Hello My Name Is…

Well I’m not sure where to start with this post.

Weds (2-26)  I was sitting on the couch at about 11:30-11:45 pm and had a coughing spell. Just so happened that my water broke. I called Jay to come pick me up. Dinner was in the oven so I took it out and put it in the fridge. I packed a couple of last minute things while I waited for Jay to get home from work.

We pulled into the hospital around 12:15 and small contractions started. I went to labor and delivery and they sent me around the corner to run some tests. They checked our heartbeats and made sure my water broke. At around 12:50 am Thursday morning they took us to our labor and delivery room. I wasn’t progressing at all and hadn’t changed since the check up 3 weeks ago.

At around 1:00 they started me on pitocin to help even out my contractions. Contractions were getting harder but they were still not getting closer together. They just hurt worse. I decided to wait on an epidural. Contractions got harder and more painful but I was not progressing. The on-call doc had them start me on something to thin my cervix but I don’t remember what it was. A couple more hours passed and still nothing was changing. We LOVED our first nurse because she wasn’t pushy but was insightful. She also reminded me of a good friend.

My doctor called and said to stop the one medication and go back on pitocin. I finally started to show some change and went from a 2 to 2.5.

Contractions were so bad I couldn’t quit shaking. The pain was likely an 8 to 9 at this point at 8:00am. My body was exhausted from all of the contractions. My doctor suggested that I consider the epidural because of the trauma to my body.

Shift change happened and they brought in the anesthesiologist. I was really scared of getting it because it’s this big needle in the back. But once I was in a certain amount of pain I no longer cared. I didn’t really feel anything.

Soon I progressed to a 6 & 70% and then an 8 and 100%. Two hours passed and there were no changes. Four hours passed and no changes. My body became tolerant to the epi and I had severe pain in my back and hips. More epi plus some other pain killer. No progression. The checked again and realized that baby was pushing on my hips and his or her head was stuck on my left hip. 14 hours of labor and nothing was changing.

At 5:30pm they told me I was having a c-section. I was pretty upset and was fighting back tears. I asked if they could just turn the baby and they told me that baby would still be too big and would just get caught somewhere else. I asked again if there were any other options. Then they proceeded to tell me that there was no other option. One of them explained because my water had broken so long ago they didn’t want to keep baby in much longer in case of infection.

Around 6:00pm I was prepped for the OR and I was loaded with more numbing meds, etc. before I knew it they were cutting through my stomach And telling me there would be a little pressure. When a doc says “a little pressure” it’s never just a little.

At 6:29 Pm I heard her first tiny scream. Nothing in the world has ever sounded so amazing. They then had Jay announce that she was officially a girl. They held her over the sheet so I could see her and then Jay went and cut her cord. She was beautiful- gorgeous- amazing- perfect .

After that I saw her for about a minute and a half before they took her away to run tests, etc. It was hard not getting to really hold her and harder being whisked away to recovery not knowing where she went. As soon as I became a little more lucid I asked for her and about 20 min later they brought her in. I felt like I missed out on our skin to skin and first moments but as soon as I saw her I knew we would make new ones. I didn’t want to put her down after that.

The pain from the incision hurt pretty badly and moving around was not my friend. The doctor first told us that we would have to stay until Sunday afternoon but when saturday morning rolled around I asked if we could leave.

The issue… She still didn’t have a name. We had 2 hours to decide. 15 minutes before our deadline we compromised on one we felt was fitting for her.

Sometime around 4:30 pm we walked out of the Hospital with Arabella Hope. We placed her in her carseat and noticed a gigantic rainbow encapsulating the area. This was the end of one journey and the beginning of another.

Arabella (Answered Prayer). She was 8lbs 6oz and 20.5 inches long. She was born with deep blue eyes and dark brown hair. 10 fingers and 10 toes.