I have had a few requests to share my birth story, and i would like to have it written somewhere so i don't forget it so here it is...
Wednesday September 24th i lost my "Plug" i was so excited because id heard and googled it and lots of what i found said that if closer to your due date you lost this it meant labour was soon on its way. I was so excited because i was 5 days away from due date and i felt like i was never going to have this baby girl, I felt like i was going to be largely pregnant forever! Wednesday went on and nothing happened no painful contractions just the usual Braxton Hicks. Travis got home from work we ate dinner and watched Netflix before going to bed at about 10:30-11:00. I remember waking up at 12:30 and thinking what a weird dream i had just had and felt the urge to pee. As i lay perfectly still in bed trying to convince myself i could hold it i realized i felt like i had maybe peed a little already so i quickly jumped up and ran to the bathroom. Well as i got up a gush of fluid came out of me! I was so sleepy i wasn't sure what had happened actually happened.... after peeing I put my contacts in got dressed and prepared in case what i thought had happened (that my water had broken) actually happened. I climbed back in bed and woke Travis up telling him i thought that my water broke but i wasn't sure. I asked if we should go to the hospital or wait. He told me whatever i felt like we should do we would do. I told him lets go back to sleep and if i get painful contractions we will go. I lay back down and not 3 minutes later i had 2 sharp painful contractions that felt like really painful menstrual cramps with the addition of my whole stomach going hard as a rock. I woke Travis up and said its Go Time!! He jumped right up got dressed and out the door we went! We ended up at Labor and Delivery at about 1am. The Nurses were asking me all these questions and all i could focus on was the fact that i felt like i was PEEING MY PANTS!! As we got the Labor and Delivery another bigger gush of fluids came. The got me into a nice big room that had a big comfy sofa and told me to get completely undressed and into their hospital gown. They checked to make sure the fluid was actually amniotic fluid and sure enough it was. So i was officially there in the hospital until our girl was born. Travis and i were so excited, they got me all hooked up to monitors got an IV going and then it was time to wait. I dilated to about a 4 before i realized that i could have the epidural anytime i wanted since my water was already broken. So i told them to go ahead and call the anesthesiologist. The worst part about the epidural was the small poke at the very beginning to numb you. My whole body was shaking from being tired and in pain from the contractions that having to hunch forward over my massive belly and get a sharp poke in my back just wasn't very fun. But it was short lived and after that i had the gloriousness of no longer feeling pain. At one point my whole right side went completely numb and i had to be propped to the side to even out the drugs haha. I couldn't imagine doing all this without the epidural especially because i knew i didn't have to. It was a life saver.
Not much happened during the day besides waiting and waiting and watching Travis eat since i wasn't allowed to. I was in Labor for 20 hours. I dilated all the way to a 9 and then my body decided to STOP! They upped my Pitocin from a 2 to a 6.... another hour went by, no change. They upped my pitocin to an 8 and let another hour go by... and still no change and by now i was feeling each contraction no matter how many times i pushed the button for more epidural fluid to numb the pain. I was feeling it all! After no change in 2 1/2 hours at a 9 my Dr finally came in checked me and said lets up her to 10 on Pitocin and if nothing changes in half hour with that we may want to talk about doing a C-Section. He was worried that with my water being broken for already 20 hrs that risk of infection could happen. Baby was fine she wasn't stressed i was fine i wasn't stressed but he didn't want to wait any longer. So after half hour passed and there was still no change we scheduled the C-Section and after 20 minutes we were headed to have our baby!! I was so nervous because i knew you were awake for C-Sections and i was freaking out thinking i was going to feel everything that the anesthesia wasn't going to work right on me. But after i was all prepped and ready they tested the anesthesia and i passed i was numb even though i was able to wiggle my toes which totally freaked me out. I couldn't feel pain but i could feel pressure and tugging it wasn't very pleasant. As the Dr was getting to where the baby was and they could finally see her they said, " Wow no wonder your body stopped dilating look at the cheeks on this girl!!"
The Dr. looked at Travis and said, "Dad do you want to watch this?" Travis jumped up after being by my head and went around the curtain blocking my view. What sounded like a water balloon popped and i heard a faint little whimper and then felt them pull her out of me, it was like someone had been sitting on my stomach and they had just gotten up. Weight was lifted off my back and i felt light. I started to cry uncontrollably as i head that baby make her little noise. The lifted her over the curtain so i could see her and all i saw was dark brown hair and indeed cheeks!!! I was so happy. Travis was able to come around and show her to me before he went with her up to the nursery, she was beautiful and i had never been more in love with Travis then seeing him hold our little girl for the very first time! Travis left with Alice to the nursery and that's when the worst of it all happened. The tugging and the pulling and everything to put me back together and all that jazz that goes along with having a C-section, i asked for more pain medicine since the pressure and tugging was getting too much my body was shaking so bad i couldn't control myself. My anesthesiologist was amazing and so so nice. after giving me more paid meds through my IV i almost immediately felt comfortable and almost fell asleep on the operating table.
Once they were done stitching me up they wheeled me into the room we had been in all day and there was my parents and youngest sister Cassie and Travis mom and oldest sister Tiffany. Travis came in with Alice all nice and clean. He handed her to me and i was in heaven. I had started to shake again and was so tired and week that it was difficult for me to hold my baby girl so i made Travis sit on the bed with me holding her so i could look at her and touch her.
