Lauren Nichole's birth story - super long

sandpaper06 · #1 March 28th, 2010, 12:15 PM

The start of this story is on Wednesday morning, 3/10 at 8 am. I had an u/s and OB appointment, where we found out that Lauren had dropped from the 25th percentile to the 7th in a matter of less than 3 weeks size wise. She did pass her biophysical profile with the 8/8 and did well on the NST too. We were concerned but knew it was a possibility and were going to start BPPs and NSTs at least 2 times a week from there on out. Later that day, I went and got myself some soft tacos and in the midst of eating a bite, broke a tooth. So, I made an appointment for 7:15 the next day, which was my birthday. So not where I wanted to be that morning, but I also didn�t want a cracked tooth.

After going to the dentist that morning and having 8 different shots, I went to lunch with my sister and had delicious Mexican food. I then hung out at her house until DH got off of work around 4. Around 6:00 we decided what we wanted for dinner and went to Rumbi. I also had made plans with SIL to go run a couple of errands while DH took DS to Cub Scouts with him. Then my sister, BIL and niece and SIL were going to meet at our house for cake, since it was my birthday. My sister and BIL left around 9:20 and literally 2 minutes later, I felt my water break.

I called that sister immediately, since she was the one who was going to watch DS if/when I went to the hospital, and tell her we�re bringing DS over as soon as we�re ready, then made the other necessary phone calls, my OB, favorite sister, and my mom. Luckily SILwas still with us and was watching DS as we gathered all the things that we needed (seeing as I hadn�t packed a bag for me yet, just one for DS). 10:40 rolls around and we�re on the way to the hospital.

We get checked in and since I�d gone to L&D back in January, they had all the information they needed to get us upstairs really quickly. By the time a nurse had come in to tell me I should change into the gown, water was dripping down my legs and I was more than happy to get out of my clothes. They checked and made sure that the fluid was amniotic and then got ready to start the IV, since the GBS labs wouldn�t be back before the morning and they needed to get antibiotics in me, just in case.

Normally I like to think that I am a pretty rational being, but I�ll fully admit to FREAKING out while the nurse was putting in my IV. The first time she got it in, but started moving it around (which hurt a LOT) and eventually burst that vein. So she started another in my hand and amazingly I was worried that it would hurt as bad as the first. I mean I was crying and holding my breath and was NOT in a good place. Anyway, she then got ready to check me to see how far I was and she couldn�t reach and I was already hysterical about the pain she�d already caused�so she gave up and assumed I was still the 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced that I was from Wednesday morning.

I chose to be laying in bed until 3:30 when they would have to make a decision about whether or not I needed pitocin to hurry labor along since they had no clue where I was (they wouldn�t try anything until my epidural was in. Really, I was a nutter earlier). I didn�t want to be wandering the halls with my bag of waters leaking the whole time. I just didn�t want to leave the trail of where I had been! 4 am rolls around and the anesthesiologist is on his way in, and I was extremely grateful as contractions had been pretty intense for the last hour or so. I did have the low blood pressure that can happen with it, so my nurse was around a little more. So finally around 4:40 my nurse is willing to try to check me, and I am 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced. They also decided to do the internal leads and contraction measurer and an amniotic infusion at this point, since we knew DD was little and they wanted to monitor her a little more closely than normal.

An hour later my OB comes in to check on me and see if we needed to start the pitocin since they decided I�d made enough progress to not hook it up. At that point I�m still a 4 and 80% effaced. My OB threatened the pit if something didn�t happen in the next hour. So at around 6 I notice that I am able to start feeling some of the contraction pain and push the little �boost� button on the epidural. By the time my nurse comes back in, I think I was feeling most of every contraction and they were right on top of each other. The nurse was still afraid of checking me if I could feel anything (which I was irritated by at this point. Really? I couldn�t be THAT bad. I mean, just check me, I�m already in pain!), so she waited until the anesthesiologist could come in and give me another dose. (He did at about 6:30) A full dose. A few minutes later nurse lady checked me FINALLY and I was completely dilated and baby had most definitely dropped. I had gone from 4 to complete in about 40 minutes and felt most of that transition pain but luckily the second dose of epidural had kicked in by now.

So my OB rushes in and also checks, agrees with the fully dilated-ness and asks if I can push on the next contraction�which I do. She then says to STOP, which I tried to do, but it�s hard not to! In a matter of maybe 2 minutes, they break down the bed, get everything ready, a warmer in the room, an extra nurse or 3 and we were ready to roll. At 6:48 am I got the go ahead to start pushing for real, and her head came out almost immediately (with her cord loosely around her neck) I was supposed to stop pushing so the cord could be undone, but she slipped out the rest of the way and was fully born at 6:48 am. Our little Lauren Nichole was born on 3/12/10 at 6:48 am weighing in at a massive 3 lbs 15.8 oz and 17.5 inches long.

We were fully planning on having her go to the NICU since we had been told she�d be right around 4 lbs and was a little over a month early. But she came and visited and nursed at 9:00, which we were all surprised at. When we were finally allowed to transfer over to the postpartum section it was almost 5 pm. At 5:30 they wheeled her in and said that there was no reason for her to be in the NICU and admitted her to the regular hospital. She is now the smallest baby discharged from the �well side� of the maternity ward, leaving at 3 lbs 14 oz, and we�re thinking it will be pretty hard for another baby to beat that. (Smaller ones had gone home after being in the NICU, but not the regular maternity ward).