Amelia Rose's Birthstory (Irisheyez7)

irisheyez7 · April 2014

       So my little bundle of joy was apparently in no hurry to make her entrance into this world. We had hoped that she would figure it out and come on her own but at 11 days past due we decided to move forward with eviction proceedings. We went into the hospital on Sunday evening at 6pm. After getting checked in and all hooked up to the IV the resident and her assistant came in and took a look at baby's position and checked my cervix, 1cm and 80% effaced. I was hoping i had made some more progress but alas, time to start the Cervadil.
         Darling husband and I watched some TV and tried to relax as much as we could. I realized I was way too anxious to sleep so the nurse gave me some benadryl to help me get some rest. I woke up around 3am and was feeling awfully crampy and got up to go to the bathroom. I was told to check the toilet when I went to make sure the Cervadil insert hadn't fallen out. What I saw instead was blood, and a pretty good deal of it! We of course told the nurse and the Doctor came in to check on me and tried to assure me it was just the bloody show and no reason to worry. About 45 minutes later the bleeding just got worse! We called in the Doctor again and she decided it was time to let my on call OB know what was going on. The nurse came in and took a bunch of blood samples and a urine sample as they were concerned about Pre-E or a placental abruption. Way to freak a girl out! Plus my contractions were beginning to pick up and everything was becoming way more intense. After about 40 slightly panic filled minutes they came back and informed us that all tests came back fine but that we were stopping the Cervadil. So much for getting any sleep this evening.
   Doctor checked me again and I was only 2cm but the bleeding had slowed down so the Doc made the call to start the Pitocin. I totally had a moment of "Holy F*ck, shit is about to get real!" but I tried to remain as calm as possible. They hooked me up and I tried to get some rest. Within about an hour I was having intense pain in my lower abdomen and my back was KILLING ME. I now know what "real" contractions feel like. Oh, and back labor SUCKS as much if not worse they they tell you it does! I grinned and bared it and breathed through as long as I could but around 7am I decided to get the epidural. About an hour later the anesthesiologist arrived and began to set me up. By this time I was having some unbearably intense contractions and the doc had to keep reinserting the epidural catheter because it kept being weighted too far to the right. After 4 tries it was in and I felt MUCH better. I was able to finally get a couple of hours of much needed rest.
   Around 9am one of the Doctors from my OBGYN practice came in to check on me. It just so happened to be our favorite Doctor too! I was only dilated to 3cm so he decided to attach an internal monitor and break my bag of waters to speed things up a bit. Boy did it ever! Around 10am he checked me again and I was at a 9.5! All these nurses and Doctors starting hustling around and setting everything up for me to start pushing. A REALLY young medical student introduced himself to me and explained it was his first day in L&D and he was going to be sitting in. At the time I was like "Great. I don't really want this 22 year old kid all up in my business" but I just smiled and said hello. I am not going to lie, I was terrified and was totally starting to panic and was feelinging completely overwhelmed. I kept tearing up and was almost hyperventilating and DH and the Doctors just kept trying to reassure me that my body was made for this and that everything was going to be okay. At about 10:30am the Doc gave the go ahead to start attempting to evacuate this munchkin from my uterus.
   It was GO TIME! It was so strange not being able to feel the contractions but I watched the monitors and began pushing as the uterine monitor was showing one starting to build. I had the nurse holding my right leg and DH holding my left. My right leg was a bit more numb than my left and I seriously couldn't even lift it on my own. Things seemed to be progressing rather quickly and I could feel baby moving down after every round of pushes. After about 45 minutes the Doctor starting explaining that the hardest part was going to be getting her past my pubic bone, and that with every push I had to hold them as long as I could because otherwise her head would creep back up behind it again if I stopped early or let too much time go between pushes. I was trying my damnedest to push as hard and as long as I could with each contraction. Frustration was building with everyone involved. By this point my blood oxygen was getting low after pushes so I had to use the mask between each round to keep the baby's stats up. It seemed like this went on forever but I was making no progress.
