DD2 Birth Story
Nov 2, 2017 9:57:23 GMT -6
Post by summer on Nov 2, 2017 9:57:23 GMT -6
Per usual, I went past my due date. My ob was semi-pressing for me to do a sweep, but I couldn't pull the trigger and we scheduled an induction for 40+6 weeks (on a Thursday). Monday was totally normal - I was tired, but not having any contractions (not even BH) or showing any other signs of labor. I took DS to preschool, baked muffins with DD1, ran errands, did laundry, made dinner, all the usual stuff. DH got up with an upset stomach around midnight that night. I was feeling a little uncomfortable, so I rolled over and felt better, but got up at 12:30 to check on DH. I started wondering if my discomfort was actually contractions, so while DH went back to bed I stayed up to drink some water and see if I couldn't get comfortable again. Within 20 minutes, I knew I was for sure in labor and it was progressing quickly. I went and told DH that we needed to move fast. Problem was, since I had been so convinced I wouldn't go into labor on my own, we had no plan with who would watch the kids and my hospital bag was only partially packed. I called my mom just after 1am and told her to come, but she was at least 1.5 hours away, so we called a church friend and asked if we could drop our kids off with her. Poor woman, she had no idea we would be calling in the middle of the night, but she so graciously said yes. We got the kids up and got us all in the car. By now my contractions were bordering on not fun, but I was trying to stay calm and explain to the kids what was happening so they wouldn't freak out. Our friend later told us that DD1 was a little upset after DH left, but DS comforted her and they all went to bed just fine. I was so proud of my little guy! On the way to the hospital, the contractions started being pretty painful. I was admitted at 5cm and got an epidural maybe 30 minutes after I got in the labor and delivery room. It made me crazy shaky, which has happened before, but previously I had a lot more time to let the drugs settle in and my body to calm down. About 10 minutes after the epidural, the nurses said I was fully dilated(!) and asked if I wanted to start pushing. I pushed twice before they told me to stop so they could get the doctor. At that point, I really wanted to push, so thank goodness the on-call OB came quickly. Once he was there, I pushed once and DD2 was out! She was born at 3:37am, just a few hours after my first contractions. I couldn't believe how fast it all happened!
Once I delivered, we did skin to skin, and the hospital pediatrician came in to check baby. She noted that DD2's oxygen levels were not quite as high as they liked, and they couldn't get a really strong cry out of her. They were going to send her to the nursery for observation for a couple of hours, but the nursery attendant was on break so they decided to send DD2 to the NICU to be observed instead. No one acted like it was a big deal at all, and I wasn't worried. DH went with the baby while the nurses got me cleaned up and started pumping, since I wasn't able to feed the baby before they took her to NICU (they didn't want her to eat until they were sure she was breathing well). By the time I got to the NICU an hour later, there were five people in the room, plus DH, poking and prodding and bustling around my sweet little girl. I was a little in shock, I think, because I just looked at DH and asked, "Did something change?" Long, long story short, there was some air outside of her lungs that was compressing one of her lungs and had actually moved her heart a little out of place. It wasn't a big big deal (up until they determined that they thought it was something much worse), but she had to be on oxygen until the air resorbed into her body. I could hold her (and all of her monitor wires) but not feed her. It was the strangest feeling to go to my recovery room without my baby. DH went home to help my mom (who had picked up my kids and got them home by this point) and get some rest, since he still wasn't feeling great. He came back for a bit in the afternoon, and my mom came to visit too. That night, going back to my room and leaving my baby behind, was the hardest thing. I cried when I left. I knew she was fine but it all felt so wrong to walk away from her. Again, long story short, DD2 ended up staying in the NICU for three days until her oxygen levels were good and her blood sugar would stay up once I was able to start feeding her myself (I had been pumping up to that point, and she first had pumped milk before I could nurse her). The hospital discharged me after two days, but they kept a couple of recovery rooms open for short-term NICU parents, so I was able to stay in the hospital and nurse her that extra day and night. She's been all good since she's been home, except for the refusal to sleep, but I'm so grateful her issues weren't more serious. Suffice to say, this birth experience was wildly different from my previous two inductions!
It took us almost the full three days, but we finally settled on Emma Ryan for her name. I'll post a pic below and poof after a few days.
Once I delivered, we did skin to skin, and the hospital pediatrician came in to check baby. She noted that DD2's oxygen levels were not quite as high as they liked, and they couldn't get a really strong cry out of her. They were going to send her to the nursery for observation for a couple of hours, but the nursery attendant was on break so they decided to send DD2 to the NICU to be observed instead. No one acted like it was a big deal at all, and I wasn't worried. DH went with the baby while the nurses got me cleaned up and started pumping, since I wasn't able to feed the baby before they took her to NICU (they didn't want her to eat until they were sure she was breathing well). By the time I got to the NICU an hour later, there were five people in the room, plus DH, poking and prodding and bustling around my sweet little girl. I was a little in shock, I think, because I just looked at DH and asked, "Did something change?" Long, long story short, there was some air outside of her lungs that was compressing one of her lungs and had actually moved her heart a little out of place. It wasn't a big big deal (up until they determined that they thought it was something much worse), but she had to be on oxygen until the air resorbed into her body. I could hold her (and all of her monitor wires) but not feed her. It was the strangest feeling to go to my recovery room without my baby. DH went home to help my mom (who had picked up my kids and got them home by this point) and get some rest, since he still wasn't feeling great. He came back for a bit in the afternoon, and my mom came to visit too. That night, going back to my room and leaving my baby behind, was the hardest thing. I cried when I left. I knew she was fine but it all felt so wrong to walk away from her. Again, long story short, DD2 ended up staying in the NICU for three days until her oxygen levels were good and her blood sugar would stay up once I was able to start feeding her myself (I had been pumping up to that point, and she first had pumped milk before I could nurse her). The hospital discharged me after two days, but they kept a couple of recovery rooms open for short-term NICU parents, so I was able to stay in the hospital and nurse her that extra day and night. She's been all good since she's been home, except for the refusal to sleep, but I'm so grateful her issues weren't more serious. Suffice to say, this birth experience was wildly different from my previous two inductions!
It took us almost the full three days, but we finally settled on Emma Ryan for her name. I'll post a pic below and poof after a few days.
