EDD was 12/19, at 12/11 I woke up and was having pretty bad menstrual-like cramping and had my bloody show. At my drs appt later that day I was 3cm dilated so my dr did a membrane sweep (REALLY increased cramping) and I was sent to my NST and BPP exams. At BPP they saw I had low fluid levels and baby was not moving much, so they sent me to triage for extended monitoring.

At triage she was moving and responding to contractions fine, but dr said since I was term, she had low fluid, and I was contracting consistently that I was just going to be admitted (around 7pm) and have my baby! I had a lovely birth plan all written out that included a very active labor but because of my low fluid levels they preferred I stay in bed to further watch baby’s responses to contractions. I wasn’t given pitocin as labor was moving along on its own. Around 11pm I had the mother of all contractions, it was unbearable pain and lasted almost 5 minutes. Baby did not respond well to that and I suddenly found myself surround by about 5 nurses and 2 doctors flipping me side to side and finally on all 4s to stabilize baby’s heart rate. Drs checked me after that and in that contraction I dilated from a 3 to 5cm. It was then I opted for epidural and 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 After that I was able to sleep through the night. At 6:45am I was at 8cm and they decided to break my water. By 9:30 I was still at an 8 so they gave me a bit of pitocin so I could finish dilating and meet my baby. At around 10:30 I was dilated to a 10 and felt pressure to push. As I was pushing the baby’s HR began to drop at each contraction. Dr said we need to get this baby out and I needed to push with everything I had. Two more contractions and two more drops in HR so dr said she was going to use vacuum as last resort before emergency c-section. One last shot so I pushed with everything I had and I’m pretty sure the entire labor floor heard my groaning! Then I hear my mom say “she’s here!” The rest was a huge blur as I was extremely exhausted but the cord had been wrapped around her neck and that’s why with every contraction/me pushing her HR would drop. When she was placed on my chest the nurses noticed meconium coming out of her nose and mouth so they took her away from me 😢 to clean her up. She had inhaled meconium

into her lungs as well so her breathing was labored and choppy. She needed assistance transition breathing so they hooked her up to oxygen and monitored her for an hour before I could hold her again. While that was going on the dr stitched up my 2nd degree tear AND my right labia laceration 😣

Once she was got her breathing under control we began skin to skin and have been inseparable ever since ❤️ We are both doing well now and will be going home tomorrow.

Camila Juliette Barker

Born 7lb 12oz 20in on 12/12 at 11:11am. My little lucky charm 🍀