Monday, June 23, 2014

My Labour & Delivery Story

Hello lovelies,

As I am writing this I am currently 7 weeks and 4 days postpartum, my beautiful angel was born May 7th, 2014.
Being a new mom has been nothing but exciting and rewarding in so many ways. Yes, it is tiring, but so worth it!!!

Now on to the details of how my little cupcake came into this world.

As most of you know from week 30 on I had many overnight stays in the hospital and had since been put on an early leave from work and bed rest at home.

It was a regular Monday morning (I was 34 weeks and 2days) when my fiancés alarm sounded off at 5am. I woke up to go the bathroom and surprise, surprise I was bleeding (heavy). I waited an hour, called L&D and they suggested I go in to get checked out.  When we got there (7:30am) they didn't do very much at all in terms of testing or anything really. I guess they were just used to seeing me and didn't think that what was happening now was any different. I got admitted into my room at around 10am and finally my blood was taken by one of the nurses. It wasn't until my OB came to visit me that an ultrasound was scheduled and I was sent down shortly after.

During my ultrasound everything looked normal for the most part, except my fluid level was slightly lower. The ultrasound tech also saw something that wasn't there the week prior, but she was unsure of what it was. It didn't look like my placenta had separated, so there was still no clear explanation as to why I was bleeding, AGAIN.

I continued to bleed all day, mostly when I was moving or got out of my bed. Sometimes a little and other times it was heavier. At 5pm I was sitting upright eating my dinner when my fiancé said something funny and made me laugh. While laughing I felt a huge gush of blood and then another gush right after. I called my nurse and when she came to check me she said that it looked as if my water broke and I was having my "bloody show". She got the equipment needed to test the fluid and it turned out to indeed be my water. Because of how far along I already was my Dr. decided not to try to intervene in prolonging my pregnancy.

On Tuesday May 6th I wasn't progressing on my own as my cervix was still closed, so they started my induction with oxytocin at 11:45am. The contractions started almost immediately. They were very mild to start and increasingly got stronger throughout the afternoon. They felt like bad menstrual cramps, but not in any one spot, they were all over. The contractions were bearable and nothing that I couldn't handle. At approximately 5:30pm the on-call Dr. came in to check my progression and I was only 1cm dilated and 80% effaced. Six hours of contractions and I thought to myself, that's it!?!? She told me that if I wasn't progressing on my own by 10pm I would be taken in for a c-section. The chance of having a c-section terrified me. When you have had one c-section, most Dr.'s will make you have a c-section for future pregnancies as well and I didn't want that.

At 7:45pm the new on-call Dr. came in to check on me and I was still only 1cm, but now I was fully effaced. She said that considering I started completely closed up, that my progression rate was normal and now that I am fully effaced I should start progressing faster. This meant no c-section, for now. Being only 1cm dilated with 8hours of contractions and 9cm more to go I decided it was time for an epidural. The contractions were still bearable, but they were getting a lot closer and I didn't want to have to feel them for another 8 hours, if it was potentially going to take that long. By this time I also had a new nurse and she ended up being the same nurse that I had the night before, so I was very happy because she was really nice and easy to talk to.

Throughout the night my fiancé was still with me eagerly waiting for our baby girl. My nurse continued to increase my dosage of oxytocin as much as my baby could handle the contractions. At times my contractions were continuous, one right after the other, with no time inbetween. Even though I had the epidural I could still feel the pressure, so I always knew when I was having a contraction. I managed to take a nap and woke up at around 1:30am, because the pressure was increasing and getting much stronger. At this point my nurse had upped my dosage to either level four or five, I can't remember. This made my contractions a lot more intense. At times I was grabbing on to the railing on my bed, because I felt so much pressure.

At 5:30am on Wednesday May 7th my nurse and Dr. checked my cervix again and I was 2cm dilated. My oxytocin dosage was at a level five at this point and my nurse told me that it should be happening very soon. It was time for her to take her hour break at this point, so a different nurse would be popping in every so often to check on me. At this time my fiancé decided to go home and take a shower, as well as try to rest for a few hours.

It was now just before 6am and I had to buzz for a nurse. I could feel every single contraction, it literally felt as though there was a softball sitting right on top of my cervix. I was cringing and crying during every single contraction at this point. When the nurse came in I asked her to get my dr. Approximately 15 had passed and the nurse came back in and I asked where my dr was and if she was coming to check on me. I told her how much pressure I was feeling and that I was in a lot of pain. I wanted them to check how far I was, because it felt like I was further dilated. She decided to check me instead of getting my Dr. When she checked me, she told me that she could no longer feel my cervix. She said that I was fully dilated. She started to prep and get everything ready for delivery. I called my fiancé who had just gotten home 15min prior and told him that he had to come back, it was time. At 6:30am my nurse was back and so was my Dr., it was time to push.

After 30 minutes of pushing my fiancé and I welcomed our beautiful baby girl into the world. As soon as I let out my last push and saw her for the first time, I bawled my eyes out and could not stop crying. I was in complete awe and so in love. I couldn't believe that she was actually here. She scored 7 and 9 on her apgar tests, weighed 5lbs, 5oz and was 17.5inches long. They cut the cord, cleaned her up and did what they needed to, then put her on my chest and I was still crying at this point. My fiancé held her for a few minutes and then they had to take her to the NICU and do more tests on her. Because she was a preemie they told us that she would have to stay in NICU and we would have to go in there to see her.

After 17hours and 45min of labour I was happier than I have ever been. I never thought that it was possible to love someone as much as I now loved my little girl. I was discharged from the hospital the next day, May 8th (also my birthday) and it was the hardest day of my life, because I had to leave without my baby.  Every day my fiancé and I went to the hospital to spend time with our little girl. She needed to be fed every three hours and we were there. For the first couple of days she was under light treatment,  because she had low levels of jaundice, but other than that she was perfectly healthy!

Finally exactly one week after our baby girl was born, it was time to take her home. Her Dr. in the hospital wouldn't allow us to take her home until she started to gain weight and thankfully she now was. Being new parents,  we were ecstatic to finally have our baby home with us.

She is now almost 8 weeks and she is doing amazing, as am I. Thus far, she has an olive complexion, just like her daddy (who is Filipino), she has grey coloured eyes, and her mommy's chubby cheeks. I will be doing another post in the next few weeks, when she is two months old and I am two months post-partum. Look out for that in the second week of July.

Here are just a few pictures of our beautiful baby girl!!

Thank you for following along this journey with me and for reading this entire post!!

Until next time...
xoxo
annpaige