[HeartHelloKitty]

So I realized that I posted this somewhere else but I never posted it here, so I figured I'd copy it over here as well even though she's already one. Procrastinate much? Lol!

On the night of August 1st, I went into cleaning mode, even though I've been sitting around like a lump for a couple weeks previously. That should've been a clue. I did a few loads of laundry and caught up on doing dishes and straightening up the kitchen. I started to get some tightening in my abdomen before I went to bed, but I figured it might be Braxton-Hicks since I hadn't really felt any up to this point. I was just about to be 39 weeks at that time. I fell asleep listening to my Hypnobabies tracks as usual and then around midnight, I woke up to more contractions. I wasn't really timing them, and after a little while, I got up to go to the bathroom. When I sat down on the toilet, I had a tiny gush of fluid, but I figured it was just urine. I went back to bed and I was able to sleep through the contractions until around 2 when they woke me up again. I had a little more fluid when I got up and sat down on the toilet to pee, so I was starting to wonder if my water had broken. Originally I had been planning to labor at home as long as possible, but since I tested GBS positive, my doctor recommended that I go in if my water broke so I could start on the antibiotics. I laid down for about 10-20 more minutes and went back to the bathroom and I had more fluid come out, so at that point, I figured I should probably go in. The contractions were coming about every 5 minutes at this point, but I was mostly just feeling them as pressure and they weren't particularly uncomfortable.

I woke my husband up at this point and told him I didn't think we'd be going to work today as I was pretty sure my water was broken. I hadn't even packed my hospital bag yet because I'm a procrastinator, so I started doing that while he got up and dressed. We were getting read to leave for the hospital around 3, but then he decided I should have something to eat, even though I wasn't really feeling like eating anything. I'm glad he insisted though since it ended up being so long until I was allowed to eat again. He ran out to Jack in the Box while I took a shower and then we ate and ended up in triage at L&D around 4. They confirmed that my water had broken and the contractions were 4-5 minutes apart. I started on penicillin while they waited to find a room for me. I was hoping to get a room with a tub, but apparently they were all full, so I didn't get one.

We got into our room around 6 and contractions continued to come pretty regularly at around 4 minutes. Unfortunately, after 9 hours, I was still only at 3 cm, and because the doctors had me on the clock since my water was broken, they started me on Pitocin. I was really reluctant to do this as it was something I had wanted to avoid, but after discussing it with my husband, we decided to go ahead. Looking back, I really wish I'd been able to labor at home for longer because I really think the baby just wasn't ready yet. I was started at a pretty small dose and they upped it every half an hour. I did start to progress after this, though the progress was pretty slow and the doctor was concerned that the contractions just weren't strong enough. I was able to use my Hypnobabies successfully and I really wasn't very uncomfortable at all. Eventually they ruptured what was left of my bag of waters and put me on internal monitoring to see how strong the contractions were. They had to insert the monitor twice because for some reason it wasn't picking up contractions the first time.

After 8 and a half hours on the Pitocin, I was at 9 1/2 centimeters with a cervical lip on one side. I was really feeling the urge to push though so they went ahead and let me push for a few minutes, but the baby was still at 0 station and just wasn't coming down. At this point, I started having some back labor too, so I think at some point she had turned from anterior to posterior. Unfortunately, after having been awake and laboring for so long, I was starting to get exhausted and I neglected to use my Hypnobabies the way I should have. My husband was really good at using the relax cues, but I was so tired and stressed at this point, I just wasn't able to turn my switch off the way I should have been doing. In hindsight, I should've been changing position and probably squatting to try to bring the baby down further, but I just didn't think of it. The contractions really started to hurt at this point and after another 2 hours or so of being stuck at 9 1/2 cm with the lip and the baby not moving down, her heart rate started to drop a lot during contractions. They had me lay on either side and on my hands and knees to get it to stabilize and I was on oxygen for a while. Right around midnight, the doctor, my husband, and myself decided to go ahead with a c-section since it had been around 24 hours since my water broke and the baby's heart rate was dropping.

Ellie (Elizabeth Diane)was born via c-section at 12:54am on August 3rd. While I am disappointed that I wasn't able to give birth vaginally, I was proud of myself for not using any meds (other than the Pitocin) and as soon as I was stitched up and taken to recovery, Ellie was able to breastfeed, so that was nice.

[mshah]

I'm so glad you posted this!!! Good for you for hanging in there as best you could. It's also nice to hear that hypnobabies worked well for you. I bought it, but never took the time to learn it properly. Next one I'm DEF gonna learn it, lol!!!

I never posted my birth story, either. This past year has been so chaotic. I might just do the same as you, and post it a year after! Kinda a sweet memory thing!

[Juliebird18]

Sounds similar to my story. You convinced me to post mine too