My Birth [sorta] Story

My husband and I found out we were expecting sometime around May 23rd 2010. I had been feeling ill a few mornings in a row and I was experiencing breast tenderness in the shower (showers, actually, were almost umbearable, and naive me thought it was just my husband changing the water pressure on the nozzle). 3 or 5 tests later, we were still looking at that magical "+" sign.

The next 9 months were rough. I had morning sickness my entire pregnancy. The ENTIRE pregnancy. My only relief was Zofran but not without constipating side effects. I felt like the cliche pregnant woman. I was nauseous, day and night. I experienced severe acid reflux which I had to take Zantac daily for. I was constantly needing to use the restroom, and yes, day and night. Once my belly "popped", I could not sleep comfortably as I am a tummy only sleeper. No one warned me that as my belly grew I would soon not be able to reach my own legs to shave them, nor could I see my thighs. I did experience good hair growth though (which of course all falls out postpartum and litters the floors outrageously bad). I had severe back pain towards the end of my pregnancy, the last two months. Driving, sitting, sleeping, EVERYTHING was uncomfortable. (I am pretty sure my little one was sitting/leaning on a nerve that tweeked my back up until delivery). My belly was huge, but tight. My daughter was breech and there was no sign of her rotating on her own, and I was not a candidate for turning her. I was always out of breath, I swelled up, I sweated through my clothes at night, I was constantly tired. And I was most definitely emotional.

In early December 2010, I was getting ready for work during the we hours of the morning. I walked downstairs to retrieve my shoes and jacket all the while eating a banana. Boom! I slide down the stairs on my bottom, all 6 of them, 8 months pregnant. I felt fine, the baby felt fine, but my butt was hurting! The following day I had my routine prenatal visit, so I told my doctor about my little spill and she felt it was best to go to labor and delivery to monitor the baby and make sure she did not have any rapid heartbeat patterns or anything unusual. So, I went and was monitoring only to find that I was having contractions regularly, but I couldn't really feel them when they were happening. As a precaution, I was given Trebutaline and the contractions subsided shortly thereafter. My husband and I were sent home until our next prenatal visit. Fast forward a couple weeks to January 1st 2011. I was not feeling well and spent much of the day lounging around the house. The next day I still was not feeling well, and just felt cramp-like and tired. I didnt think much of it because I didn't feel "contractions", I just felt mild like cramping. This, however, continued into January 3rd. It was a monday, and I was scheduled to work. I went in to do my case, but it kept getting postponed. After four hours of waiting, I called in my co-worker as I was not feeling well and it was getting late in the day so I didnt want to get stuck there for another 9 hours. I called my husband on my way home to let him know I was still cramping and that I was going to go home and drink some water and take a nap. After waking from my nap I awoke, it was 4pm by this time, and I called my mom and told her I was still cramping. My mom pushed me to call my doctor and just see what they said. I called my doctor's office and spoke with my nurse who proceeded to tell me that the doctor recommends I go to L&D again to be monitored just be safe as the cramping was on day 2.5 and nothing was helping it subside. My nurse also told me to bring my bag, just in case. And I thought she was being silly, but the planner in me already had it packed and figure why not, this drill cant hurt. So I called my mom, as my husband was still at work, and asked my mom to drive me to the hospital (as I was feeling too uncomfortable to drive and didnt want to go alone) and my husband would meet us down there. As we walked into the L&D, I was greeting by the same nurse who took care of me my previous visit. I loved this nurse and was super excited to spend time with her again. As she got all my monitoring set up in my room and my mom and I got settled in, she showed me that I was having contractions 3 minutes apart. I was blown away. My cramping had been getting more intense over the last 2 hours and upon arriving to the hospital, but I never suspected my "cramping" was actually contractions. The on call doctor and my OB were notified of my situation. And within 30 minutes, my husband gets to the hospital, takes a seat in the room with my mom and I, and then the nurse walks in and hands my husband a pair of scrubs. He was completely dumbfounded which he verbalized when he said "what are these for?" Next we all piped in and asked the nurse and she said, "we're doing this thing tonight!" I thought, no way, this can't be happening. I am not due for another 3 weeks and 2 days. But sure enough, we were going to have our baby that night. Next, the phone calls starting to our families while I filled out consent forms.

My husband and I had prepared for our birthing experience through a birthing class. We had expected to birth the natural way. But on this day, January 3rd, our daughter was still breech, and my body was going into labor on its own so we had no other choice than to have a c-section. I am happy with my birthing experience, even though it was a c-section and not natural. I had great nurses and doctors, a wonderful hospital stay, and a beautiful baby to take home with us. My husband videotaped the birth of our daughter, which I am so thankful for now. That moment was the most beautiful moment of my life. Our daugher entered the world at 828PM January 3rd, 2011.