The birth of our little girl was an experience we will never forget. It was the most rewarding and amazing time of our life thus far, but also the worst time we ever had to encounter. Let me break it down for you...
Day 1-Monday, January 26th: Jason and I arrived at the hospital at 6:15 p.m. to be induced. This was scheduled about 2 weeks in advance. We were hoping we wouldn't have to do it this way and she would come naturally, but things don't always go the way you want them to. We checked in and got set up in our beautiful "suite" (these rooms were practically like being in an upscale hotel...minus the many monitors). I was extremely nervous knowing that possibly in a couple hours I would be going through labor. They took some blood, checked how dilated I was (still 2 cm.) and set me up to the fetal heart monitor. My doctor recommended that I have cervadelle inserted first since I was a good percent effaced. This helps soften the cervix and it has to be kept in for 12 hours. I was not too happy. I thought I would have been done with everything way before that. So, Nurse Olivia (our night nurse) just told me to relax and get some sleep. She gave me some sleeping medicine through the IV that made me feel drunk. I felt great! We all camped out in the room...Jason on a cot, my mom in a reclining chair, and my mother in law on the pull out couch. They weren't going anywhere just in case something happened overnight...everyone else was just waiting for the overnight call.
Day 2- Tuesday, January 27th: Still in a fog from the sleeping meds that I was on, I awoke to Dr. Marks and our new Nurse Michelle at 8 a.m. At this point I was extremely crampy from the cervadelle. I figured the doc was in to set me up for the actual induction of the pitocin. He pulled out the cervadelle and checked to see if any progress was made. Now I was 3 cm dilated. He told me he would be back in 45 minutes to break my water. This was it...I was terrified and couldn't stop shaking. I knew that once your water breaks the contractions get really bad. I tried to relax and prepare myself for meeting our baby girl. I get up, use the restroom, and come out to the doc and nurse preparing to break my water (what happened to 45 minutes...oh my! I wasn't ready yet!). I layed down and took a deep breath. This couldn't be too painful, the "poker" wasn't that big. Whoa! My water gushed everywhere! I had so much I could of filled a jacuzzi tub. It was such a weird feeling...incontrolable, and now I was glad that it didn't happen at home. The doctor couldn't believe how much fluids came out of me. Immediatly after the breaking of the water, I felt contractions. They came fast and were coming every which seemed like 2 minutes. I asked when I could have the epidural. They say whenever I want, and I said...give it to me NOW! My contractions were so painful I started to feel naucious. I tried my breathing, but it didn't seem to help. In comes the anesthesiologist to give me my epi. I could barely get out the bed I was in so much pain. The anesthesiologist told me they could do it lying down. At this point I wasn't even scared about the epidural. I was poked with so many needles already it wouldn't of phased me. Jason was right there holding my hand through each contraction. The epidural was done and now I was just waiting for it to take affect. Dr. Marks and Michelle were monitoring Laila's heartbeat. It didn't seem to be right. It got down to 95. So they inserted a heart monitor vaginally to place it on the baby's head. They kept having me flip sides to get her to change her positions. I barely knew what was going on at this point. All of a sudden, her heartbeat got down in the 60's. Not good. The doctor throws a gown at Jason and tells him get this on now, we are taking her in for an emergency c-section. All I remember is looking up at the ceiling in shock and worrying about loosing my little girl. They immediately wheel me in to the op room, have me slide onto the op table and put me to sleep. They had no time to do a normal c-section. They had to knock me out cold. Laila's heartbeat dropped so low because the umbilical cord was wrapped around her three times...twice around her body and once around her neck. Once they broke my water the cord constricted around her. At 10:09 a.m. she was born and it was a relief! From what hubbie and my family tells me...it was a really big scare. Everyone was worried about me and the baby.
About 3 hours after she was born I woke up. I was hooked up to so many monitors. I still had the epi and foley catheter in, along with God only knows what else. My legs were tingly. I wasn't able to do much. I was sitting there in just a hospital gown and nothing else and had people changing me "down there". I felt like an old worthless woman. I had so many things done to me that morning nothing seemed to scare me now. I remember hearing so many people in the room. She already had a ton of visitors. Everyone was saying how they couldn't believe how alert she was already. Her eyes wide open and just wanting to see the world. It took a lot for me to open my eyes, but I wanted to see Laila and know that everything was ok. Jason brought her over to me and I got to see our baby for the first time. It was love at first sight. The first thing I saw were her little hands and I said to Jason "She needs her nails cut." ha! I was on so many meds, I barely remember anything about that day. I never imagined this was the way that I would "give birth". Passed out and not even having to push, but it is what had to be done. I am greatful for how it happened...because any other way could of been a risk to Laila's life. It was all a blur, but I know that it was the best day of my life.
