Aly's Birth Story

 Since Babycenter decided to get rid of their blogs I have to upload this here to save it.


Alexandra Elizabeth
Born 10-22-2011 at 8:07 am.
5lbs 15oz. 19 inches
(38 weeks)

My birth story actually starts on Thursday the 20th. I had my 37 week appointment with my midwife group. I had been planning to give birth at the birth center with the midwives.

Thursday morning I had a migraine headache but otherwise felt okay. I went to my midwife appointment as planned. They took my urine sample and my blood pressure. My blood pressure was high, in the 140s but I attributed it to the headache. Also, they found protein in my urine. My midwife Suzanne told me they wanted to do a 24 hour urine collection to be sure. I took the two orange jugs home. I decided to call off from work on Friday because I didn't know how I would be able to collect the urine while at work, plus I wanted to rest. I was drinking a ton of water but not peeing much. I barely filled half a jug in 24 hours.

I went to my follow up visit on Friday. They were concerned about the lack of urine in the bucket. They had me give another sample and found protein again. They took my blood pressure and it was still high. My midwife got serious and told me with the two high blood pressure readings and the amount of protein in my urine, that I was too high of a risk for the birth center, and that she was going to have to recommend we got to the hospital. At first I thought she meant once I went into labor, but she actually meant right then. I started crying immediately, I was so upset that my plan of giving birth in a home like environment without interventions was being squashed right then and there. I was afraid I would become a victim of the cascade of interventions and wind up with a c-section. She told us she would call the hospital and send over my records, and have a doula contact us in case I wanted to use one.

I cried all the way home. My husband and I decided to pack one bag in case we were just sent to L&D for the night and then released, and then pack another in case we had to stay for the long haul. Unfortunately I had procrastinated and not packed a bag yet so I forgot tons of stuff that would have come in handy. We live really close to the hospital, so my husband would go back home and get the bigger bag if it came to that.

We got to the hospital, checked in with L&D. They put us in a room and had me put on a gown. The doctor came in pretty soon and told me that because I was showing signs of pre-eclampsia, and my pregnancy was considered full-term, the best thing to do would be to induce labor. She checked me to see if I was dilated, and then broke my water. That was some of the most pain I have ever been in, by the way. I was dilated to 1 and my cervix was somewhat effaced, so they went ahead and started me on an IV and a low dose of pitocin.

I labored from about 6:00 pm to 2:00 am with no drugs. My body did not make much progress, and the contractions started to get really bad. I felt that because I was confined to the bed, it was harder to handle them. If I could have changed positions, walked around, etc, I would have been able to tolerate them and relieve my pain. This is when I started to consider the epidural, I was afraid of being numb, but at the same time, I didn't think I could wait to dilate the rest of the way in this much pain. The nurse made things worse by bringing in the anesthesiologist and offering it again. I weighed my options, and decided to go for it. Having it placed wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be and the relief was almost instant, except for the shaking. Once the shaking was gone, the nurse asked me how the last contraction was. I was happy to say I didn't even feel it.

I was able to get some rest, even though the nurses came in to make me switch sides every hour so that I would stay equally numb on both sides. They told me to tell them when i started feeling pressure in my bottom. I started feeling it a few hours in and they checked me and I had progressed to a 6. I think the epidural helped me relax and allowed my labor to progress faster in this case. The nurse made me wear an oxygen mask, which was supposed to be good for both me and the baby, but I found it annoying and just made my lips and mouth dry. After another hour or too, I started feeling a lot more pressure and it was starting to hurt, and I was trying to up my epidural to numb it out but it wasn't working. I then started feeling like I needed to push. I told the nurse and she told me not to push, just to breathe because she was afraid I was pushing against a cervix that wasn't complete, but she checked me and it was.

Then came the longest 45 minutes or so of my life. Because I was completely dilated, they called the doctor to get ready, and they let me push with the contractions. The nurse held one leg, and my husband held the other. It felt good to push, and I felt like i was making progress, but then they made me stop while we waited for the doctor. However, my body wasn't going to listen, and it was pushing whether I wanted it to or not. The nurses were afraid they might have to catch the baby, because she was coming fast. The doctor barely had time to set up the end of the bed before the head was crowning. I remember feeling the ring of fire, but not caring because the pushing contractions were so strong. I must have torn, because she stitched me up, but I didn't think to ask about the severity.

The baby came out pretty fast, one push for the head and one for the body. She was gray and alien like, but they put her on the little table and rubbed her and she started crying and didn't stop for at least 5 minutes. Her apgar scores were 8 and 9. She had to be tested for her sugar level several times but it never went too low. We had a little trouble with breastfeeding at first, but we have had luck with a nipple shield and hopefully we can wean her off that at some point. We stayed in the hospital until Monday the 24th. We love our little family!