Well it's been 3 weeks since we welcomed
Addy to our family and every day since I have thought to myself, " I need
to write a blog post about my labor and her birth story before I forget any
details". So here I am, this post is mostly for me to have to look back
on, so don't feel obligated to read any further, I won't have my feelings hurt.
:)
I had been having weekly doctor
appointments since 36 weeks and had only been 1 cm dilated each week. I had a
doctors appointment January 8th (Reminder: I was due January 7th, so I wasn't
exactly excited that I was still pregnant at this point.. ha). At the
appointment I was still only 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced so we started talking
about the possibility of an induction. We had just found out that there was a
possibility of my mom having to go to Washing D.C for work the next week
and I wanted to make sure she would be here for the delivery, so a plan was
made. The doctor called the hospital and scheduled my induction for Saturday
night, January 11th. We were going to have to go in that evening to start the
process. He told us they were going to have to soften my cervix with a pill,
one at 6pm and the second dose at midnight, from there they would start pitocin
to start my contractions and hopefully we would have a baby by Sunday night. It
wasn't our first choice since I was hoping I would get to experience the whole
"am I in labor??" process, but with the situation we were okay with
it and we started thinking of all the things we needed/wanted to do before the
baby got here. We enjoyed our afternoon together and got more and more excited
at the thought of having a baby that weekend!
We quickly learned that this little girl
likes to make plans of her own.
Thursday, January 9th, I woke up around
5:30 a.m having contractions. They were definitely there but they were not
killing me yet so I got up and cleaned the house a little and finished putting
together some freezer meals I had started the night before. Matt kept asking if
I wanted him to stay home from work but I didn't want to jinx myself, so off to
work he went. By 8 a.m I decided to start timing my contractions. They were
coming anywhere from 5-10 minutes apart and were about 40 seconds long. I
walked around the house a lot and finished gathering things for the hospital in
case this was the real deal. (Side note: I was set on the idea that I was NOT
going to go to the hospital thinking I was in labor just to get sent home
because it was a "false alarm".) By eleven they were getting much more
consistent and much more painful; nothing was helping relieve them. I decided
it was probably time to have Matt come home from work and that we should go get
things checked out. He came home and I drug my feet a little more (again, worried
that I would get there only to get sent home again).
We checked in to the hospital at 1:30 and
they hooked me up to the monitors. I was contracting every 4 minutes or so and
they were lasting about a minute each. It was nice to hear her little heartbeat
and cool to watch each contraction start and end on the monitor. The nurse
checked me and I was still only dilated 1 cm, just my luck! I was so
discouraged. I had sat through contractions ALL morning long; how had things
not changed??? Labor and Delivery was pretty busy that day so we hung out in
the room they had us in for a few hours. By the time the nurse came back I was
hurting quite a bit and contracting consistently. She checked me again to see
if I had progressed at all and once again, just my luck, still only dilated 1
cm. Not going to lie, I was so frustrated with my body. Why wasn't it doing
what it was supposed to be? I cried and knew we were going to get sent home,
Matt hugged me and told me everything was going to work out. The nurse came
back in with discharge paperwork after having talked to the doctor. We signed
the papers and she gave me a shot of Morphine and Phenegran for the pain and
told me, "I bet you are back within 24 hours to have this baby!". We
left the hospital at 4:30 p.m.
Even though we live just minutes up the
road from the hospital I was pretty loopy feeling by the time we pulled into
the drive way. I made it to the couch with my pillow and blanket and tried to
rest. (What was I thinking? That was not even close to a possibility.) We were
told that the shot she gave me would probably decrease my contractions and make
it possible for me to relax which in turn would help my cervix dilate. I was
still contracting and was still very uncomfortable. I did everything I could to
relieve the pain from my contractions but nothing was helping. By midnight I
decided it was time to go back to the hospital so I woke Matt up (he had been in and out of sleep for about an hour) and we once
again made the short drive back to L&D.
