Finally writing my birth story after reading so many others!

I was scheduled to go to the hospital on the night of 8/10 to get induced. They were planning on inserting Cervidil because I was not dilated yet, and then start pitocin the next morning. When we arrived, they quickly got us settled into our room and prepped me with the IV's, robe, blood tests, etc. When it finally came to inserting the cervadil, let me tell you.. it was one of the most painful things I ever experienced! I never thought it would really hurt, but it took her 4 times to get it pushed back behind my cervix. I got worried after this thinking that if this part was that bad, how bad would the rest of labor be? 😰

In the morning, I got up to use the bathroom. Whenever I got up they had to disconnect the baby heart rate monitors so I could be mobile. When I got back to bed, we plugged it back in as usual and within minutes, a nurse came running in our room. She was frantically moving the monitor around my belly, which at this point I thought just shifted a bit from my bathroom trip. After a minute, she called in other nurses saying the baby's heartbeat dropped drastically. (Down to 60bpm when it's usually 150!) I was immediately surrounded by about 10 nurses and could no longer see my hubby. One threw an oxygen mask on me, another some medicine in my IV, while another jammed her hand up inside me to pull out the cervadil and check to see if the cord had gotten down. (Again, SO painful.) Finally, after what seemed like forever, her heartbeat went back up to normal. It was terrifying. They said she probably just got stressed for some reason when I moved, and that they would just keep a close eye on it.

After that, I was terrified to move at all. They started pitocin because I still was only 1cm. Around an hour or so of her keeping her normal heart rate, I decided to try to shift to my other side a bit because I was uncomfortable. It wasn't long before my room was flooded again with nurses because her heart rate dropped again. 😭Same scenario as the first time, and they finally got it back up by having me get on all fours. (Exposing my bare butt to everyone in the room.. ugh.)

At this point, my doctor comes in and recommends a c section, as baby was already under stress and I hadn't really even had a real contraction yet. We agreed and just wanted her out safe! They prepped me within minutes and got me to the OR. At this point I was crying and terrified, and hubby couldn't come in the OR for a bit until they got my spinal in and other things prepped. It took them about 5x to get my spinal in but it didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. Finally they let my hubby in and started surgery.

My doctor and nurses were wonderful and talked to me throughout the procedure to help keep me calm. I hear them talk about the baby and her hair, and them saying "happy birthday" to her so I know she's out. I didn't hear her cry and this bothered me terribly. I kept asking over and over if she was ok and everyone just said yeah yeah she's ok. I kept asking my husband because I could see the worry in his eye and he still just answered yes. I pull the cover up from the side so I can see her on the table and I was so scared. She looked blue, and there were a few people working on her. I started crying and would not stop asking if she was ok, getting frantic at this point since I knew no one was saying anything yet to try to keep me calm. Finally, I heard her cry, and it was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. The nurse turned around at that point and gave us two thumbs up. I can't even tell you the relief I felt!! After about a half an hour my husband was finally able to bring her over to me while I was getting stitched up. She was so beautiful! She was crying and would only stop when I talked to her, clearly recognizing my voice. It was so sweet. They sent my hubby and baby back to the room to do a couple final checks on her while they finished up with me. I didn't get to hold my baby for the first time until almost two hours after she was born after all this. I understand why and I'm so happy she was safe, but it was so hard!

Thankfully, our baby girl is perfectly healthy after all that and we were able to go home after a couple days in the hospital. As awful as it was, I would do it all over again. I never knew I could love someone this much. ❤️

Elena Rosalie, born 8/11/17 at 11am. (11 also happens to be my lucky number. 😁)