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Ava Elizabeth was born on August 19 at 1:07 PM.  I went in on Tuesday, the 18th at 7 pm to be induced.  They got me set up and administered the cervadil at 8.  I started having cramping almost immediately!  I told the nurse I was having what felt like contractions and she confirmed that I was.  Around 10 I had to get up and walk around a bit to help with some of the discomfort.  I got back in bed and the nurse gave me an Ambien to help sleep.  It didn't work at all.  Finally around 2 she gave me something else to help sleep and it worked for a bit.  She came back in around 5:30 am to see how I was and was going to give me more of the second med to help me sleep more.  She wanted to check my progress first and when she did I was 7 cm.  She got the anestheisiologist in there to give me the epidural.  My poor husband was sleeping on the couch and woke up to all this noise and people in the room.  He almost passed out when they were about to give me the epidural.  After that I slept great!  At around 10:30 it was time to start pushing.  She decided to be stubborn and was head up, posterior, so it took her longer to come down the birth canal and turn the correct way.  I remember the nurse asking if the doctor thought she might be a big baby since I had gestational diabetes and I told her that my last ultrasound showed she was right on track.  The epidural started to wear off a bit towards the end there, so I started to feel some of the pain, but I stuck with it.  Finally, she was born at 1:07 pm with a head full of dark hair and sweet as can be.  I did feel some of the stitching up, not too bad, but could feel it a little.  I also got a nice little hemotoma on my perineum so they left the epidural tube in my back so if they needed to do any kind of lancing I already had that in my back so they could administer the drugs.  I didn't end up needing anything done to it, went down on it's own.  She weighed in at 6lbs 5 oz and was 19 3/4 inches. I think she looks like her Daddy.   She is almost 8 weeks old now, and I have loved every minute of it.  She still has dark hair, and I am pretty sure she has her Daddy's blue eyes.  I SO love being a Mommy and love our new little family.

Posted by Jacquie_Palma    Friday, October 16, 2009 1:46 PM

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I got to the hospital around 10:30am on January 19th, 2 days before I was due. They have me waiting in Triage again so they can monitor me and the baby and a doctor can speak to me about everything they will be doing and what I can expect. They moved me to a birthing room and started my induction around 3:00pm by hooking me up to an IV of Pitocin to start my contractions (slowly). They said they would check me in a couple of hours and possible have to give me Cervidil overnight and break my water in the morning.

I started feeling the contractions a little while later, but they didn’t seem like anything I couldn’t handle…..yet. Around 6:30pm I called a nurse to get up to use the bathroom and my water broke on it’s own. Things were obviously progressing quickly and my body was doing what it should, so that was exciting. I did request some type of drug to take the edge off. I was told I could still feel the contractions, but not the pain building up to one. The drug was given half in my IV and half shot into my butt and seemed to do absolutely nothing! It didn’t seem to take any edge off, but I wasn’t yet to a point that I couldn’t handle the pain.

The doctor didn’t think much would happen overnight so I sent Scott home to get a good night sleep before all of the excitment of tomorrow.

Overnight was a nightmare. Besides the pain, it seemed like everything that could have gone wrong did. My overnight nurse was great, but even she felt bad for me. All of the machines I was hooked up to seemed to beep every 15 minutes because it would either lose the baby’s heartbeat or something else would go wrong. The nurse also came rushing in at one point because my pulse was off the charts. It was showing my pulse going over 200 (they like it around 100) and she wasn’t comfortable with that. All of the sudden, my nurse, doctor and EKG specialist come rushing into my room to find out my it was reading so high. They hooked my up to a second EKG machine to make sure the readings were correct. It turns out that the first maching was double counting my heartbeat so the entire time my rate was really normal. So now I’m hooked up to and IV, BP cuff, two extension cord-looking things that track my BP, contractions and the baby’s BP, eight additional EKG stickers all over my body and eventually, before this ordeal was over, an oxygen mask.

Around 1:00am my doctor came in to check on how I was progressing and thought it would be best to have an epidural because my contractions were so strong. I was about 3cm at this point, but within the next hour or tw0, I had jumped from 4cm to 7cm so I thought the rest might go pretty quickly and delivery would be relativly smooth. I was wrong!

The doctor came back in to check on my around 5:30am and I was almost fully dilated. They told me to call Scott because things would be happening very quickly. He got to the hospital about 30 minutes later and I started pushing. After a little while the doctor said they baby was still really high, she was ’sunny-side up’ and then her HB started to drop with every push. The doctor then mentioned that the baby was too high to use a vacuum to get her out and that she might need forceps. Well I said “No way!” I would rather have a c-section and risk something happening to me that happening to the baby.

The doctor then sat down with us and talked to us about a c-section. The doctor was very calm about it and didn’t want us to worry, but the situation quickly became an emergency. Within the next 5 minutes, there were much more people around and I was getting more drugs through the IV in my back and I was getting wheeled into the OR. Scott had to stay behind for a few minutes and get dressed in hospital scrubs and wait for someone to come get him after I was all prepped for surgery.

