My baby will be 4 this summer and I still get stressed from her delivery

Hayley

36 weeks exactly I'm struggling sleeping cuz I'm having pain in my stomach and can't get comfortable. I wake my husband up 30 minutes before his work alarm so he can drop me off at L&D per my midwife. They picked up contractions and pumped me full of fluids which stopped the contractions. They thought it was a good idea to get me steroids just in case she came early so I got the shot and went on my way with the all good. Next day is my last ultrasound. My mom takes the morning off to take me as my husband has to work, saving all the time he can before baby. We go and get my ultrasound to make sure baby is all good and the ultrasound tech goes, "are you sure you're due in 4 weeks? Your baby is really small". I'm excuse me? We clean me up and I get put in a room and my mom is trying to keep me calm. The ultrasound tech comes in and says oh you're actually due much later. Im like uhhhhhhh. My midwife is at a hospital in Phoenix for a few hours so they send in a different midwife I've seen a few times. She's worried about my fluid levels and the baby not moving. WHAT. She says she called my main midwife and they want me to go to the hospital, get tested, and she will meet me there but to go eat first and hopefully baby is just sleeping and the food will wake her up. So my mom takes me to eat then we go to the hospital. I get hooked up to everything and my blood pressure is 170! They give me a high dose of something that can cause seizures but should drop my blood pressure so they strap these mats to my bed in case I seize and test my blood pressure again. Over 180. They do some super powered ultrasound and baby is practice breathing great but she is hardly moving and they say my amniotic fluid is low but my water hasn't broken. So they decide I'm having a C section that day but since I just ate, which they were very mad about no matter how many times my mom yelled at them that I was told to eat, it'll be later in the day, around 8-9pm. It's around noon at this time. My mom calls my husband and tells him to drive safe as there's plenty of time but it's baby time. He goes home and throws together a bag since home is between his work and the hospital. When he says he's on the way, my mom leaves. My midwife comes in and looks terrified. I get moved to a delivery room as I'm still in triage. All I can remember for the next 4 hours is shaking. I wasn't cold but I couldn't stop shaking. They said they were really worried about me so we went back at 7 to have baby. My husband got scrubbed up, which he looked really silly. They took me back to get my block and he looked scared. The OR was a hustle and a bustle but my anesthesiologist and a nurse come up to me and explain in very calm voices what they are going to do. The nurse gets in front of me on a stool as she is very short and pulls me into a hunched hug and just rubs my back in small circles and explains when there's going to be a pinch and just keeps encouraging me to breathe and how I'm doing such a good job. They got it on the first try and there was a rush to lay me down. In what felt like seconds I was draped and there was lots of talking. My husband comes in and my doctor says he's starting. After a moment I hear, "well she's definitely a girl as she's showing off proudly". I laughed and then I heard her cry and I burst into tears as it felt like my heart exploded and I was crying, "she's here!" They dropped the blue curtain and hold her up and I'm just crying it over and over. They say I can touch her through the curtain which I do and I just can't stop crying. They take her away for all the testing and husband goes over to cut the cord. I'm trying to turn to see her but I can't see anything. They bring her back and the anesthesiologist takes some pictures for us. They then say it's time for her and husband to leave. He doesn't want to go and leave me but we agreed and he promised no matter what he would stay with the baby. I lay there as they finish up and everything was fine. Normal clean up and I get wheeled out and get to do skin to skin about 30 minutes after she was born. I called my mom and she started crying from relief. My mom isn't a crier. We stayed in the hospital 4 days just to get that extra support. We could have gone home day 3 but stayed just one more day for that support. Only issue we had was baby girl had some trouble staying warm but after some time under the warmer twice, everything was fine.

It was pretty traumatic for me. We are TTC for baby #2 right now and I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried.

Glow Resources

Let’s Glow

Glow is here for you on your path to pregnancy

Glow helps you navigate your fertility journey with smart tools, personalized insights, and guidance from medical experts who understand what matters most.

25+ million

Users

4.8 stars

200k+ app ratings

20+

Medical advisors