My birth story, things definitely didn’t go as planned...

Let me start by saying I had an ideal pregnancy, no complications at all. Everything was wonderful! My due date was November 23rd.

On November 21st I woke up at 5:30am with strong contractions. I started timing them and by 8am I was having contractions 3 minutes apart lasting for more than a minute so we headed to labor and delivery. Once there they checked me and I was only 1cm dilated and 60% effaced so they made me walk the halls for an hour. After that hour I was rechecked and there was no change at all so I was sent home. I continued to have strong contractions every 3-5 minutes the rest of the day and all night.

On November 22nd after not being able to sleep at all and my contractions getting much stronger I decided to head back to labor and delivery around 9am. They checked me and I was 100% effaced and 6cm dilated! So excited it was go time! They admitted me, I decided to get the epidural since I had been in labor for 28 hours already, I needed some rest and relief. I got the epidural and they decided to break my water. Upon breaking my water they realized my water had meconium in it (baby girl had pooped in my water). The doctor explained it wasn’t a big deal, this happens a lot and they would have a nurse from the NICU present at birth to check baby girl out. After about an hour after breaking my water they come to check me and I am still at a 6 so they decide to start pitocin. Another hour passes and I am still at a 6, and my doctor tells me baby girls heart rate keeps dropping with every contraction so my doctor decides to do an emergency c section. Around 5:30pm I was taken back to surgery.

After around 38 long hours of labor, Miss Cora Eliana was born at 6:13pm on November 22nd. We were taken to recovery and everything was magical. I finally got to hold my beautiful rainbow baby. My baby girl I waited 7 long years for.

By day two postpartum my doctors became concerned I was getting an infection around my incision. They started antibiotics and kept a close eye on me. On November 26th (4 days postpartum) they sent me for an ultrasound to search for infection and saw nothing so we finally got to go home. We got to spend thanksgiving at home and tried to start getting life back to normal.

On November 29th (7 days postpartum) I noticed I had some drainage around my incision so I called my obgyn. After explaining everything to them they wanted me to go to the ER to get checked out. The ER sent me for a CT scan and discovered I was full of infection. I had to wait for the on call obgyn to get there and when she arrived she proceed to numb me and started pulling my staples and stitches (worst pain of my life even though I was numb). Once she opened my incision the pus and infection started leaking out everywhere. She cleaned me out and decided the best course of action was to leave my incision open so it can heal from the inside out, so she packed the wound with gauze and admitted me.

Once in my hospital room they start painkillers and the strongest antibiotics they have. This was my life for the next few days. They had to come in everyday and change the packing in my incision, which was painful. On December 2nd my doctors decided to install a wound vac on my incision to help the healing process. A wound vac is basically a shop vac that is put in an open wound that promotes healthy blood flow and helps with the healing process. After 6 long days (December 6th) in the hospital I was finally released again, only this time my incision is open and I have a wound vac to carry around.

I have now been home from the hospital for 6 days. I have a nurse that comes to my house every two days to change out my wound vac. My doctors think I might have to have the wound vac for two months. I can’t help but to feel cheated. This wound vac makes everything so difficult, I have to be plugged up at night to charge it which makes taking care of my newborn very hard. I have to lug around this heavy purse like box all day everyday. The vac literally sounds like a coffee maker. My baby will probably forever remember mom every time she hears coffee being made. It’s just not fair, things were not supposed to go this way. I see all these other moms who give birth and within a few days they are back to normal. Oh and because of all the painkillers and antibiotics I was on I wasn’t able to breastfeed. After everything I’ve been through and being postpartum has not been a good combination. I find myself crying at least 5 times a day, just thinking about how unfair everything has been. I am so thankful for my beautiful baby girl, but I find myself wishing I could go back in time and some how change how her birth happened. So everyone please say a prayer for me and a speedy recovery.