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December 2016 Moms
ea301
member
ea301 Birth Story
ea301
member
It's taken me a while but here it is! I got verbose, so sorry in advance for the novel 
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Friday 11/11 was like any other day. I had my 36 week checkup with the nurse midwife, my first with a pelvic exam to examine everything down below. As she prodded around in there, she said I was 60% effaced but not dilated, and that she would bet that on my due date (december 5th) I would be holding a baby in my arms, not delivering one. On my way home I called my husband and let him know the prognosis. An early delivery wasn't something we were expecting, because according to everyone, "your first always comes late." While the midwife's prediction was a little scary and we still had a lot of stuff to do, we figured we would have some time.
Early Saturday, I went to the bathroom and when I wiped, there was a pretty large glob - I knew it was my mucus plug. Of course I was immediately a little alarmed and in a state of mild panic, but a few people reminded me that it can regenerate and its not necessarily the sign of impending labor. So I continued about my daily business and even decided to set out some road signs for an open house I was scheduled to host on Sunday. (My first open house ever, actually!) On Saturday night, I called the on-call OB-GYN to see if there were any concerns with me doing the open house on Sunday if I was losing my mucus plug. He said nope, no worries... everything should be fine. I went to bed feeling pretty good.
Sunday morning, 11/13 at 12:58am, my water broke. I could not believe it. Our classes taught us that only 10% of women have their water break outside of the hospital so my first thought was why me?? I racked my brain trying to remember what we had learned about water breaking, and only remembered that the 24 hour clock had started. I woke my husband up and let him know what was happening, called the doc back to let him know what had happened, emailed my bosses to let them know I couldn't do the open house, and started getting ready for the hospital. Thankfully my bags were 80% packed so we didn't have to scramble too much. I ate a snack, brushed my teeth, and we hit the road.
After some monitoring in triage, along with lots of leaking, I was admitted to L&D at 2:30am. At this point it struck me that we hadn't even done our hospital tour yet (it was scheduled for later that week) so I had no idea where I was going. We got to the room and settled in. The overnight nurse was super nice. She commented that I had the same bday as Harry Potter which immediately made me like her. Then we talked about HP for a while 
After a few hours, they started me on a low dose of pitocin. After a few more hours, they upped the pitocin a little and I got an epidural. I could still move my legs around and I could feel pretty much everything but it helped a great deal with the pain. My parents came by right after the epidural and they kept me company while my husband got some coffee and called his parents to let them know what was happening.
Around 1:30 pm, it was time to push. I pushed for an hour and at 2:24, about 13.5 hours after my water broke, our baby girl arrived. I could not believe that I had done it and pushed her out on my own. I remember thinking that I wanted to ask the doctor if there was any other way, but I'm glad I didn't. I felt like superwoman in that moment when they put her on my chest.
I delivered the placenta and the doc stitched up my tear, and I thought all was well. However, things were about to get scary. During one of the massages after delivery, the nurse pushed out several very large clots. She was concerned with the amount but reassured me that it happens sometimes and I shouldn't worry. After a few hours and a few more uneventful massages, the nurse asked if I felt up to trying to use the restroom. I said sure, so she held my left arm while my husband held my right. I sat up and immediately felt woozy. My ears rang and my vision went white... my blood pressure dropped to 80/40. I very vaguely remember closing my eyes as I was being laid back down and being prodded to see what was going on in my belly area.
I guess the nurse didnt like what she felt (the uterus was supposed to have moved lower down instead of to the right of my belly button, I think?) so she called my doc to see what she should do. He sent in the on call attending doc to take a look and possibly do a "manual extraction." What happened next I can only describe as chaos.
The manual extraction involved a young doctor sticking his entire forearm up inside me and pulling out another massive series of clots. I will never forget the feeling of the clots exiting my body. It was greusome, for lack of a better word. As the doc got out everything he could, I realized I was shaking uncontrollably with my eyes closed as 8-10 medical staff hovered over me, adding IV lines, giving me shots, and spouting off things I couldn't understand. All I kept thinking was, "thank God the baby is okay. If I die, I am glad she is fine," and "I hope my husband can't see this."
