Abigail’s Birth Story

We knew we were going to be induced on November 13 at 7:00am – Friday the 13^th! We arrived at the hospital a little after 6:30am to register and complete our paperwork. The process at the hospital was quick, easy and efficient.

We were then taken to our Labor and Deliver room – which was lucky #7. I was asked a million questions then immediately hooked up to an IV machine and the induction drug, Pitocin, was started. It was at this point we realized this was really happening. Matt and I were going to be parents today!

Matt and I could see the contractions on the monitor, but I couldn’t feel anything until around 1:00pm. That’s when things started getting a little harder to handle. By this point I was at 7cm and really starting to re-think my decision to go without pain medicine or an epidural. I had Matt call in the nurse, then changed my mind and sent her away, only to call her in again and we had a long talk about what to do. In the end I opted for an epidural. I just couldn’t take it anymore. The pain was nothing like anything I’ve ever experienced. So the epidural was put in and relief was almost immediate. We also realized I had jumped from 7cm to 9cm in a matter of minutes. My biggest fear with the epidural was being numb from the waist down. However, it affects everyone differently, and somehow I could still move and feel my feet and legs for the most part, but my entire stomach was numb. It was a perfect epidural if there is such a thing.

The nurse checked me again a few minutes later and we were told it was time to start pushing. Both Matt and I were thrown off guard…we weren’t expecting it so quickly!! So we began pushing and did so from 5:30pm until around 7:00pm. The doctor came in and checked the baby’s position and that was when we got the bad news. Abby was turned “transverse” which is off to the side and her little head was swollen from trying to get down through the pelvis. She just wasn’t lined up right. She also felt the baby was a bit to big for my body. It was at this point that the doctor told us we need to do a c-section. She said we could try to do a few tricks to get her to turn – but that in her honest opinion, it wasn’t going to work. So, c-section it was.

It’s amazing how with that one little decision all the sudden my hospital room became a crazy ER like show. I had more nurses and doctors in the room then I’d seen the entire day. Everyone had their job to do and within 30 minutes I had been numbed from the waist down, given multiple types of meds in my IV, given a drink of some sort of “shot” for my stomach acids…and then wheeled to the Operating Room. It was a scary and surreal experience.

15 minutes later Matt got to come in the room, and about 10 minutes after that Abby was born. Just like that.

Turns out having the c-section was the best decision we could have made. Once the doctors got to Abby, they realized she was crammed so hard into one side of my pelvis that a nurse actually had to go in and manually push her out to dislodge her head. She also had her cord wrapped around her neck. But she was a little trooper and let out the most perfect scream.

Matt went with Abby to the nursery and I was in the OR for another 45 or so minutes as the doctors sewed me back up. Then I was taken to Recovery for a couple hours before being moved over into the Postpartum room.

And then it was all over. I’ve never been so excited, nervous and completely scared all at the same time.