My birth story

My pregnancy was the most trying days of my life. And this is our birth story.

In September 2018 I suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage. We waited for my period to become regular and started trying again. We were pregnant (first positive) by January 18th 2019. I had instant fears of miscarriage and was convinced it would happen again. My husband was scared too so we had private ultrasounds up until the anatomy scan and I felt safe. I had morning sickness from week 6 to 20. I’m small to begin with and lost about 12 lbs in the first/second trimesters. Finally towards the end of the second, I started to feel better. I felt great until week 30. I developed a bladder infection and then a week later was back in L&D for more extreme pain. This time extreme pain was in my back and radiating. They moved me from L&D to the PP wing for overnight monitoring and a steady follow of narcotics. At some point in the night (labs every 4 hours) my liver enzymes spiked and I was itching uncontrollably. My OB was afraid of fatty liver due to pregnancy and told me to prepare for the possibility of baby coming today. They moved me back up to labor and delivery where I spent the next 5 days on extreme pain killers, zofran, phenegran, you name it. Diagnosis was kidney stones and choleostasis. I finally negotiated my way out of the hospital and they loaded me up with pain killers and everything else. We’d be induced at 36 weeks due to the Choleostasis. On September 8th at 5pm we went in for our scheduled induction and to start cervidil to soften my cervix. We did this every 4 hours and by 1pm the next day I was still only 1cm and 60% effaced. My OB was the on call and decided I needed the Folley Cath before pictocin. I was already having mild contractions and intense back labor. So they decided to give me staydol. My hospital allows you to have your epidural whenever you want it. I could’ve had it but I was a bit nervous and the pain wasn’t unbearable. Well, the folley brought on EXTREME contractions with the pictocin. Like wow I can’t even put into words. Luckily, if you’re reading this, you already know and I don’t have to explain it. So I say I’m ready for the epidural and also screaming for the folley to be pulled out. Epidural took forever because they were in surgery. They pulled another CRNA from general surgery to do mine because I was vomiting from pain. My husband kept me calm and still. I honestly have no idea how I managed to do it successfully. I was scared to be paralyzed so I just focused on that and finally it was in and I WAS FEELING NO PAIN. Epidurals are amazing. God bless them. Anyway, they break my water after the folley finally comes out. Insert the contraction cath so they can see how strong they are. We are grooving now. It’s about 5pm on Monday 9/9. We are all just waiting around hanging out when I start to panic about not being able to feel my legs so I ask for my epidural to be turned down. I get on the peanut ball and sleep on and off for awhile. Still can’t feel my legs and not happy about it. 7 pm rolls around and I start shaking. A little at first and I just say I’m freezing. Blankets and heating pads aren’t doing anything. Then I start convulsions. It occurs to them to take my temperature. 99.8. My mom and husband both say she’s never run a temp higher than 97, something isn’t right. The nurse says they can’t do anything until it’s 100.4. 30 mins later it’s 102 and I’m really convulsing. I put a blanket in my mouth bc my jaw is locked up from my teeth chattering. At this point is about 10:30pm. My husband notices babys HR is dropping during contractions which means she’s moving down the birth canal. He goes to get the nurse while she’s walking in the door with my antibiotics because yes, I got an infection from my water being broken for so long and our girl pooped. The nurse decides to check me before hooking up antibiotics to IV. Guess who was down there? Yes you guessed it. Our girl. Nurse panics and has to hold her in until the new on call OB gets there. They called my OB but she wasn’t going to make it back in time. I pushed twice and delivered in 10 mins. I felt absolutely nothing. My OB runs through the door as the on call was putting her on my chest. I instantly felt like a million dollars. My belly was gone instantly as well so I was pretty bummed about that, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to my bump. We stayed for 4 days due to her being so little and failing glucose tests. She’s supposed to be 39 weeks today! She’s absolutely perfect. Like really really perfect.

31 week bump

Sick AF waiting to find out if we’re delivering at 31 weeks.

At my husbands office right before going to the hospital on Sunday. This is my last bump pic!

Thank you for letting me share my story and making it this far!

She’s 2 weeks 3 days old now 😭