Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Violet's Birth Story

     I had a pretty easy pregnancy up until the end. I had been sick off and on the last two weeks of my pregnancy which was not too fun. So at my 38 week appointment they told me I was huge and measured the baby at 8.5 lbs, while telling me I was going to have a big baby. This made me nervous but I assumed that she would make an appearance soon so I wasn't worried. But time passed and no baby yet. At my 39 week appointment they were surprised I was still pregnant and measured the baby yet again telling me that I needed to have this baby soon. My appointment was on a Tuesday and they gave me the option to get induced that Friday. We declined because my due date hadn't even come yet. I wanted her to come when she was ready. Then on Monday (May 6th) I began t have contractions but they would come and go and were not consistent. Then on Tuesday I began to throw up and have more contractions but they were 30 minutes apart at this point. I had my 40 week appointment later that day. They had me do a non-stress test and could tell I was having contraction 10-15 minutes apart. The doctor then told me that he wouldn't be surprised if he saw me later that night to have this baby. He was exactly right. 
    As soon as I got home from my appointment the contractions began to pick up. This was at about 3pm. I told Jared that we would probably be going to the hospital that night. But I just lounged around even though I was having contraction 4 minutes apart. I didn't want to go to the hospital too early and get sent home. Jared has class until 5pm so I went upstairs to my neighbors to hang out in case I needed to go to the hospital before Jared got home. After Jared got home I was in pretty bad pain so I decided to take a bath. This helped the pain a lot. Getting out of the bath, getting dressed, and actually leaving took a lot longer than I thought. This was not the way I had pictured spending my 22nd birthday but it was all worth it. We ended up getting to the hospital around 8:30pm. We waited in the exam room to get checked for what seemed like forever but really it was only 45 minutes. By this point the pain was so uncomfortable. Finally they admitted me, hooked up my IV(which took 4 tries and 2 nurses), then asked if I wanted an epidural. I had been in pain since that Monday and this was Tuesday night so I wanted the epidural. I was so tired I needed some pain relief so I could make it through labor. After that I was a lot more relaxed and was able to nap for an hour or so.
    Soon after this I was getting very hot and they kept checking my temperature. It kept going up. It was at 102.5 at this point. They didn't seem too worried but knew the baby needed to come out. So they broke my water and waited for me to progress on my own a little. I was finally at 10 cm around 2:00 am so they had me start pushing. I was very tired from the fever and being so dehydrated. My fever kept raising so they started me on antibiotics. After pushing for 1.5 hours she was out. They whisked her away to clean her off. She was very gray when she was born and all I heard was the nurses say that they couldn't get her breathing like she should. I had no idea what that meant. Then they took her to the NICU. I was really worried and didn't know what was going on until 2 hours later when the pediatrician on call came in to update me. Apparently I had some infection called corio which can pass on to the baby during delivery. They needed to treat her with antibiotics for 48 hours. I was not able to hold her until noon on Wednesday. So I was not able to have her in my room at all. I made many trips down to the NICU from my room throughout the two days I was there. She was doing very well. Then I was told that she would need to stay a couple extra days after they take her off of the antibiotics to make sure she doesn't have the infection. Everything came out well and she was able to come home Saturday morning. 
   We are so blessed that she is home and healthy. It was a rough couple of days but this beautiful baby girl was all worth it.
 

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