When I was pregnant with my daughter I used to love to read everyone’s birth stories, and now I want to post mine!

All throughout my pregnancy I had high blood pressure. I had labs ran for preeclampsia several times but they all came back clear, so my OB just kept a watch on it. My sister, who was two weeks behind me in her own pregnancy also developed high blood pressure toward the end of her pregnancy. We saw the same OB and always booked our appointments together, and on December 3rd 2018 we had an appointment. I was 39 weeks and five days and my sister was 37 weeks. My mother had decided to come to this appointment with us, and she was in the room with me while my OB was checking my vitals and my cervix. I was dilated to a five and 80% effaced which was no big deal, because I had been at a 5 for a week already. So as she’s telling me to put my pants back on, she also says, “So I’ll call over to L&D and have you a room ready. I’ll see you later tonight!” And then proceeded to walk over to my sisters room. Um, WHAT? We had not discussed induction at ALL, besides me telling her that I would like to avoid one at all costs. I put my pants on and walk over to my sisters room just in time to hear the OB telling her that she was going to be induced as well, right then and there! I was honestly in shock and I had no idea what was going on... my OB then explained to us that our blood pressures were dangerously high and that we had to have our babies ASAP. We couldn’t even leave to get our go bags. We all walked over to L&D and I had so many things running through my head... I had been so ready to have my baby, but in that moment I realized I wasn’t ready. This was not the birth plan I had laid out... I was so scared that my blood pressure was affecting my daughter. I knew that I had to get her out. They put my sister in room 219 and me in 218. I was sad that My sister would not be with me, but we were able to FaceTime throughout our labors. I was hooked up to pitocin at 6:00 P.M. For the first hour or two the contractions really didn’t bother me. But once they really got going I was in PAIN. I felt a very sick and I was shivering. My blood pressure wouldn’t go down and I was very anxious. I had only dilated to a six after two hours, and my daughters heart rate was dropping. I decided to get an epidural to see if it would help me calm down so that my labor could progress. Once I got the epidural, I felt no pain. I could still move my legs and feel pressure, but i felt very nauseous and I was still shivering. I felt horrible. They broke my water, and decided to use an internal fetal monitor because my daughters heart rate was dropping so low and they were having trouble finding it and keeping it on the monitor. At one point my nurse got very quiet, and had a scary look on her face... I immediately asked her what was wrong and she told me that my daughters heart rate had dropped very low, and that I needed to turn on my side. I immediately burst into tears and she told me to pull myself together for my daughter. My nurse was honestly a godsend, and I probably wouldn’t have made it through labor without her. At one point the on call OB on the ward came into my room and said that if we didn’t get my daughter out or get her heart rate up that we would have to do an emergency C-Section. I was so scared and anxious I just wanted to cry, but I knew I had to finish this for my daughter. I began feeling the urge to push around 1:00 A.M. and when my nurse checked my cervix I was at an 9. They broke the bed down and had me do several practice pushes. I never realized how hard pushing truly was! The pushing kept causing my daughters heart rate to drop, so they kept turning me and having me pause in between pushes. My doctor was taking forever to get to me and I could her my babies heart rate dropping, I was just ready to get her out! Finally the doctor came and after about 20 minutes of pushing, I welcomed my beautiful Lucy Jade at 2:22 A.M. on December 4th 2018. She weighed a teeny tiny five pounds and 14 ounces, and was 19 inches long. In one moment my life changed for the better, and I couldn’t be more grateful for my daughter. My sister had my beautiful niece at 4:03 A.M. We are so blessed to have these beautiful girls, and I’m so happy that we had them together!

My Beautiful Lucy Jade

My sweet niece Hadlee Grace