Labor & Delivery

We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning for my induction. They started my IV fairly quickly and broke my water at 7:40 a.m. The contractions started coming and were getting pretty painful so they checked me and I was 3 cm and ready for the epidural. I got the epidural around 10:45 a.m. (I think?). After the epidural I was pretty comfortable and just playing the waiting game. When I felt pressure like I had to go to the bathroom they checked me and and I was 10 cm and ready to push. I pushed about 3 times and the doctor told me to stop pushing and left the room. When the doctor came back, he brought a whole slew of people with him and immediately said that they had to get the baby out right away because her heart rate was dropping. I pushed about 5 times and Avery Grace was born at 2:49 p.m. In order to get the baby out the doctor had to give me an episiotomy all the way down from one end to the other (plus I tore) and had to pull her out with the suction thing. My mom and husband were in the room watching and my mom later told me that he had to literally rip her out of me! When they put Avery up on my stomach after she came out, she was just lifeless and blue. They took her right away and I was so scared and asking them if she was going to be o.k. I finally heard her cry about 40 seconds or so later and was so relieved.

I then had to get stitches, which took at least 40 minutes. My epidural still hadn't worn off so I didn't feel anything. As the doctor was finishing up stitching me, I suddenly felt weak and my ears started to ring and I couldn't hear anything. My blood pressure started to drop dangerously low and I felt like I was going to pass out. They gave me oxygen and I remember the blood pressure machine alarm going off and seeing the nurse give the doctor a worried look. I think the lowest I heard her say my blood pressure was was 70/30! I was so out of it and honestly thought I was going to die. That was such a scary moment. My blood pressure finally started to stabilize and I came around. A short time after, the nurses wanted me to get up and go to the bathroom so they helped me out of the bed and walked me to the toilet. As soon as I sat on the toilet I told them that I felt like I was going to pass out. The next thing I remember is being slumped over and hearing the nurse yell my name and asking me if I could hear her. I just remember one of the nurses telling me to keep looking straight at her and not to close my eyes. It seemed like I was looking through a tunnel and everything around me was black and in front of me was blurry. They put me in a wheel chair to take me back to the bed and I passed out again from what my husband and my mom tell me. They lifted me onto the bed and gave me oxygen and I came around again. A little bit after that I ate something because i hadn't eaten anything since the night before. I finally got to hold my daughter around two hours after she was born. The doctor came in again and had me sign a paper saying that I would agree to have a blood transfusion if they absolutely needed to. After I ate, I started to feel weak in my legs and light headed. The doctor was concerned and decided that I needed the blood transfusion because I lost so much blood during delivery.

I had to stay in the labor and delivery room all night until the two pints of blood were in me and finally got transferred to a recovery room around 5 a.m. The nurses brought Avery in the room to see us for a little while and then took her back to the nursery around 6:30 a.m. We got to leave the hospital around 7 p.m. on Friday after waiting ALL DAY to leave. The drive home is about 45 minutes, so that was not fun having a sore bottom from having stitches.

The recovery so far has been very painful and it's been hard trying to take care of a newborn while I'm in so much pain. My pain got even worse around Sunday night. I hadn't had a bowel movement since the morning of my induction so it was putting pressure on where I was stitched and swollen. The next day I finally had a bowel movement and oh my gosh was it painful! My mom has been so awesome and has been coming over everyday since she came home.

I'm starting to feel a little better now and my bottom is slowly starting to heal. My emotions have been all over the place and today is actually the first day that I haven't cried since we came home. It's so overwhelming having to take care of a newborn while being in a lot of pain. I'm also breastfeeding and sometimes she'll want to eat just an hour after she was fed last (which leads to very sore nipples-plus I have to use a breast sheild because she won't latch on without it)! Also since I am breastfeeding, I am up with her alone at night and up until last night Avery wouldn't sleep in her bassinet because she wants to be held. I swore I would never put her in bed with us but that's exactly what I did for the first four nights so I could get some sleep. Last night was the first night she didn't sleep with me and she only slept in the bassinet because I put the bouncy seat inside of it. I'm just taking one day at a time and trying to transition into being a mommy :)