Thursday, August 2, 2012

Ava's Birth Story

I can't believe I'm finally getting to write this, but Ava Rose decided to make her appearance. I'm mostly writing this for my own memory later on, but if it's something you're interested in then please keep reading.

It was Wednesday the 25th of July. We had officially missed Jordan's birthday (which was on the 24th), and at this point I was just hoping she would come by her due date on the 28th. I was getting pretty uncomfortable but I also have to start teaching again near the end of August, so waiting any later was cutting it kind of close. This Wednesday started out just like every other one. I didn't really feel any different than I had, so I wasn't really expecting her to come.

(Some of this may be TMI, so if you want to skim or just quit reading all together I understand)

Around 3:30 I noticed that I had started bleeding, and it was more than just a little bit. I decided to go up to the clinic to get checked out. I got put on the monitor and realized I was contracting every 5-7 minutes, but I really didn't feel most of them. He checked me and I hadn't really made any progress as far as dilating, but I was effaced about 30%. I was pretty disappointed to hear this, because at this point I had been contracting every few minutes several times a day for a few days. The doctor did tell me that because I was bleeding some, that meant I would probably go into labor in the next few days. 

We left the clinic and decided to do what we had planned and go to Jordan's parents for dinner. At this point it was around 5:00 and I noticed the contractions were a lot stronger. I was still able to talk and breathe through them though. Once we got to Jordan's parents they were about 4 minutes apart and steadily I began to not be able to talk through them. We went to the pool where I put my feet in and watched everyone else swim. As I was sitting there I noticed it felt like I had peed a little. It was during a contractions so I didn't think much about it. 

Jordan was getting pretty worried about me by this point and insisted that we go home. I was adamant that we weren't going to the hospital for awhile because I didn't want to go and by sent home. We got home and I took my time getting ready and took a shower. Since I work at my Dr's office part time I was able to text him and let him know what was going on. Since I told him I thought my water could have broken he told me I should head on up to the hospital.

At 10 pm I walk up to the nurses station obviously in a lot of pain. They already knew I was coming since my Dr. had called them. The very first thing she did was check to see if my water broken, and to my surprise it had! I couldn't believe it. All I knew was that my labor might go a little faster than it did last time. My contractions were still pretty strong at this point and I told the nurse that I wasn't sure I wanted an epidural. If the labor went pretty quick I was going to try to do it all on my own. 

The nurse checked me and I was already dilated to a 4. I told her that once I got to a 6 I would decide on the epidural. About 10 minutes later, right before they moved me to a room she check and I was a 5. At this point I was pretty surprised it was going this fast. I told her that I couldn't deal with too many more contractions like I was having and to go ahead and call the anesthesiologist. Of course, blood work has to be done before they can do that so I insisted they get on that pretty quick.

Once we got to a room she checked again and I was already a 7. By this point I was literally screaming because the contractions were so painful and they weren't ending. It was pretty much like I was having one big long contraction that seemed to last an eternity. FINALLY the anesthesiologist got there and did the epidural. I was not calm, nor in my right mind at this point and was so ready to have the medicine. The nurse wouldn't let me get out of bed before the epidural because she said the baby wasn't low enough and that the cord could get wrapped around her neck. So my plan of being able to labor on a birthing ball and in different positions without and epidural went out the window. 

After he got the medicine in, I didn't feel it kick on for a little bit. She decided to check me again because I was feeling some pressure and to everyone's surprise I was a 10, complete, READY TO PUSH. 
Checking back to the timeline, at 10:00 pm I was a 4 and at 11:30 pm I was complete. I couldn't believe how fast it went. Apparently neither could my Dr. because I had to lay on the bed with my legs closed until he got there to keep from delivering her without him being there. At 12:10 am, after 10 minutes of pushing my beautiful Ava Rose entered the world.

2 comments:

  1. Awe !!! Great story! I loved reading it. Ava is beautiful........!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ava is such a beautiful baby! Congratulations! I read this post on my phone last week and forgot to come back to comment from the computer...

    Glad all went well in delivery, despite the speed;)

    Amanda

    ReplyDelete

 
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