My birth story

After reading these for the past 9 months, it’s hard to believe it’s my turn to tell the story!

So at 33 weeks I was diagnosed with gestational hypertension, then at 35 weeks it turned to preeclampsia. At my 36 week appointment I got the induction date for 1/27/2020, but I clearly never made it! I had been having contractions since Tuesday (1/21) but they weren’t close enough together or painful enough to alarm me. Next day same thing happened, but around 4:30 I felt a pop in my stomach but thought it was gas 🤣 I sat up bc I felt a contraction coming and that’s when I realized my water broke! My boyfriend was in the bathroom getting ready for work, so I knocked on the door and opened it and told him my water broke, he instantly went into freak mode and I was calm as could be just walking around getting things ready lol I decided to take a shower and shave bc I wasn’t ready but once I was in the shower I started having closer contractions so I said f it, they’ve seen worse and hopped out, got dressed and took my older two kids to my dads. On the way to the hospital which is about 10-15 minutes away I was contracting the whole time. Each one stronger than the last. I got in triage and having to sit still made them 3x worse but they had me on the heart monitors for baby so I was forced to be still. The dr came in and checked me and I was at 5 cm! I’d never been checked at my OB so I don’t know how long I was at a 5. They finally got my room ready and by this point I was in tears and cranky from the pain. Once I got to my room the contractions picked up in intensity and frequency! I swear they lasted for 1 minute and was at least 15-20 seconds apart. I was miserable, but had to wait for the anesthesiologist to get done with the other patient before he could come to me. While waiting I stood up to walk a bit and instantly felt like I had to poop! I told the nurse and she said let me check you, I was at a 7 now! Finally, I got my epidural and I was walking on clouds, lemme telll you. I was a different person lol. About an hour later I was checked again and I was at a 9. My mom lives 2 1/2 hours and made it with 30 minutes - and hour to spare! Once she got there it was about 10 PM and I told the nurse I felt a lot of pressure, she checked me and I was at a 10 and baby was coming down! We did about 3 pratice pushes and she said to stop and went and got the dr and the rest of the nurses. Once the dr got in there he could already see hair! I did about 5-7 more pushes and at 10:51 PM, 6 1/2 hours of labor she was born! She had some breathing issues, there was poop in my water so the NICU team was there, they wasn’t satisfied with her breathing so she spent last night in the NICU. this morning her blood sugar was low so she’ll be in the NICU until that’s stabilized. I am so incredibly blessed with my beautiful baby girl.

Amelia Darlene Caldwell

6lbs 14oz, 20 inches long.