After I stabilized, the nurses put a bunch of blankets on me and let two IVs worth of fluids begin to work their magic. Eventually the rest of the medical staff left and my nurse talked with my doctor to see what next steps were. It was determined that even though I lost over a liter and a half of blood (they estimated this to be about 25% of my total blood supply), I didn't need a transfusion. Instead I was given drugs to encourage contractions to get my uterus in place and to stop the clotting. At this point, I thought I was out of the woods. I hadn't seen the baby in hours and was not able to breast feed much (my husband had given her formula). There was talk of moving me up to my room with the baby. But when I commented to the nurse that the heating pad they put under me was awesome, I knew by her face that something was wrong. There was no heating pad, I had spiked a fever. I don't remember exactly what they did to bring down the fever but I do remember crying. I was completely exhausted, had not slept in so long, and was just completely spent. I stayed in L&D for several more hours for monitoring while the baby was moved to the nursery.
Eventually my fever subsided and my blood pressure returned to normal-ish. It was still very low but not worrisome. Around midnight, about 23 hours after water breaking, I was moved to my recovery room. I was exhausted but after the emotional and physical roller coaster, I had a really hard time sleeping. I'm not sure if I got more than an hour or so of sleep. The baby stayed in the nursery all night but rejoined us in the room early the next morning.
The rest of my hospital stay was pretty uneventful besides a lot of crying (some baby cries, but mostly me). It was such a crazy experience. The birth itself was wonderful, but it's as if everything went wrong with my body after she was out. It was (and still is to some degree) difficult for me to deal with that fact. I am still severely anemic as a result of the blood loss and don't quite feel like myself yet.
I also realized on Monday morning that I had given birth to our girl exactly 10 years after my grandmother passed away, and 36 years after my great grandmother (her mom) passed. That helped to give an even greater meaning to the day, and helped me decide on a name for her.
Overall, I could not be happier. Natalie is a wonderful addition to our little family, and I am soaking up every moment. As I write this, she is sleeping peacefully on my chest as we listen to Christmas music. Life could not be much sweeter than this. My heart is full.
I also realized on Monday morning that I had given birth to our girl exactly 10 years after my grandmother passed away, and 36 years after my great grandmother (her mom) passed. That helped to give an even greater meaning to the day, and helped me decide on a name for her.
Overall, I could not be happier. Natalie is a wonderful addition to our little family, and I am soaking up every moment. As I write this, she is sleeping peacefully on my chest as we listen to Christmas music. Life could not be much sweeter than this. My heart is full.
Re: ea301 Birth Story
My Wedding Bio!
I'm seriously so happy that you are ok, this baby having business is no joke. It's at times like these that I really appreciate that it's 2016, and that we are in a developed country.
Congratlutions on your wonderful little girl, keep on snuggling!
DS: 12/20/16
EDD: 11/29/18
After a traumatic birth experience with DD1, we realized she was now shared a birthday with my (favorite) grandfather who had passed a few years prior. He and his family were from Sweden and the dinner they served me after she was born was Swedish Meatballs. I'm tearing up just writing that out... it was such a sweet assurance that, even though things had seemingly gone awry, there was so much purpose and significance beyond me in her birthday and birth story.
@Christinaruth74 that is so awesome about your DD1's birthday. I agree: purpose and significance are great words to descibe how I feel too. I took great reassurance that there was a reason why she came that day.
Me: 39 DH: 36
Married: Sept 2018
DS: December 2016
#2 EDD Feb 2020
Here's one from today... 2 weeks 5 days old and starting to smile a little! My little cutie!
DD born 7.27.2014
BFP 09.2015 - m/c 10.21.2015
I hope your recovery has been swift. I know I was weak for several weeks. Take care of yourself and that sweet baby. And seriously you ARE Superwoman for going through all that!
Baby #1
Baby #2
~04/19/16 EDD 12/26/16~
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