My Birth Story - 6/20/2007

8 months ago from today DD was born!!!

Tuesday June 19- 9pm I had a little spotting and I haven't had any spotting at all since my last AF so I knew something was up. The contractions didn't start until about 10:30 or 11pm. They started out slowly and not too painful at about 15-30 mins apart. All of a sudden around 12 or 12:30 they started to pick up and by 1 they were 5 mins apart and painful. By 230 they were 2 mins apart, then 3 mins then 2 again then one or two at 5 mins so I called the doctor b.c I was delivering at Columbia and my doctor told me to call when they were 7 mins apart for an hour - but I never got there as I jumped right past that point.

They told me to come right in to triage and so DH and my mom and I went on over to the hospital. I had called my mom when they were starting to get more regular so she was already over at our home.

It was raining so hard that it was hard to see the parkway but at least there was no traffic on the Cross Bronx at that hour. We got to the hospital around 330am and they checked me into triage. I was having contractions at 2 mins and 3 mins apart and baby's heart rate was doing beautifully.

The doctor on call came in and checked me out about 4am. I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. 15 mins after the doctor examined me my water broke on its own and the contractions got really painful. There was some meconium in the water so they had to monitor me closely. They told me I would definitely be having this baby today (June 20th) as once my water broke they wanted her out in 24 hours esp since there was some meconium.

I was brought to this beautiful L&D room around 7am. The room was gorgeous with windows along the entire wall of the room with beautiful views of Manhattan. It was very relaxing and a huge room. They gave me an epidural around 730 or 8am. It was very uncomfortable for about 5 minutes but then I was pain free for the rest of the time. I was able to feel my legs and move them but I couldn't feel the contractions. We sat around and got some rest and watched some movies (vacation and European vacation)

I had excellent blood pressure my entire pregnancy and pre pregnancy until the day of delivery when it decided to spike so they have to give me IV meds which then made me nauseated and sick - so they had to add some zofram to the mix. After that I had no complaints and could relax and wait until I dilated further.

For those who know my story - I had excess fluid for a long time and my fluid level dropped in half about two weeks or so before delivery. For some reason I progressed nicely until 5 cm but then slowed considerably. I was having regular contractions but they were not as strong as they should have been. They think that the excess fluid, then the loss of the fluid might have relaxed my uterus so that it couldn't contract as it should have been. There was also concern that the baby might be very big.

By 6pm I had only dilated to 7 cms only another 2 cms since 12pm. They were concerned that her size might be keeping her from descending properly so they gave me another hour and told me if I was not dilating 1cm an hour we would need to discuss a csection. Well another one and half hours later I had only dilated another 1/2 cm so we decided it was safest to just go ahead with the c-section. This decision turned out for the best as they think she was not descending due to the weakened muscles from the excess fluid and b/c of her size.

Because of the merconium and possible TE fistula or Esophogeal atreasia I had a lot of dr's in the OR for the c-section to evaluate the baby.

Kaitlyn Alexandra was born at 8:59pm on Wednesday, June 20, 2007. She was 9 lbs 4ozs and 20 inches. She came out screaming and crying and they told me she was a healthy 9/9 apgars. Daddy got to hold her first then they brought her to my parents in recovery while they wheeled me out to them. Then I finally got to hold my baby!!

It was so amazing when a few hours later they told me she was healthy and didn't have any problems. We cried and I as able to breastfeed her right away!

Re: My Birth Story - 6/20/2007

8 months later...

Message edited 2/21/2008 4:55:44 PM.