Birth story for our little miracle!
Wednesday evening, 3/30 at about 10:30pm I went to use the bathroom and when I wiped, there was a ton of bright red blood on the toilet paper. I ran to my husband to show him I was bleeding and I had to run back to the toilet as I felt something was gushing out. I was super sure it was my water and it was tinged with blood. We grabbed our mostly packed hospital bag, threw a few other things together, and drove to the hospital.
Once there they checked my fluids twice with the fluid ferning test but it wasn't showing up as amniotic fluid. They weren't sure what it was, but hooked me up to the NST to monitor the baby and the bloods as well. They said they could either admit me, or wait for the bleeding to stop and send me home. It depended on how I was doing and how much more blood was going to come out. I bled for awhile but it mostly halted after that. They kept me on to see if I would go into labor on my own, and I started having a few small contractions here and there. I was only about 1.5cm dilated at this point.
At around 3:30am or so, my nurse showed up and shared that she had talked to my doctor and she had decided to admit me for induction. I was already scheduled to come back in 4 days anyways, and the unexplained bleeding was enough for them to keep me. They started the pitocin drip and the antibiotics since I was strep b positive.
The pitocin kicked in and I started contractions pretty much right away and they escalated over the next few hours. At 7am my doctor showed up to check on me and I think at that point I was only about 2cm dilated. It took about 4-5 hours before the pain got horrible after that and the next time they checked me, I was dilated to about a 3cm and significantly effaced. Baby's head was quite far up though. I believe it was about this point where my waters broke and the contractions got unbearable. I said I couldn't take it and they ordered the epidural. Once the epidural was in (and that was rough all on its own because the contractions were hitting every 2 minutes and it took us awhile to find the right spot, and I had to stay very still, which is almost impossible when you're in crazy pain), but then I had literally 0 pain once it was fully administered. The only bad part of the epi was the leg numbness which made me freak out for awhile. It wasn't something I was comfortable with.
So from about 12-4pm, on 3/31, I slept and labored painlessly. The heart rate monitor started to show a high fetal heart rate. Baby was about 5.5cm dilated, had not dropped, and was showing signs of fetal distress. My doctor came in and decided we should do a c-section. She said she didn't think the baby could endure the stress of labor given how long it was taking me to progress. The pitocin was speeding up her heart rate but stopping the pitocin would slow down the progress. So it was a catch-22. We agreed to do the section and got wheeled in around 5:30pm. The section was really uncomfortable for me. I was one of the rare few who get severe shoulder pain during the cutting. I was also shaking uncontrollably. But the baby was born at 5:48pm and it was all worth it! I finally got to spend time with her about 30 minutes later and daddy got the first skin to skin with her.
I had severe itching due to a side effect with the epidural. I was unable to sleep due to the itching. That has since gone away, but sleep is an issue due to anxiety. I'm assured it's normal for now and I'm doing my best to catch a few hours here and there.
We love our little baby girl and while the labor was a long hard day, it was worth it!
Celeste Evangeline
Born 3/31/16
5:48pm
6 lbs, 4oz, 19.5"
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