I was admitted at 1:22pm. I checked into triage, got hooked up to the baby HB monitor and contraction monitor and they were actually not sure if my water had broken or not; one test was positive and one was negative. They said Baby Girl's HB was variable when I would contract so they would need to monitor her, so I was there to stay anyway. My sisters and Josh left to go get my mom (she lives an hour away) and Scott arrived. I was hooked up to a penicillin IV to get antibiotics in my system. Scott gave me a Priesthood blessing when there was a small break from nurses coming in to check on me. So grateful for that blessing.
I spent the rest of the evening letting my body naturally go into labor. They gave me a portable monitor so I could walk the halls, which I really appreciated. I was 2cm dilated at check in, and by the time my contractions got unbearable and I was ready for the epidural, I was 5cm.
OH, and my OB/GYN whom I had seen the last year that knew everything about me and my pregnancy and birth plan was not there. And I was told he wasn't going to be there. Can you say panic?? They gave me petocin a couple times to speed up contractions. That didn't work. They did an amnio-something to help baby since they had already removed the amniotic fluid. That didn't work. That, added with the 99 cords connecting me to machines, and growing hunger and fatigue, really stressed my body out and I threw up and was nauseous. I didn't get a wink of sleep.
Meanwhile, lots of friends and family were texting/messaging wanting updates. I'm sorry I didn't respond to most of you. I was pretty miserable. And tired. And just wanted to be left alone because obviously there was no news. But I appreciate the prayers and love from you all!
Mom-in-law hanging out at the hospital being my rock.
Then a prayer was answered. They knew how much I wanted my doctor so they called him, and he came in on his off weekend to assess me. By morning time, I had dilated from a 5 to a whopping 6. YUP. That nightmare night- and I had progressed ONE CENTIMETER. He knew how vehemently against having a C section I was. But he said I could potentially labor like this another 10-12 hours and still have the C section, or have the baby now.
It was such an easy decision. I said, "Even if I finally progress, I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm at my wits end. I will not even have the energy to push." I asked him what the timeline was now, and he said "Oh we are going to do the operation now. Your baby will be here in the next hour."
C-Section- I didn't feel the cut and it was so fast. The feeling of getting wheeled into a scary operation room, but none of the staff are panicked because it wasn't an emergency C section, and then being told my baby would be here in literally 15 minutes, was so relieving. They let whomever I wanted watch from the window. I chose my moms and Rikki.
They let Scott dress in scrubs and sit by my head. I was anxious and it still hurt (lots of pressure), so I asked him to sing to me, and sing he did. I wonder what the 10 nurses/doctors thought of that.
The one feeling I won't ever forget is when she was lifted from me. It was so relieving. But....we didn't hear anything.
My blue baby was not crying, not breathing. They put an oxygen mask on her. I thought, is this normal? Is this bad? I just wanted her to breathe. I had slurred in my drugged state "What's her APGAR?" The lady with the orange stethoscope said, "There's no way to know that, it hasn't been 5 minutes yet."
B.S.
I'm no dummy; I know a baby gets an APGAR score twice, at 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth. But she was a smart lady and knew it was not wise to tell me that my baby was a 2. After an eternity, baby cried. Not the shrill piercing cry you expect, but it was there. They wrapped her up and put her on me for a family picture that I don't remember.
Then they took my baby away from me. Scott and I had already discussed that he would follow baby everywhere. He did, and this is where my sister took the famous smiley picture of Hosanna Rae that stole everyone's heart.
By the way, her APGAR at 5 minutes was a 9 (out of 10). Talk about a dramatic change. Thank you doctors.
They stitched me up and wheeled me into the recovery room where I would live the next 4 days. It was truly overwhelming. All our family was there and Scott was pacing with baby. They were all waiting for me to get to hold her first, but I couldn't even keep my eyes open. It was truly devastating. Although this picture is kinda hilarious.
Recovering from a C section is painful, and it's frustrating to have to ask for help going to the bathroom and all that. I had to be on oxygen again that night, of course I couldn't even feed my baby yet, and the first 24 hours was a daze. Although sometimes I wanted to be alone, I appreciated our immediate families being there to hold and love on our princess that first day when I couldn't. The rest of the hospital stay was pretty tough. I could write paragraphs about everything that did/did not happen, but the short is that it was just hard.
Thank heaven for grandmas. Pretty sure my mom has more of the "new mommy" glow than I do. Not convinced? Exhibit B.
Friday night is date night, so Scott and I snuck away while my Mom watched baby, to go on a DATE! to....the grocery store. Hey, I'll take it. Apparently, she was a screaming nightmare the second we stepped out the door. But I am glad I kept resisting calling Mom a billion times in the 40 minutes we were gone. I really needed my string cheese.
So here we are! We are exhausted, we have no idea what we are doing, but there's no turning back now! This cute little butterball has completely changed our life and we adore her. We will probably still be off the map for another week or two. We love you all and will definitely let you know when you can come cradle this little girl.
