Figured I'd finally share my birth story and all of the stress it caused! Definitely a memorable one for my first birth!

I went into L&D at 8pm on Tuesday February 9th for induction. I knew going in that my cervix was extremely thin and that my baby girl's head was engaged, but the previous week when I was checked, there was no dilation.

When they got me back into a room at the hospital, contractions had already started (which I had been blaming on cramps due to baby's head resting on my pelvis) and I was near 2cm dilated. First, they attempted to induce me with cytotec. After one dose failed, they switched to pitocin. I was left on pitocin for a long while, but dilation failed to progress. Wednesday evening, when the doc decided that pitocin wasn't working either, she opted to give me the Foley balloon. My contractions before then had been more tightening than painful. However, within an hour of the balloon being inserted, the contractions became extremely painful, jumping from maybe a 3 to a 9. I tried to tough it out but after an hour or so of the contractions, I opted for an epidural. Once they gave me the epidural, at about 11pm Wednesday night, I went completely numb from the waist down, and slept pretty much off and on for 12 hours, minus nurses waking me up to check on the balloon. At 11am on Thursday morning, the balloon popped out. I was officially 5cm dilated. The doc broke my water and noted that meconium was present. They said they would give me 12 hours to progress before they would opt me in for a c-section to pull baby. I spoke to a friend after the doctor left. (My friend's daughter had meconium present when her water broke as well, and when the baby was born 10 hours later, it was taken to the NICU because of a lung infection.) The thought of that terrified me, so when the doc came back 2 hours later to check on dilation and saw it had barely progressed, I opted for a voluntary c-section. I was prepped for surgery and at 1:40pm Thursday, February 11th, my lovely daughter Charlie Lin was born.

The first 24 hours of Charlie's life were perfection with me recovering from surgery, learning to feed-pump, and her father showering her with constant love and affection. However, we noticed that she was spitting up a lot more than the average baby. Maybe 2-3 times after every feeding? We mentioned it several times to different nurses but were assured it was completely "normal" for newborns. Roughly 24 hours after her birth, a nurse witnessed one of these episodes, determined it was in fact NOT normal, and rushed her away from us to the NICU. Our hearts were broken.

After several tests in the NICU, Charlie was diagnosed with one of the worst cases of newborn acid reflux they had seen. She was given pepcid and prilosec and kept under watchful eye to see how she progressed. Sunday, three days after her birth, her father and I were discharged from the hospital without her. Going home without our baby girl was one of the hardest things we've ever had to do! The following Wednesday morning we got the call we had been anxiously waiting for. Charlie was coming home!

She's still on meds for her acid reflux, can't sleep flat on her back, and still spits up once or twice a day, but she's getting better every day and we love her so much it hurts!

Can't say we'll be having any more babies after this whole experience, but Charlie is more than enough love for her father and me!