bad this contraction was. I was all confused because I hadn't felt a thing, but apparently I was having a pretty good one! They told me that within the next 24 hours I would have the baby, since the amniotic fluid was leaking. They didn't want her to stay in too much longer in case infection set in.

Anyway, at about 2 in the  morning they checked me again and I hadn't dilated any farther. They had me walk around to try and speed things up. It ended up being close to seven in the morning and things still hadn't dilated any more,  so they decided to break the rest of my water. It sucks because this was the only weekend my doctor was out of town, so we had to have a different guy doctor who we had experience before and DH and I didn't really like. He came in and broke the rest of my water (It wasn't really painful, but definitely uncomfortable. It felt like I peed myself, warm water just came gushing out.) 

Things still weren't moving so they had me walk some more. At about ten in the morning I was about 6 cm dilated and so far wasn't having any painful contractions. However after that it started getting painful, but not in my stomach. The only problem I was having was pain in my lower back. It took about an hour and a half to get to 8 cm and by then I was in a lot of pain with contractions. I was determined to go natural with no pain meds, but man I was sure thinking about it. They checked me and I was stuck at 8 cm and had a lip, so they didn't want me pushing. At close to noon I was getting horrible urges to push, and after a short while the doctor came in and decided to have me start pushing, even though I was still only 8 cm with a lip. For the next hour and a half I was pushing and the baby wasn't really going too far. Her heart rate starting dropping significantly and the doctor had quite a few nurses come in to help at this point. They decided to try the vacuum to get her out, and boy that hurt going in (I was having a contraction when he put it in). They tried sucking her out while I was pushing but after a while it just wasn't working and her heart rate wasn't coming back up, so it was time for an emergency c-section. They had the spinal block guy come in and have me sign some papers (It was horrible trying to concentrate on the guy talking to me, because I kept having contractions and I would just about fall asleep between them) and they wheeled me up into the OR. DH was being so great about everything and they sent him to get scrubs on so he could sit in on the surgery.

At this point the guy tried doing a spinal block on me and it took him about three-four tries trying to get it in the right spot. I felt kind of bad because I kept having contractions and I wasn't keeping as still as he probably needed. At one point I was in so much pain that I was just begging the guy "Please just get it in, hurry! It hurts so much!". When he finally got it in and they laid me down on the table, everything from my waist down started going numb and I was feeling great. DH came in and sat next to me and they put up a blue sheet to block what was going on. DH kept telling jokes and being funny, keeping me occupied. I could feel tugging and pulling as they worked away getting the baby out. At one point I remember smelling something burning, and my mouth worked faster than my brain because I actually said "I smell something burning." I knew exactly what it was right after I asked. All the docs and nurses kind of looked sheepishly at each other and one of them politely told me that it was just one of their tools that cauterized things. It took a little while and suddenly the room was filled with our baby crying. I just felt my heart swell, I started crying, I couldn't believe it. Dh went to cut the cord and The doc who did my spinal block took a couple quick pictures and they printed them super fast and showed me pics of her right then and there while they took care of the baby, since I couldn't see her. they finally come over and put her next to me and DH all wrapped up in a blanket, and I couldn't believe how beautiful she was. I was able to hold her for a little bit and they took a couple more pictures, then they took her away down to the birth center. I made DH go with them to keep an eye on her while they sewed me back up. It took a couple hours and I remember being so sad because by the time they finished stitching me back up, kept me in the ICU for a  little while, and then finally took me back to the birth center, I had missed out on the first two hours of our baby's life. When the wheeled me in, DH was holding our baby girl and they lifted the front have of my bed up so that I could finally hold her. I still couldn't feel anything from my chest down so it was difficult to try and feed her at first, but it was amazing to finally hold and feel her.

Little Melodi Rose was born at 2:48 PM on February 26th at 7 pounds 15 ounces and 20 inches long. :-) It was a different experience than we were expecting, but she came out safe and sound!