Day 3-Wednesday, January 28th: Waking up the morning after you have a baby is so surreal. You look over and see your little creation laying there and realizing after a long 9 months they are finally here. Having a c-section is extremely tough. It is a major surgery and takes a lot to recover. It was hard for me to not be able to get up to change Laila's diapers or if I wanted to hold her I had to ask someone to hand her to me, but need to be careful not to hurt my incision. Lucky me...my incision is so low and my stitches disolve. I will barely have a scar and even if I did It's were no one can see (except hubbie of course). I was finally able to be disconnected from all the monitors they had me hooked up to. The only thing that had to be kept in was the IV. I was now able to get up and walk around and take a shower! Thank goodness...because I felt like a stunk! I was swollen and just getting out of bed caused me pain. This also made the breastfeeding process a difficult one. I couldn't do it on my own. Someone would have to hold Laila for me. Jason was there with me the entire time and he played mommy while I was getting better. He changed all of her diapers and got up in the middle of the night when she started crying. I was so tired and was still recovering from the craziness from the previous day. I was put on motrin and percocet to help ease the pain. I was barely able to keep my eyes open most of the time, and in the middle of breastfeeding I found myself falling asleep. My milk didn't come in yet, so Laila was just getting the colostrum (which is the best stuff for her). I barely got any sleep because I had to feed every 2-3 hours. Visitors were in and out all day long to see the newest addition of our family. I was trying to get rest, but it was hard with nurses coming in every hour all day long and having friends and family visiting. There was just so much excitement! But even the next day of Laila being born was a blur. I was having difficulty going to the bathroom and it concerned the nurses. Everytime I went they had to measure how many cc's of pee I was emptying out and then take the bladder scanner to check and see how much was still there. If I didn't empty out my bladder to were it was below 50 cc's they would have to put the cathetor back in, and I did not want that! How uncomfortable! So I tried everything to go to take a good size pee...walked the halls to get my flow back, put a warm compress on my tummy, stood in the warm shower, sat on the toilet with the water running, drank lots of water...still didn't work. They ran the scanner over my tummy and it read 200 cc's left in my badder. And you know what that meant...had to put in the cathetor. It didn't have to stay in, but the nurse had to put a temporary one in to just empty it. After that my bladder seemed to be back to normal. But after all the pain and things I went through the day before, I was not looking forward to having another procedure done to me. My hormones were going crazy and any little thing made me upset or want to cry. And if you have never had a cathetor in before...it is not the most comfortable thing in the world. I was just happy that was over with and I was able to get on with my day and enjoy my little girl. I was at least functioning a little better, even though I still had some pain. I knew that we were going to be in the hospital until at least Friday. I did not want to be stuck in here for my birthday. As visitors started weaning their way out, Jason and I settled down and got ready for bed. The nurse came in to weigh Laila like they do every night. She was down to 7 lbs. 5 oz. I didn't worry because I knew babies loose some of their weight. This was a rough night...Laila wouldn't stop crying. We were trying everything. Like any new parents, we were concerned something was wrong. Was she getting enough to eat? The colostrum must not of been enough for her. So we had one of those first time long nights.
Day 4-Thursday, January 29th: After barely getting any sleep, the pediatrician came in and saw how Laila was crying. We told him she was up all night crying and I was feeding her like normal. He told us she would possibly need to have a suppliment to get her weight going back up and since I wasn't yet producing milk (which could of still taken a couple more days because of me having to go into surgery). I was kind of upset...I felt I was being successful with breastfeeding and I was excited about it. So we supplimented a little bit and I continued to breastfeed. Nothing I could of done...I just wanted our little snuggle bug healthy. I was finally getting out of my foggy stage. Even though the entire time in the hospital I was in a daze, I knew that we would be going home tomorrow and there would be no nurses to bother me. As much as I loved the room service, the company, and being spoiled with people helping me...I was ready to take our little girl home and start my mama routine. I was able to do a lot more as the days went on. I walked Laila through the halls so I can get some excercise, walked with hubbie down to the cafeteria, and just packed all of our many belongings we brought and received. I felt a lot better at this point...people had to remind me to rest since I had a major operation. Doesn't phase me...I am always wanting to be on the go no matter how much pain I'm in. We still had people coming by to see Laila. All three of us are so loved and blessed with such wonderful people in our lives. Oh! and they weighed Laila before sleepytime. She went up a couple ounces, which we were happy about.
Day 5-Friday, January 30th: We got the ok to go home. The pediatrician wanted to see Laila tomorrow to check her weight. We were so happy to finally be getting out of there. It felt like months went by. Jason made about 3 trips to the car to load all our bags, flowers, balloons, and stuffed animals that we got. They got me in my wheelchair, put Laila in my arms and we headed for home. This was so surreal. We were now on our own...our own little family. We knew we had plenty of people that were willing to help us, but it was just so surreal. Laila in the backseat sleeping soundly. Jason was driving the speed limit...which is not normally like him to do. It was such a great feeling. We pulled in the driveway and hear the dogs barking. We set Laila down so they can do some sniffing. They were confused. Laila slept the entire day. She was warn out from crying all night before. Everything finally felt complete...our sweetheart was home!
The next day we took Laila to her doctors appt. We are still working hard to get her back up to her birth weight. The breastfeeding is coming easier and yay! My milk finally came in...on my birthday! Some present! I have to feed her every 3 hours. We are so blessed with such a beautiful baby. She is so good and only cries when she is hungry or when we are changing her diaper. I still can't believe she is ours! Never did I think how her birth happened was how it was going to be...I thought I would be able to see her right away and be up and ready to go after a day or two. But I look at it now and am thankful for the way things happened. God was watching over us and it's the way it was meant to be. How lucky are we?
