Saturday, October 23, 2010

Birth Story

Well, Savannah will be 2 weeks old tomorrow and I finally have time to sit down and write this out...well, hopefully =)
My mom flew in on Tuesday, October 5th thinking that FOR SURE I would have delivered by then...nope. I worked from home the rest of the week and my poor mom sat at my house and cleaned, cooked, read the entire time....just waiting. Saturday evening, my friend, Jo Ann came over claiming that she could help induce labor. I was skeptical, but desperate, so I did everything she said. She made me some tea made with Cumin and I drank 3 cups of it while she gave me a belly massage to move the baby down. She left the house around 9pm and I went to bed. Around 2am, I woke up with some pretty strong braxton hicks and they continued and got stronger as the night went on. Around 6am, I got up and Chris and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. It was a REALLY slow walk and I had to stop every few minutes to breathe through my contractions. When we got back home, I ate some cheerios and sat on my birthing ball for a good hour. My contractions were about 4-5 min apart at this point, but not too painful. At 9am, I decided to lay back in bed because I was getting way too uncomfortable and about 15 min later, my water broke! I actually heard it and felt it pop in my belly!! It was SO WEIRD! Chris and I got to the hospital around 9.30 and once I was hooked up to the fetal monitor, my contractions were 1-2 min apart and REALLY strong. I never got a break to recover in between contractions, so my Dr. (who was on call that weekend!!!!) let me get an epidural even though I was only dilated to a 2. THANK GOD I did...wow...I felt a million times better and Chris and I were able to relax, watch some football and talk for the rest of the day. I progressed about 1cm/hour and by the time I was at a 5 I was put on oxygen and taken off of the pitocin because baby's heartrate would dip after every contraction. The oxygen seemed to help and since the pitocin was actually SLOWING down my contractions, I went from 5cm to 7cm in 30 min and then to 9cm 45 min later! I stayed at 9cm for another hour or so and baby's heartrate was dipping again =(. My Dr. came in around 8pm and we talked about our options. She said I could start pushing, but that baby was still really high and she was afraid that I would be pushing for a few hours with no progress. We decided that we didn't want to put any more stress on baby and went in for a c-section.
The c-section was scary, I wont lie. I felt like someone was sitting on my chest the whole time and I couldn't breathe. I felt like it took 5 hours, but Chris swears it was more like 5 minutes. Regardless, Savannah came out at 8.41pm and was absoultely beautiful!! I didn't get to hold her, but Chris did and he got to go with her to the transitional nursery. Recovering from a c-section with a newborn should be illegal. It's pure torture, but all worth it. Although her birth didn't go as planned, I am happy with how things went and wouldn't change a thing. I LOVE her and can't imagine our lives without her.















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