Quinn's Birth Story (ShuShubee)

ShuShubee · January 2015

Quinn's Birth Story

Short version:
Quinn was born January 10, 2015 at 3:39pm via c-section since she was not handling labor well from the beginning. She was 8lbs 7ozs and 19.25 inches long.

Long version:
I woke up at 1:30am on the morning of the 10th to go to the bathroom and quickly realized that I had been woken up by contractions. Made a feeble attempt to go back to sleep, but they were too intense at that point. Contractions were regular, but only about 30 seconds long at the beginning. I labored at home on my yoga ball and we got to the hospital at about 7am.

I was only about 2cm dialated when I got to the hospital, so I was monitored for an hour. At some point (I lost all track of time), the nurse came in to put me on IV fluids because the baby's heart rate wasn't changing during contractions like it should. They made me lie on my side, which was torture as it took away all ability for me to deal with the pain. I was admitted and eventually moved into a L&D room.

I was progressing well and my labor nurses even said that it was unlikely I would need pitocin if I kept laboring that way. I got an epidural after being in labor for 10 hours. Quinn's heart rate still didn't look good, so they broke my water and put me on internal monitoring. Baby's heart rate improved by putting me on oxygen, but my labor stalled after the epidural. They couldn't give me pitocin if I had to be on oxygen, and Quinn wouldn't be okay without it. They tried several things and gave it some time, but I ultimately had a c-section.

There had been meconium in my water, so a NICU nurse was present during delivery. I kept wondering why they weren't bringing her to me. It turns out that her breathing was labored and she needed a cpap, so she was taken to NICU. They found out there that her blood glucose levels were in the teens, when they should be above 50, so she was put on an IV in addition to the cpap. She was in the NICU for 5 days in order for her to regulate her glucose levels, but was able to go home with us on Wednesday (the 14th).

I am recovering well and we are working on breastfeeding. It was extremely difficult in NICU and I could never get her to latch. I'm struggling with it a lot right now as she isn't gaining weight as she should. Hopefully that turns around soon.