Scary Delivery **UPDATE**

ORIGINAL POST**

I'm somehow finally finding the time to sit back and reflect on all of the craziness that led to the birth of my beautiful baby girl! She was due August 28, 2017.. I'd been having false contractions and just been downright uncomfortable for weeks. I spent the whole day of the 28th on the couch, feeling crampy and miserable. When suddenly at 6:00 pm it happened...

I'd been having contractions here and there throughout the day, nothing consistent whatsoever. Suddenly I felt a contraction begin and as I yelled out to my MIL to start timing I felt a big pop and my water broke!!

In triage I was instantly admitted once they realized my water had in fact broken. I was only 3 cm dilated, but things seemed to be moving quickly as I was contracting every 2 to 3 minutes. I tested GBS positive so I needed an IV, which is when things started to get crazy.

After 3 different nurses poked and prodded at me and couldn't get the IV in, they had to call in the anesthesiologist. After TWO WHOLE HOURS they finally had the IV in. At this point it was roughly 10 pm and my contractions were still coming strong with no progression in my dilation. By 2 am, I was given an epidural and started on pitocin, which every few hours they'd up the dosage on.

The epidural completely knocked me out (THANK GOD 😂) but by 8:30 the morning of 29th I was finally dilated to a 9.5 and the epidural was wearing off. By 9:00 am I was at a 10 and pushing began.. I was told they'd have me push no more than 3 hours before other measures were taken. When I was STILL pushing at 1 pm I was told the only reason I was still pushing was because I was progressing. As a FTM I didn't realize that it wasn't normal to push for that long. When I had extra bursts of energy, I'd push 4-5 times a contraction as opposed to 3.. I just wanted to be done! The entire last hour my fiancé and mom were shouting that they could see my little girls head! I was so excited, yet beyond worn out. The final moments of my labor are when things got scary.

The doctor quickly explained to me that she was going to have to use a vacuum to get out our daughter and how I had to work with her to get her out. Next thing I knew my fiancé was no longer by my side.. I had AT LEAST 20 nurses around me, some even standing on the bed to push down on my stomach, and then I heard my doctor page for another doctor to come in. I was suddenly terrified and refused to stop pushing as hard as possible. I caught a quick glance of my fiancé holding my moms and grandmothers hands in the corner, and I could tell by the looks on their faces that something wasn't right.

At 2:03 pm on August 29th my baby girl was born.. But when they pulled her out, I wasn't even given a chance to see her, I didn't even hear her crying. I started to cry and kept asking why I didn't hear her. Finally I heard it, the most beautiful sound that God could've given my fiancé and I that day.. Our baby girls cry.

At 9 lbs 12.5 oz and 22 inches long, our Ava Marie was a big girl! The doctor explained to me that Ava's shoulder got stuck on the way out, which stressed out my poor little angel. Her heart rate dropped and she stopped breathing right before they got her out. Their amazing pediatrics team had to put a mask on her to start her breathing again.

As a result of getting her shoulder stuck, our little girl had no movement in her right arm. It was determined that nothing was broken, but the nerves were damaged and as a result she has Erb's Palsy. With physical therapy we've been told that she will most likely be able to use that arm someday, and we have already seen tremendous improvement! Although she definitely doesn't have full movement yet, I'm happy to say that at almost 1 month my beautiful little girl is otherwise healthy and happy and more wonderful than anything I could've ever asked for.

UPDATE:

Ava is now 4.5 months old and has full use of her right arm! She was in physical therapy weekly from about 3 weeks until about a week ago. They were thoroughly impressed with her progress and said unless we see a problem she no longer needs therapy!! Thank you so much for all the advice and well wishes from all you wonderful ladies on this app. If I could give any advice from my daughters experience with shoulder dystocia/erb’s palsy it’d have to be do not wait to get your child help!!!! I don’t think we’d be in the position we are now if she had not started therapy so soon, a lot of kids never bounce back a don’t regain movement in their arms so we could not be more thankful that our little princess fought through and beat the odds!