   At this point my Doctor came in and expressed concern that the baby's stats were starting to drop during contractions. He gave me a pep talk and told me to keep at it. On his way out of the room I heard him tell the nurse to turn OFF the epidural and turn up the pitocin. I thought I hadn't heard him correctly but I watched the nurse come over and do just that! What the $@#! hell? This was NOT in my birth plan! I expressed concern to DH and the resident so my Doc came in and looked at me and said "Do you trust me? Do you think I know what I am doing?" I answered yes. "Will you let me do what I think is best for you and your baby?" I answered yes. So here I was, 3 hours into this and apparently about to feel ALL of it. The nurse was now busy fiddling with my IV and the computer and such so I now had Doogie Howser MD holding my right leg, and do you know how many fucks I gave? ZERO! Just keep on trucking there medical student! The contractions ramped up and it went from me being able to start feeling the pressure to full on feeling every bit of the intensity! After about 45 minutes of this I was spent! I was crying my eyes out in a mixture of frustration, exhaustion and pain. After what seemed like my 4,000th round of pushing I finally looked at my husband and said "I really don't know if I can do this any longer." My body was just about done! I was so scared the baby's stats were going to keep dropping and after all of this I was going to end up needing an emergency c-section. My head was just swirling...
   My Doctor came in and could tell I was beyond myself and was on the verge of giving up. He raised his voice and looked at me and said "Hey Meggan, HEY! Look at me! Are you having this baby today? Are YOU having this baby today? Because WE (motioning to everyone in the room) can't do this, YOU have to do this. So, are YOU having this baby today?" I just screamed "Ugh! Yes! Get her out of me!" It was like he was one of my old softball coaches giving me a stern pep talk. I guess I really needed that! I was getting a second wind and felt the need to PROVE to him I could do this! He suggested I needed more leverage for pushing so he pulled up these handle bar thingies from the side of the bed that I could grab on to when pushing. Using these I was able to kind of curl my stomach muscles and was able to push downwards better. After about 3 or 4 rounds with these I FINALLY had her head past my pubic bone! It was such a relief but I still had to get her the rest of the way out! I pushed a few more times and I could feel her crowning and I instantly knew I was going to tear. At this point though, I could not have cared less, I just wanted this kid out of me! They dropped the end of the bed and all the Doctor's and nurses thew on gowns and these welder looking masks and were ready for delivery. 3 fantastic pushes later and I could feel a "woosh" and baby girl in all her glory was here! My husband was sobbing and just kept squeezing my hand and saying "Oh my god, oh my god, you did it, she is here, she is beautiful, she has blonde hair!" I tried to sit up a bit to see her but my body was spent. The Doctor held her up and she let out a loud wail and it was the single most beautiful sound I have ever heard. I managed to sit up enough to watch my husband cut the cord and watched him bask in the glow of his gorgeous newborn daughter. They wiped her off and placed her on my chest and I just sobbed uncontrollably! I just couldn't take my eyes off of her. I was in awe that I created this tiny little thing and I was beyond in love with every inch of her.
   Eventually the nurses took her over to the crib to do their thing and the Doctor did his thing and stitched me up. I ended up with a 3rd degree tear and a few stiches north of the glory hole which made for a very unpleasant recovery but all in all, worth every second of pain. They brought her back to me and everyone kept asking us what her name was. We didn't know! We were torn between Lucy Rosana and Amelia Rose. Everything was such as whirlwind we hadn't had time to decide. We sat and stared at this beautiful little thing we had created and after some discussion finally decided we knew what name was right. Wee little Amelia Rose arrived 4/14/14 at 2:47pm, she is the light and love of our lives, and is absolutely perfect in everyway. Not everything went the way I had imagined it, in my wildest dreams I never expected a first day med student to be holding my leg while I spent 4 hours pushing a baby out med free, but in hindsight I have absolutely no regrets. I always thought they were lying when women told me you forget all the bad stuff after you have your own child. Everytime I look at this chubby little face all of the details just melt away into newborn smell and baby snuggles.