I remember them wheeling me very quickly down the hallways and into a very cold, very white operating room. Once in the OR, all I could really do was stare up at the huge lights because I had a screen up in front of my face and don’t think I really could have moved even if I had tried. There seemed to be at least 10 – 12 hospital staff in the room at once. Everyone seemed to be running around pretty quickly, but I remember 1 nurse who stayed up by my head and was talking to me through most of the surgery and telling me what the doctors were doing as they were doing it. My 2 doctors (Metzger & Shakr) were pretty good at talking to me too. Scott had walked in and sat down right next to me. He wasn’t sitting down for 10 seconds and they had the baby out. I heard her crying right away. I kept asking Scott of she was okay and if she was cute, but Scott couldn’t tell me because 3 or 4 nurses had taken her to the other side of the room to take her vitals and make sure she was healthy. At one point my left arm had fallen off the table and I was so drugged up that I couldn’t even lift it back up onto the table. I was feeling very tired and drowsy, but if I closed my eyes I felt very dizzy and nauseous. I told a nurse how I was feeling and she gave me yet another drug for the nausea. Once the screen came down, I was also unable to even lift my head up to see Scott holding Ella across the room. I’m not sure how much time went by, but they brought her over to me and I tried to hold her, but she seemed so heavy in my arms that I said I didn’t feel comfortable holding her yet, which made me feel kind of bad.

We were then wheeled into recovery where I had to stay for 2 hours before getting taken to my room. The baby was with us for a little while and then had to be taken for the usual tests. I don’t think I got to see her again until after I was in my actual room. I remember being so tired, but unable to sleep. Even at times when Scott and Ella weren’t with me in recovery, I would shut my eyes, but I never fell asleep.

I finally got settled in my room around around 10:00am. Scott was already waiting in the room and a short while later Ella got wheeling in, in her little, clear plastic bassinet that she would be living in for the next 4 days. The rest of the day (and the next day or two) seem like a blur. I know I was up and walking by the next night. I didn’t feel too bad considering the surgery I’d just had. As long as I took a Percocet every couple of hours, the pain was manageable. The worst of it was trying to either get up or down because of the burning pain at the incision site.

I was also put on a blood pressure medication because even after having Ella, my BP was still high. (I ended up being on the BP med for about 3 weeks after being discharded from the hospital)

I was in the hospital for a total of 5 long days. I was very glad to get home the following Saturday where it seemed easier to relax when hospital staff weren’t coming into the room every 10 minutes, even though it was a little scary that Scott and I were now on our own. They just gave us this baby to take home………………….and it’s just the 3 of us now!

Posted by Quiksilver620    Thursday, November 19, 2009 8:34 AM

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I feel very like i got very lucky with the birth of my daughter! I had a very easy pregnancy and at 39 weeks i went into labor. i was actually sitting in my bedroom watching scrubs around midnight and started feeling uncomfortable. about an hour later, i realized that these definately were contractions so i woke my mom up and she took me to the hospital about a half hour later.

we got to the hospital and i was all checked in and in the delivery room by 215am. by then the contractions were REALLY painful! i was seriously trying hard not to scream and keep my breathing under control. well, they got my blood work going and told me that as soon as they got the results back, they would give me my epidural. well, a few minutes later i started really feeling pressure and the urge to push so i did. and i told them the baby was coming and they just said not to push. i didn't listen cause there was no way i could just not push.

so, im layin there and the nurse comes to check me and tells me that i don't have time for an epidural. also, the on call doctor wasn't even there yet!!! so, the er doc comes in and is putting on her gloves when i push the baby out. at first they thought it was just the water sac but then there was her head. the dr got her gloves on just in time to catch my daughter as she came out. she was out at 324. only an hour and 14 minutes after i got in the delivery room!! and pushing her out didn't hurt a bit, i was just happy not to feel the contractions anymore!!! when i heard her cry i looked at my mom and asked if that was it. she almost smacked me! lol she said that i made a lot of ppl mad cause it was so easy for me! lol

i did have some tearing but the on call doc got there right after i had my daughter and stitched me up. that was it!!! sooo easy for me and idk why but i definately feel lucky!! lol

Posted by bloodworth09    Friday, November 27, 2009 9:30 PM

re: Become a featured user!

Breanna June Drinkard was born on 09/11/2009 at 10:46pm, weighing in at 6lb 2oz and was 19in long.  I went to see my midwife for my checkup earlier that day at 1pm and told her I noticed some irregular contractions earlier that week and was curious as to if I was dilated more since the last time we checked.  I was dilated to a 1 earlier in the week.  My midwife leaned down to check and she looked stunned. She said that I was pretty much dilated to a 3 and I was really thinned out.  When I asked her what that meant, she said there was a possibility that I could have my daughter in the next few days...maybe even that evening.  I thought she was kidding.  Boy, I was ever wrong.

