gck0708
She is love!
Member since 11/08 1863 total posts
Name:
Grace
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Our beautiful daughter Carys Rose!
I can't believe it's been a week today since our little princess Carys Rose made her big debut to the world!
It has been a very busy and hectic week, hence my lack of posting, but I'm finally able to take a few minutes to write a brief birth story and post some photos!
Wednesday, December 9 was the most amazing day of my life! Nothing could have prepared me for the joy and wonder of meeting our daughter. It went faster than I thought it would, once dilation started and wasn't as I expected in a lot of ways. Here's my (brief as possible) birth story:
I had been feeling a little off on Tuesday - the menstrual-like cramps began getting more intense that day and around 6PM on Tuesday evening I started seeing bloody show. I figured I was still a few days off labor as I anticipated being very late and having a long and difficult labor (as my mother did with all 4 of us).
SOO..I went to bed at midnight (much to late) and woke at 1 with really quite intense cramps. They were pretty consistent though, not coming and going like contractions. Not yet at least. By 2AM they were 9-10 minutes apart and about 1min 12 seconds each. So I just lay in bed and tried to sleep through them. No such luck! I woke DH at 4AM when they were about 6 minutes apart and 1 minute long. I called the hospital around 5:30 or so and they said to just come in and get checked out. Well then they started to space out a bit more so I took that opportunity to shower and eat. Then they came back stronger and I decided to go to the hospital. We didn't end up getting there until about 9AM (rush hour traffic, of course), and I didn't end up getting examined until 10AM. They had me on the monitors for an hour (NOT comfortable with those contractions, let me tell you) and at the end of it they examined me and I was 2cm! The baby's head was still not descended enough so they sent me to the prenatal ward to wait it out.
So, off we went - it was 11:30AM at this point I think. I spent 2.5 hours on a birthing ball in what, to me, was a huge amount of pain. The contractions were extremely intense and were all extremely low in my pelvis, not in my abdomen at that point. I could get no relief because standing up and walking was too painful and difficult and sitting was very uncomfortable. I also was totally exhausted at that point - I had only had 1 hour of sleep in the last 24 hours, and after 14 hours of laboring without any pain relief I was draining fast of any energy I needed to fight the contractions without meds, and I became very teary and tired with each contraction. I knew I needed some sort of pain relief at that point, so I called the midwife. I asked her to examine me before giving me any pain meds. I wanted to know how far dilated I was and how far I had to go before deciding what pain relief to go with.
She examined me and I was almost 5cm! I felt happy that I'd made it that far without meds, but I had decided that at this point I was going with the epi. I just would not have had the energy to go on. So, they took me to my delivery suite at 3:30PM, and I told them that I wanted the epi (expecting to have to wait an hour for it as I had been warned), and the anesthesiologist was there within 15 minutes. At that point I was 6cm. The epi went in and I wanted to kiss the doc who gave it to me! They then broke my water and I had a little meconium in the water so they warned me that the pediatrician would have to have her right after birth before they gave the baby to me, which of course I understood. They then left me to sleep for an hour to let the epi take effect, and when they came back at 5PM they checked me and i was a full 10cm and ready to push!! I thought they were joking - I could not believe it!!
I started pushing - the pushing part wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I could feel everything except the pain, which I was very glad of. At all times I could tell exactly how hard I was pushing and I could feel her as she was descending and coming out. I think I pushed for about 30 minutes total. Toward the end, the baby's heart rate started dropping and they said they needed to either use suction to get her out or it could end up with a c-section. So they used the suction and she came out after about 6 more pushes. It was so amazing - they pulled her out, said "oh its a little lady!", to which I said "it's a GIRL???" and started crying tears of joy! I just couldn't believe that finally our little one was here!! And I was so surprised that we had a daughter! I was so convinced that I was having a boy, but she was the most wonderful surprise in the world. The ped took her and then she was put on my chest where I got to kiss her hello and hold her. She was so beautiful and little and precious. They weighed her and she weighed 7lbs11oz, which totally surprised us, as I was told 2.5 weeks earlier at my growth sono that at that point she weighed 7lbs 14oz!!!
As far as I went, I had to have an episiotomy (which I wasn't thrilled about but with them using suction to get her out I didn't want to risk a bad tear, so I'm glad I made the decision I did) and quite a few stitches so recovery from that is slow and quite sore, actually. Breast feeding is going well now, with a few hiccups to start - she doesn't feed for very long but she gets what she needs in that time, which is great. She sleeps well and frequently. Of course I watch her like a hawk every time she closes her eyes but she's just so good. We are SO in love and in awe of her and already we can't imagine life before her!
So please let me introduce to you our little angel, Carys Rose. Born Wednesday December 9 at 5:45PM. 7lbs 11oz and 21" long.
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usuk2004
I'm ONE!
Member since 5/05 5150 total posts
Name:
Farah
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Re: Our beautiful daughter Carys Rose!
Congratulations Grace!!!! She's just beautiful! and I love her name!     
Your story sounds a lot like mine! The start and stop contractions, stuck at 2-3cm dilated for ages, the lack of sleep, the epi, the heart rate dropping and even suction and episiotomy! I found the stitches the worst part though - it was hard to move around in the hospital at night in order to get T to breastfeed him because the stitches were sore.
Glad you guys are home and BFing is going well. Drop me a line if you need anythign at all! So proud of you, well done! 
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