We got checked in and on to the floor at
12:32, we were put into a room and the nurse hooked me up to the monitors and
checked my cervix. This time I was 3 cm! It wasn't a ton of progress BUT I wasn't
1 cm anymore and that made me SO happy. Since I had dilated from a 1 to a 3
since I had been in hours earlier it meant we were staying. I opted for them to
call in anesthesia since it would take a little time to call them in from home
for my epidural. He came in and placed my epidural- shortly after my
first dose of medicine my lips and face started to go numb, it had ended up in
a blood vessel instead of the epidural space so he had to take it out and place
another one. The second one worked like a charm and I was one happy camper! :)
An hour later the nurse checked me again
and I was dilated to 5 cm and then another hour or so later I was 7 cm dilated.
The nurse went to call the doctor to let him know. By this time we had family
that had shown up. My parents, Matt's mom, and my grandparents all came to
support us.
The doctor came in and decided to break my
water to help things move along. (Talk about the weirdest feeling EVER!) After
he broke my water is when things started to get interesting. I wasn't in any
pain because of my epidural and I was contracting every 2-3 minutes but with
each contraction Addy's heart rate would dip down and take some time coming
back up to normal. My nurse would come in and re-position me from one side to
the other each time her heart rate would fall and before we knew it we had all
sorts of nurses and staff in the delivery room. The doctors were concerned
about how frequent her heart rate was dropping. They kicked our family out. They then put a different type
of monitor on her head to monitor her heart rate more accurately and they began
an amnioinfusion to put water back up around her to help keep her off of her
umbilical cord. When that didn't make much of a difference they began putting me in different position to try to
help. They had me on my hands and knees which helped for a short time, but it
didn't completely solve the problem so they gave me a medication to stop my
contractions. In the middle of all the craziness a nurse came in and had us
sign a consent form for a c-section, in case it came down to that in an emergent situation.
At this point both Matt and I were scared/worried and didn't care if they needed to do the c-section. We just wanted our little
girl here and for both her and I to be safe and healthy. Obviously it wasn't
our ideal situation, but whatever needed to be done we were okay with.
After a little bit of time with no
contractions her heart rate was normal again and she was doing fantastic so the
doctor decided to try to start my labor once again by using pitocin to see how
things would go. He wanted to give me every chance to have a normal delivery
VS the c-section. With-in minutes of starting my contractions back up Addy's
heart rate began doing the same thing as it was before. Matt and I had been
talking about the whole situation and we had decided that there was no point in
stressing Addy anymore than we needed to; so when the doctor came in the room
and suggested that we stop my contractions again and go ahead with the
c-section we were quick to agree and before we knew it they were taking me into
the operating room.
In the OR they prepped me and got Matt all
dressed in his sterile gear before he could come in to be with me. They had to
pull out my epidural and give me a spinal in order for me to be numb enough for
the surgery. (Let's just say numb was an understatement of how I was feeling after it was all said and done!)
They let Matt in when they had me all ready for the surgery and he sat next to
my head. He was being so supportive and did a wonderful job of making me feel a
little more at ease. When the anesthesiologist told him he could stand up and
watch if he wanted to he jumped right to his feet and watched the whole thing.
If you ask him he will tell you, "it was sweet to watch!" I love him
so much! Because I had labored for so long Addy had dropped pretty low into the
birth canal. The doctor had to give her a good tug and pull 4-5 times before he
was able to pull her out.
At 9:11 a.m on January 10th Addyson Allene
Webster was born. She came out screaming and super active.
She had the cord wrapped around her neck, hence the heart rate decelerations
during labor. Addy weighed 5 lbs 15 oz and was 19 inches long.
So after 27 hours of labor, 3 IV's, 2
epidurals, 1 spinal, and a c-section our family went from the two of us to the
three of us, and we could not be happier. Even though my labor was quite the
process, I would do it again in a heart beat. It amazes me how quickly you
forget the bad parts because of all the love you immediately have for the sweet
little spirit you have been blessed with. It feels like she has been apart of
our family forever. It's hard to remember what life was like with out
her.
Addy, we love you more than words can
describe. Mommy and daddy can't wait to experience life and all that it holds with
you. You are our world, baby girl!
XOXO
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| First family picture :) |
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| Happy Momma |
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| Proud Daddy |
