Kewpie 1 Week

09/18/2011

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Birth Story

In honor of my baby girl's 1 month birthday, I thought I should blog about her birth:0) I'm slow, but I have a beautiful excuse. First off, I must change her alias. I had named her Swiss Miss on the blog, expecting her to look like my boys. Well, she doesn't. She came out with so much dark hair I was baffled for a week straight (It should be known the babies in both of our families are born virtually bald. My sister and I didn't have much hair to speak of until we were 2). When PBTB took her in to give her her first bath, he brought her back with a cute little hairdo and I immediately thought she looked like a Kewpie. So, that's her new alias.
She does have blue eyes and shows some resemblance of "W" and I'm told her hair will probably fall out and turn blonde. Only time will tell. Back to the birth story....
Kewpie is very punctual and arrived on her due date. I was kind of a newbie at the whole "going into labor" experience, considering that with "W" my water broke and that didn't really induce my labor and with ET I had to be induced 3 weeks early.
I started getting consistent, every 30 minutes, contractions at about 10:00 am on September 9th. By 5:00 pm they were closer to 12-15 minutes apart. My Mom and I went to get a pedicure and by 11:00 pm they were intensifying and about 10 minutes apart, so we headed for the IMC. At this point, with all the horror stories I've heard, I was pretty nervous that they might send me home.
Arrived at IMC at around midnight, dilated to a 6, sigh of relief. I was staying.
They did the usual, hooked me up to monitors. Baby's heartbeat was lower than they prefer. So, they make me stay in bed. After over 12 hours of consistent labor, that was all it took for my contractions to slow down considerably, 20-30 minutes. After 2 hours, her heartbeat was more normal, so they let me walk. My contractions went back to 2-3 minutes apart and started intensifying again. Check heartbeat, lower again, sit in bed again, contractions slow again. Dr. suggests breaking my water. Done. Like with my first pregnancy, doesn't do much. Then things started getting weird. I was dilated to an 8 without an epidural. They tell me, "this isn't medically possible, but you're only dilated to a 7, maybe even a 6 now." Since lying in bed, once again my contractions slow to every 20-30 minutes. But, they hurt, BAD! I'm getting nervous, the next Dr. comes in and tells me that baby girl is posterior. They have me lay on my stomach with one leg elevated sideways to try and get her to turn back. I start to panic a bit and my body starts fighting the contractions, which makes them more painful. I tell them I need an epidural. They hesitate and I insist I am NOT going to change my mind. And, for my 3rd pregnancy, once again waited just a tad too long for the epidural! At 6:00 am they start me on pitocin to get things rolling, what the heck, already got an epidural. I'm finally ready to deliver around 9:00 am. Of course, baby girl poops, another thing to freak out over. I deliver at 9:17 YAY! Wait, placenta won't come out. Dr. Pieper pulls and pulls, nothing. After 30 minutes she tells me, "You should be extremely grateful you got an epidural. I am going to have to reach in there and get it and then scrape it out. When this happens to natural birth moms, the pain is excruciating and we give them medicine so that they forget the pain (VERSED)." HUGE sigh of relief that I insisted on my epidural. The placenta was shot, as in completely dead in many parts. Dr. Pieper asks if I plan on having more kids. "If so, you must not go past 39 weeks." Being that this is my second failed placenta. Explanation for false negative dilating, deteriorated placenta was slipping down in the way of baby's head, also preventing her from dropping while in late labor, causing my overly painful contractions.
I am sure there are much worse birth stories. I've actually heard much worse. But, this one is, by far, my worst actual birth. The worst pregnancy was a toss-up between the IUGR with #2 and the 1st trimester sickness with #3. I am not a fan of pro-creating at all right now. However, recovery has been good and baby girl is healthy, which is all that matters in the end, right?

ET First Day/First Year CCNS

I just "knew" that ET would cry his first day of school and it would be a struggle to leave him for weeks. It gave me anxiety just thinking about it. He still wasn't letting me leave him in nursery after almost a year......Boy, did he prove me wrong. I co-oped the first day. And, the next time he had school I left him, he had a great day, no tears. (However, he still cries and won't go to nursery.) My boy is getting so big. His first day was September 6th, 4 days before baby sister was born. He loves his teacher, Stephanie, loves having his own friends. He remembers peoples' names after meeting them once. He LOVES to tell me what he did at school. He makes me so proud.