Caroline's birth story (with pics)

Rosebud2587 · June 2014

Caroline Adele was born June 9th at 12:54pm weighing 7lbs 11oz and 19.5" long.
The story starts about 3 days before she was born. I was 39.5 weeks pregnant and feeling like crap. I thought was was having lots of cramping and braxton hicks contractions and just chalked all of those feelings up to being almost due. I later realized that I was experiencing prodromal labor, pre labor that goes on for an extended period of time.
Sunday, June 8th, our air conditioning went out and I was miserable. I could not sleep at all that night. I thought because I was sweating so much that I must have been super dehydrated and that was probably why I was experiencing some painful braxton hicks contractions. It wasn't until after DH left for work the next morning that I realized the cramping was getting more intense. I tried to go back to sleep but after about an hr of laying down I finally realized that I should maybe start timing my contractions since they weren't going away.
I started timing my contractions and they were averaging a little under 4 mins apart and lasting 47 seconds. After an hr of timing them I finally realized that I was having real contractions and that Pipsqueak was going to be punctual and come on his/her due date. At 8:30 am I decided it was time to call DH and tell him to come home from work and take me to the hospital, especially since I was told by my OB that I needed to come to the hospital when my contractions were 7 mins apart, to make sure I had enough time to get all the antibiotics in me that I needed, and I was already way passed that.
We got to the hospital around 10 and by that time my contractions were about 3 mins apart and lasting 1 min. After they triaged me, declared me to be in active labor, and admitted me to Labor and Delivery I was told I was at 4cm and 100% effaced. I was GBS+ so they started my first round of penicillin right away. I was told I would need 4 rounds and that it would take 4 hrs to complete the penicillin and as a result they were not going to do anything to possibly speed up my labor (pitocin, breaking my water, etc).
Everything was going well and I was able to manage my contractions pretty well just using breathing techniques. I told the nurse that I wanted to try and have another med free birth.
About 45 minutes later and my contractions were one on top of the other and extremely intense. I was in transition. Soon I felt the urge to push but was told I was only at 8cm so I needed to quit trying to push. My contractions were right on top of each other at this time and were so intense I was having a really hard time trying to relax. Eventually I caved and asked for some pain meds. What ever they gave me made me super drowsy. I could still feel my contractions but I was in a whole other wold and completely zoned out. Apparently DH kept checking my pulse because he was getting worried. I was completely unaware of any of this. I'm pretty sure I was having like 5-20 sec power naps in between my contractions. Somewhere during this time my water broke.
A little after 11:00 am and it was time to push. It's amazing how your whole mindset changes once they tell you you can push. You go from trying to just get though each contraction to suddenly feeling relief and waiting in anticipation for each contraction so that you can push some more.
After almost 2 hrs of pushing Caroline was born and we found out that we had a healthy baby girl! The dr. pulled her out and held her up. I immediately moved the umbilical cord out of the way so I could see what the baby was. I declared "It's a girl!" Then I looked at the nurses and said "it is a girl right?" I was still a little out of it from the pain meds and wanted confirmation that what I was seeing was actually what I was seeing. They confirmed it was a girl, had DH cut the cord, and laid Caroline on my chest. I finally got to have that initial bonding time that I never got to have with DD1 (she was my nicu baby).
I only was able to get 1 round of the 4 rounds of penicillin so we needed to be kept and monitored for 48 hrs instead of the usual 36. We were both okay and had no complications. We got discharged from the hospital on June 11th. It is so nice to be home and enjoying this time with both of my girls!

Caroline is nursing like a champ, sleeping really well, and seems to be content when she's awake. Rosalie is loving up on her baby sister and just wants to give her hugs and kisses and hold her all the time. I couldn't ask for anything better than this.