Belated Birth Story *long*

eponine7682

Hi all! I have had a whirlwind past 2 weeks and am just now getting some time to post! Starting in December my blood pressure started to escalate. I was put on bed rest, but it was getting high (150/100) and I had been admitted to the hospital a week and half before Christmas. Once I hit 37 weeks my OB decided it was time to get the baby out.

On December 17th I went into my OBs office and they put 7 laminaria sticks in my cervix to get it to start dilating since cervix was still completely closed. They said it would cause "a bit of cramping" but that was it and I was to go to the hospital the next morning at 6am to start induction. Well...all day long that "little bit of cramping" was a TON of cramping. It got worse as the day progressed and started to come in patterns about 2 minutes apart. I called the on call doctor around 5pm and said I was afraid I was having contractions, they said probably not and to just rest and take tylenol for pain. It hurt so bad that I did not get any sleep at all that day or night. Finally at 2am my husband and I had enough. I was in so much pain we called them again and they said to go to the hospital early. When I got there I was 3 cm dilated. They never told me these sticks could jump start labor but it indeed did!

Since I was in a good deal of pain they came me a little something to ease it and it helped me sleep for a couple hours. Once it wore off I was in a crap ton of pain. Turns out I was having back labor! Wow...so much more painful than I ever would have imagined. I tried to be a hero and not take anything but around 3pm I was in so much pain and contractions were only a minute and a half apart that I asked for an epi. I was only 5 cm at the time... I picked a popular day to go into labor and several c-sections were happening that day so I was last in line for an epi. I had to wait in hour and a half before someone got there. I don't wish back labor on ANYONE!!

Unfortunately the epi only worked for my right side. I was progressing slowly so it was taking a while and they were starting to get concerned because LO's heart rate started to decrease every time I had a contraction but it would always spike back up. Dr. kept an eye on it and decided to proceed. At 7pm I was ready to push. We pushed for about a half hour and my OB started to look concerned. He said he was afraid LOs heart rate was only decreasing more and more per contraction and I hadn't gotten too far with pushing. He decided an emergency c-section was best just in case LOs heart rate decided to not bounce back. At that point...36 hours after my first contraction happened I was ready to get the baby out!

They rushed me into the OR (I threw up a few times due to nerves and meds) and at 8:04pm on Tuesday December 18th my little GIRL was born! I heard her screaming the moment she was take out of my belly and DH and just started crying. She was born a peanut at 5lbs8oz and 19 inches long. We named her Eveleen Linda and we are so in love. I am so happy we remained team green, hearing her gender announced was a wonderful moment for DH and I. We almost named her Noel because there were Christmas songs playing in the OR but Eveleen had been our first choice name since I was 13 weeks or so. One of its meanings is "wished for" so very appropriate.

She had been wonderful since, but we had a prolonged hospital stay due to her jaundice and my BP going sky high. I am on a huge dose to meds to lower it and doing better and her jaundice is better too. Here is a pic of our miracle angel baby. We are so blessed and I cannot wait for all of you to experience this joy. Thinking of you all and much love to everyone this holiday season!