My Birth Story Jan 22, 2008 (Stony Brook)

Chelsea Lynn was born on Tuesday January 22, 2008 at 5:57 am weighing in at 8lbs7oz. She is the most beautiful baby in the world.

As you know I went into the hospital on Sunday the 20th for an induction because I had GD and her growth sono said she was going to be around 9lbs 5oz. We got to the hospital at 7:30 pm and in the room by 8pm. Stony Brook was very busy that night so they didn’t wind up putting in the cervidel until 12am. It then became a waiting game. The doctors planned to keep it in for 12 hours and see how I progressed.

Needless to say by 12pm Monday afternoon nothing had really happened. My cervix had softened but I did not dilate at all. At 3pm they decided the next step was to insert a Foley balloon into my cervix and try to manually dilate me. They fill the balloon with water once it is in my cervix and hope to open me up. A resident came in to do this and I was told the night before I would get an epi before they would attempt to do this. The resident said that wasn’t to case and “let’s see if you can handle it without any drugs”.
They tried twice to get it in and by the second time I was screaming and crying in pain begging them to stop. She did and said she’d have to talk to other doctors to see if they’d let me get an epi because I “obviously cannot tolerate the pain.” Ya think????

20 minutes later the anesthesiologist walked in to give me an epidural. OMG it was awesome. The worst part was the needle they used to numb the area. Once that was done I felt great. At 4pm they again attempted to put in the Foley balloon and it was nothing. They also started me on pitocin at that point and again we played the waiting game. Meanwhile during all these procedures the doctors kept commenting on how narrow my pelvis was….hhhmmmmm baby not going to fit? But they insisted trying everything for me to deliver vaginally.

At 8pm they removed the balloon and I had dilated 4cm. At that point they broke my water and continued to up the pitocin. They also inserted something into my cervix that measures the strength of my contractions to see if the pitocin was working. By 12am I was in an extreme amount of pain again. They tried to “top off” the epi but it wasn’t working. The doctor said it is not 100% and sometimes doesn’t work in some areas and unfortunately for me that “area” was the most important one. I could feel the catheter and also that other thing. By this point I was begging for a c-section just so the pain could end. My contractions were 2 minutes apart and they really hurt. By 2am I was still not dilated more than 4cm so they upped the pitocin again and said if by 4am nothing changed they could resort to a c-section. Needless to say at 4am now 28 hours later they opted to do a c-section.

From that point on everything moved very quickly. They gave me different drugs and I felt nothing. They brought me into the room. My Dh came in and by 5:57am Chelsea was out. She came out screaming and healthy. I was pretty out of it but I remember my DH crying because she was just so beautiful.

A c-section was nothing like I thought it would be. The pain is horrible and I was pretty out of it for much of Tuesday. By Wednesday they made me get out of bed and once I showered it I felt a little better. I am so glad Stony Brook has private rooms. I stayed in the hospital until yesterday. I think one of the worst parts of it is the gas that is filling my stomach. I really thought it would be a piece of cake recovery and am learning that it will be awhile before I am “normal” again.

It is so totally worth it though because we have our beautiful daughter and I never thought I could love someone as much as I love her. I even feel more in love with my Dh after seeing him with Chelsea.

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Message edited 2/20/2008 6:43:43 PM.

Re: My Birth Story Jan 22, 2008 (Stony Brook)

congrats, had my ds the same day. Can't believe it almost a month.