Emilia Rose's birth story

Chelsiver · April 2013

This will probably be long and full of TMI as these usually are

I was scheduled to be induced due to high blood pressure on Friday April 19. I had been dilated 1 cm for two weeks and off and on crampy, but nothing ever turned timeable. On Monday the 15, I woke up and started reading my e-mail and fb in bed. The baby was kicking and it seemed like a normal morning. H had just gotten in the shower and I felt a little pop and fluid started gushing out (luckily, we had just put a plastic liner on the bed). I called to H that we needed to go to the hospital because my water had broken.

The hospital is an hour away, but I was feeling fine with just a couple painless contractions on the way. They checked me in and did a swab to make sure it was fluid, but the nurse laughed as she was doing it because it was so obvious. They admitted me even though I wasn't in active labor because she needed to be out within 24 hours and I was GBS positive so they wanted to get antibiotics started.

My body wasn't going into labor on its own so a couple of hours later, they started pitocin. The contractions didn't hurt so I was going to wait a bit for my epidural. After the pitocin was turned up, Emilia had a heart deceleration so they turned me on my side, gave me a shot to stop contractions and put an oxygen mask on me. It was so scary, but her heart rate came back up.

They decided to put in internal monitors to keep a closer eye on her heart rate and they really hurt going in because I was still only 2 cm. After that, I got my epidural and that was awesome!

The rest of labor kept being scary. They would turn up the pitocin and Emila would have a deceleration and they would stop it and give me a shot. I had to have 3 shots and ended up wearing an oxygen mask the whole time. (The shot they give you makes you shake really badly so that was fun too).

Just when I was ready to beg for a c-section, they said I was fully dilated (from 3 cm to 10 cm in only 2 hours). I sat up straight in bed to do "rest and descend" and let Emilia get a little lower. Then it was time to push! They had my Dr. come in early because of Emilia's position and that ended up being a really good thing because I only pushed for about 20 minutes. My Dr. and the nurses were making bets on how much cord would be wrapped around her because of the decels, but she ended up not being wrapped in it at all. They said she must have just been pinching it a little. She was born at 5:06 am on April 16 at 38w5d.

They had called the special nursery team in because of the decels. The Dr. said that when they see those, half the time the baby comes out screaming and half the time they need a little help. I didn't get to hold her right away because she needed to be checked out, but she came out screaming! Everyone was laughing at how dramatic she was being. She weighed in at only 5 lbs 10 oz, but was a good 20 inches long. I got her after about 10 minutes. My labor was really scary, but I felt almost no pain through the whole thing and I actually really enjoyed pushing.

She had to have extra blood sugar tests throughout the day, but she never had to have any special care or spend any time away from us. We are supplementing with formula because she is so small, but breastfeeding is going pretty well too. She is such a sweet, wonderful, beautiful, delicate baby and I love her to pieces.

photo 50d57f24-7a87-46b2-a31c-85ee323ae2a5_zpsdf06878b.jpg