After everyone left we were taken to a "recovery room" it had two beds in it and was smaller then the first room but still pretty big!
We decided to take Alice for the first night to the Nursery since we were both so exhausted after being up 24 hrs but as Travis walked her to the Nursery he passed it and came right back telling me he couldn't do it. And i told him i was glad because i hoped he would bring her back. Our little angel was so quiet hardly made any noise and was doing awesome at latching on to feed.
I didn't get much sleep but enough to give me energy for the next day. My Dr. came in and told me how he had gone to the nursery after stitching me up and told Travis that he has no idea how he was delivering a baby from me. After Alice came out he was checking my organs and fallopian tubes and ovaries to make sure everything was ok and he told us with how much scar tissue was covering my ovaries, tubes, and uterus the ONLY explanation for us conceiving a child was that it was a miracle. There was no way that we should have been able to become pregnant on our own. But he was only telling us what we already knew :). He also told us that while he was in there he removed as much of the scar tissue as he felt was safe and possible without causing more scar tissue to help us with future pregnancies in being naturally conceived. This C-Section was a blessing in disguise.
We were in the hospital for 4 days. And on our second day there, the day after id just delivered the head nurse came into our room.....
She started out with, "Now i don't want you to freak out,".... but obviously starting with that I'm freaking out. She went on the say how there had been 2 C-Sections, mine last night and another this morning and after each procedure they do a "tool" check make sure that all the things they used are accounted for... and there was a pair of metal clamps missing.... and the morning C-Section all accounted for their items so it was from my C-Section last night... she said she wanted to do an Xray to make sure that they didn't leave it inside of me.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! YOUR TELLING ME I MIGHT HAVE SOME METAL CLAMP INSIDE OF ME?!?! THAT I MIGHT HAVE TO BE OPENED BACK UP TO GET THIS THING OUT!!! she told me that its not likely that its in there but better to be safe then sorry. I was FREAKING OUT!! After about 5 minutes after the Xray she came back in and said, "Your good its not in there." and then told me that sometimes Dr's don't think about it and will take extra tools home with them or that they get put in the wrong spots or other things like that but it is procedure to make sure its not left INSIDE SOMEONE!!! ugh if i were to complain about anything during my time in the hospital it would be this. haha Its ok to look back now and laugh about it but i wasn't laughing about it while in the hospital!
Alice is now 2 1/2 weeks old and everything is amazing! I am loving being a mom and Travis is an amazing dad. We couldn't be happier.
We did have a pretty traumatizing experience 4 days after coming home from the hospital. On Alice's 1 week she threw up that night all over Travis and stopped breathing. She turned purple and we were freaking out we tried to get her to breath but she just wouldn't... i ran downstairs and grabbed my mom who had already gone to bed and she didn't know what to do either. Travis called 911 and had them send an Ambulance while i tried to suction out her nose to see if it would help her breath. I was on the phone with the dispatcher as Travis was at the front door waiting for the Ambulance to arrive. It felt like FOREVER waiting for them to get there. i had Alice on her back on the floor with her head tilted back so that her airways were open and she was getting short little breaths in but was still getting more purple.
The ambulance finally arrived and they grabbed her and off we went to the hospital. The Lady that had Alice was suctioning out her nose and mouth and having to give Alice mouth to mouth because she was refusing to breath on her own.
Once we got to the ER she was doing much better but was needing oxygen assistance. They did an Xray of her lungs to make sure there was no infection or any other problem. It came back normal. The ER Dr told us that she needed to be on oxygen until she was able to breath well enough on her own and that with such a traumatic experience like this for her at so young it raised her chances of SIDS. Just what us new parents wanted to hear. So we took an ambulance ride up to Timpanogos Hospital Pediatrics where they were waiting for us.
We were there for another 4 days as they did all kinds of tests that they could think of to make sure they crossed everything off the list. Our little angel passed all the tests with flying colors. What they say must have happened is when she threw up she inhaled some back down and couldn't catch her breath and after that her lungs being so new were exhausted and needed help for a few days after until they were strong again.
They sent us home with oxygen and a monitor for her breathing and heart rate for our piece of mind. She didn't end up needing any oxygen at home thank the heavens and we were able to take her off the monitors after 3 days at home.
She is happy healthy and perfect today. And even though i had hopped to NEVER have an experience like that it has taught us a lot and we now know how to handle the situation should it ever happen again.
Our baby girl Alice was born September 25th at 9:59pm weighing 9lbs 13oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. She was a big baby... my mom said that i was 9lbs 12oz so i guess she takes after me.
Also to any expecting moms... I wished someone had warned me about this before so let me share with you, if you decide to breast feed (which if you can, i highly recommend it, it has helped me to recover so quickly and has so many amazing benifits.) But if you decide to breast feed know this... when your milk comes in it will hurt! You will feel like you have two massive boulders on your chest. I found that a warm shower helps a little with this. Also feeding will hurt really really bad the first week, a warm shower is also helpful to help with the pain. And lastly.... RT hurts when you are breast feeding so keep those girls warm ALWAYS! this may not be the same for everyone but this was my experience so i am sharing incase it helps anyone else. :)
I dont have the hospital pictures on my computer just yet so here are some pictures my best friend took of little Alice at 6 days old. enjoy :)
P.s i hope this all makes sense. I feel like i just jumbled all my thoughts and memories on here and so i hope it makes sense to you.