Birth story.

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:00:32 GMT

On Wednesday, December 12th- Mom & I went to the hospital for me to be induced. After spending about 30 minutes down in the patient registration room dealing with insurance stuff & my name change, we made our way up to Labor & Delivery and was greeted by an amazingly nice nurse- Kala. She took me to my room, and I changed into my gown. Signed some more papers, and eventually had to get blood drawn & my IV hooked up.

Hung around the room for an hour, until Dr. Stegman came in and gave me my first dose of the prostaglandin gel. Hours passed, nothing happened..I got another dose. Chris eventually got to the hospital after he got off work- and brought me a rose and a little rose for Reagan, it was cute. Eventually my mom left, I got my last dose of gel for the night- and attempted to sleep. Woke up around 2:30 having mild contractions. the nurse cme in and checked me and I was about 2cm. My mom came back around 7, and I got a shot of some pain relief med. Around 9AM they started me on Pitocin..and that defintley worked. By 11 I was 4-5cm dilated. By this time, Dr. Long was the doctor at the hospital, which made me happy because he was my favorite. The contracions were about 3 minutes apart, and the absolute worse pain I've ever felt. Around 12:15ish, I got the epidural. The epidural didn't really hurt, but having to be bent over to get the epidural during the contractions was excruciating. Chris' mom, sister, & step-sister had gotten to the hospital by this point so he went down to the cafeteria with them to get food.

About 25 minutes after I got the epidural, I felt a lot of pressure and next thing you know- I was sitting in a nice puddle of amniotic fluid! I paged the nurse (who was this really sweet woman named Tammy, she was a huge help during it all) and told her my water broke. She came back with Dr. Long, he checked me- and I was fully dilated. Chris came back up, along with his mother, and at around 12:45, Dr.Long came in and had me started pushing. he pushing wasn't bad at all- I couldn't feel a thing. I pushed for until about, 3ish, I believe. I had started crowning, and Dr. Long tried succtioning her about 4 times, but it didn't work. He also performed an epsiotomy to try to help her come out, but it didn't work. By this time he noticed that the cord was wrapped so that each time I was pushing, it was pulling her back and her heartrate was dropping and she was loosing a lot of air. So, next thing you know- I'm being rushed into the surgery room and breathing into a mask.

And then I wake up- and I'm in the recovery room. I had a hard time opening my eyes, but I heard a baby cry, and then I heard Chris & my dad talking. By the time I was fully concious and able to open my eyes/talk- I looked over and saw my beautiful baby girl. Chris brought her over to me and I just wanted to cry because she was absolutely perfect.

Reagan Elizabeth was born December 13th,2007 at 3:38 pm. 6lbs, 13oz. 20 inches long. Beautiful skin, huge dark blue eyes, a full head of hair- and an extremley alert baby.

I ended up having to get a blood tranfusion, because I lost a lot of blood. So, I had to get two units. I got a shot of morphine, and then eventually got transferred into my room. I was discharged from the hospital on Monday, December 17th.

The first few days after my surgery, I felt kind of disconnected from her. I didn't get to see her until around 7:20ish the night she was born- which was almost 4 hours after she was delivered. I felt like a stranger to her because I was the last one to hold her. But, the more I think about it- i realize that it doesn't matter. I have the rest of my life to spend time with her, and I've already created a bond with her. The first four hours can't mean that much, epsescially since she won't remeber it.

I'm healing pretty well. I can't feel the episiotomy at all. My stitches look great. I have a bit of tenderness in the left lower side of my abdomen, but other than that- all is well.

Being a mother is great. Tiring, but it's something I would never trade. And even though I didn't have the birth I was hoping for- I wouldn't have that any other way either. Reagan is happy, healthy, beautiful, alert, and in my eyes- she's just perfect.

Hello x kellyyy

Birth story.