 That afternoon I picked up my son and a friend's son from school.  It was about 3pm and I started to notice some pressure like cramps, but didn't think much of it.  I was still spotting a bit from the exam earlier and thought that might've had something to do with it.  I didn't take much notice until my friend returned from work around 5pm.  I was cramping a bit more and wondered if maybe I was just having more irregular contractions.  Wrong!  6pm rolls around and I start to notice the contractions become regular.  I knew I was in labor, but was completely unsure how to handle it all.  (When I was pregnant with my son, I never went into labor on my own...I had to be induced and he was a week overdue.) So all of this was a bit new to me.  By 7:30pm, my contractions were about 10 min apart.  Since I was determined to have her med free, I did the only thing that I knew to do...say "Oooooooooooh!"  The vibrations from saying it helped so much with the pain.  I called my midwife to let her know what was going on.  She told me to call her back when the contractions were about 4-5 min apart.  By 9pm, I decided to take a shower to help dull some of the pain...it didn't work.  In fact, my contractions got closer together...about 5 min apart!  I came out of the shower, got dressed and headed to the living room.  I leaned up on the arm of the couch with my legs spread and started swaying from side to side, moaning to the pain. By this time, my friend's husband was home from work and started timing my contractions, which were now 3 min apart.  I was panicking by this time...worried I would pop out my mini-me in the living room of my friend's home, I called my midwife again and told her I thought the contractions were about 3 min apart.  She talked me through a few of the contractions and noticed that they were closer than that...about 1 min apart!  I was really freaked out.  She told me that she'd meet me at the hospital at 10:30pm (it was 10pm).

 We gathered my hospital bag and hopped (well...I wobbled) into the truck.  My friends drove me to the hospital, the whole way there I arched my back in pain all the while screaming profanities.  When we reached the hospital, I slowly made my way to the registration counter at the ER.  Since I was already registered, they notified Labor and Delivery of my arrival.  They asked me if I wanted to be wheeled upstairs, but because I was having such back labor, I wanted to walk off the pain.  (Oh...I wished I would've taken up that offer.)  Halfway to the elevator entrance, I stopped and swayed, moaning about how close the contractions were.  When we entered the elevator, the contractions were so close together, that I couldn't move out when we reached our stop.  Everyone had to lift me out and flag a nurse to help.  When I got to the double doors of Labor and Delivery, I found out my room was all the way...at the end...of the hallway.  I called it the 'Green Mile'.  Halfway down the hallway, the pain was so unbearable, I crouched down and started to sob.  I hollered out about wanting pain meds, knowing that it was too late to get any...but that wasn't going to stop me from begging.  Next thing I knew, I felt like I had to push and I was overly nauseated.  I looked at my friend and told her I how I felt.  The nurse next to her, was quick thinking, with a flash of confidence, reached over and tore the plastic off of a clean wash bucket and tossed it under my chin.  I started upchucking immediately.  Knowing we had to get me to my room NOW, the nurse gave up trying to locate a wheel chair and instead had me hop on for a ride on a rolling office chair.  All the way to the room, I threw up in my 'special' bucket.

 When we made it to my room, they rushed me to the bed and tore my underwear off.  I was screaming about the pain and how I wanted pain meds. I leaned to my right and grabbed the railing as though I was going to fly away somehow.  I saw my midwife make it into the room and head over to wash her hands.  All the while, she's telling me to hold on until she finished washing her hands.  My midwife turned to me and asked me if I wanted to push, I told her yes.  She said when she tells me to stop pushing, to stop.  This whole time, I'm screaming "RING OF FIRRREEE!  RING OF FIRRREEE!" "I want pain meds!"  My midwife turned to me, smiled and said..."Sorry hon, it's a bit to late for that...her head is pretty much there."  All I could do was scream "NOOOOOOOO!"  She stood at the end of the bed and moved my left leg to expose it all...that's when my water broke...ALL over her.  I thought for sure she was going to freak out, but instead she threw her hands up and chuckled.  She told me to push when I was ready and in two good pushes, my daughter's head was out.  (I noticed the Ring of Fire was gone!) I was told to stop and hold.  She guided out the rest of my daughter and as soon as she came out, immediately placed her on my naked chest.  I had the wonderful opportunity to hold my daughter on my chest, close to me, for a whole hour before they removed her to clean her up and give her the necessary checkup.  Breanna had a hematoma on the top of her head from when she was inside and pressing on my pelvis, but she was beautiful.  She had full head of dark hair and beautiful blue-gray eyes.

 The delivery was so fast...no one made it to the hospital in time.  Geez, the friends that drove me there almost missed it all if they didn't turn around in the room in time. I found out later that the hospital had timed me from my arrival all the way until I gave birth to Breanna...it was 7 min.  Just imagine, I could've had her in my friend's truck.  It was the most wonderful...and unusual experience.  I wouldn't change it for anything.

Posted by BrendaAD    Wednesday, December 09, 2009 12:58 AM