5:57 PM
Amy and Meagan
I feel like I should mention that this is a birth story and might have references to .. well.. birth. :) You've been warned.
I had a lot of problems in my pregnancy with Mikaela. While all of the problems were not life threatening they were certainly annoying, some were scary, and some of them were very painful as well. The pregnancy started out with a lot of nausea and that got better but never really went away. At 24 weeks I started having contractions which was very scary. At 28 weeks they did an ultrasound and found that my cervix was already pretty thin. I started some medicine to help keep the contractions away but it didn't help and shot my heart rate up really high, so I stopped taking it. My pregnancy was monitored closely for the next couple of months. My cervix continued to thin but never dilated. I did get steroid shots for her lungs at 33 weeks because we were expecting her anytime. However, she ended up deciding not to come on her own! At the end of the pregnancy I was having some major dental issues and the last couple of weeks I ended up having some intestinal issues also. I will spare you the grossest details but basically my insides rearranged themselves because the uterus was taking up too much room. It was causing extreme pain and my doctor decided to induce since I was full term (he said they would consider "term" 35 for me, and I was almost 40 at this point) and had the steroid shots. The induction was scheduled for Monday, May 2nd at 6 AM.
When Josh and I arrived at the hospital we had a little surprise. We were told that L&D was not expecting us until 8:00AM! I wondered why we had been told to go early since I didn't think the doctor would be there until later. Once I was admitted I was put on the monitors and waited until about 8:30 when the doctor arrived. Josh was awake the entire night before and I was up and down all night, so we were both very tired. They decided to try a cervical ripening pill before Pitocin and that was put in around 8:30. I waited for a few hours until the doctor came back and he said my cervix hadn't changed any (I was 75% effaced, 1 CM dilated when I came in) so they would start the Pitocin. Pitocin was started around 1PM and let me tell you pit contractions hurt just as much as anyone says they do! I have had a natural labor and delivery before and contractions didn't hurt with that one until much further into the labor. With the pitocin, contractions were quite painful at 3 CM and nearly unbearable at 4. It only took a little while to start dilating which was really promising. I got the epidural at 4 CM. I wanted to wait but the pain was horrible. I was worried that the epidural might not work because I was told when I had Kainan that I couldn't have one. Apparently that guy was crazy because the anesthesiologist had no problems at all. I was always all about natural childbirth and I still think it's great but I am a total epidural convert. :) The only problem that I had was it made me very sick to my stomach. I felt great right after getting it but then got a headache and felt pretty sick to my stomach. It was better than the contractions but I really wasn't feeling well. Eventually they gave me some Zofran and tylenol and that helped almost immediately. The epidural helped the pain so much, but Josh and my mom said I was more out of it than I thought. I must have been out of it because until my mom said something I had forgotten that her and my sister came in to talk to me after I got the epidural. I felt fine, but I guess I was a little loopy. :) I still thought it would go pretty slow, but I dilated from 4CM to 6CM in an hour. Josh went out to the waiting room to eat some pizza since the progress was still slow. The nurse came back to check me 20 minutes later which I thought was weird and said I was fully dilated. I was seriously hoping that the baby didn't come out before Josh finished his pizza! Fortunately he came right back and the doctor wasn't there so I had to wait a while. When the doctor finally arrived he said that I could wait to push until I really felt like I needed to. We actually waited quite a while because the doctor said it would be much easier on me to let the baby come down on her own than to push and push and wear myself out. I wish I would have had the same doctor with my first, because I pushed for over an hour with him and it was exhausting. Once I did push it only took 3 or 4 pushes and she was out. I was so shocked. The labor had gone so slowly that once she was finally out it wasn't "real" to me for a while. They waited until the cord stopped pulsating to clamp it (I didn't have a "birth plan" but I asked for this) and he asked Josh if he wanted to cut it which he did. Everyone commented how pretty she was. I think she was born so quickly that she didn't have the squished up / bruised / red look of most vaginally born newborns. She swallowed some fluid on the way out which was scary but she was fine after just a minute. Her APGAR scores were 8/9. She was 7lbs 8oz and 20 inches long. Her brother was the exact same weight and 21 inches long.
Mikaela Danae was born at 8:35PM on Monday, May 2nd. After a very rough pregnancy I was shocked to have such an easy delivery. The doctor checked for any abnormalities in the placenta since I'd had so many problems but he said everything looked normal. We don't really know why I had pre-term contractions but we are thankful that she didn't come early. Josh did really great and helped me a lot through the labor and delivery. He is so attached to Mikaela too, I have to fight him for her. :) Kainan loves his sister too. He tries to help her when she cries and so far hasn't showed any real jealously, let's hope that lasts! Mikaela has been a great baby so far and definitely likes her sleep. I will add more to this if I remember anything. Thanks for reading!
Posted in: Parenting
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