Hey guys I’m so sorry that I have not been on to post anything, and to answer emails. I had some problems early Saturday morning and I wound up going into labor 6 weeks early and had the baby on Saturday, July 7th! It was very frightening for me and I spent the weekend recouping in the hospital and will probably spend the next two or three weeks on bed rest. My husband never ever has to work on Saturdays but this particular Saturday – he had to work, so when I said it was very frightening for me, that was an understatement. I will get into that story in a little bit.
On a more positive note I am very happy to report the baby is doing very well and I have a beautiful baby girl! She weighs 4.7 lbs and is 18″ long! Even though she is doing well she probably will not be leaving the NICU for another two weeks. It will be very sad and scary to leave her here when I go home but I have to do what’s best for the baby. It also makes it much harder to leave her here because I never had to do this with any of my other kids and it’s very sad knowing the baby’s first few weeks will be spent with strangers and not home with the family that loves her. If any of you have any tips on having a baby in the NICU, or having to leave the baby early I would love to hear them – this is definitely one of those times I feel VERY alone.
So, I have been contemplating whether or not to tell my story of what happened on Saturday. At first I didn’t think you guys would want to hear it, then I also thought about how my labor does not pertain to this blog at all! Then I realized this blog is to help people and some of you may gain some knowledge out of my story, so I decided to share with you my labor story.
All of my past labor and delivery experiences went very smooth, never a complication and my babies came out quick! My first was 8 hours long, second was 1 1/2 hours, third was 2 1/2 hours and the fourth was 54 minutes! I never needed a c-section, and like I said before it was always pretty much smooth sailing! I will say I was nervous about the labor and delivery with this baby only because with baby number 4, she came so fast there was no time for an epidural. That was by far the most excruciating pain I have ever been in! With my first 3 I had wanted a drug free birth but by the time the first contraction kicked in I realized natural labor wasn’t for me! I was ok with that-I don’t have a high threshold for pain and I have nothing to prove, so as disappointing as it was to have never experienced the birthing experience I had wanted I knew it wasn’t “me”. I am ok for settling for drugs to not feel an ounce of pain but on the contrary I was also very upset because I really did want one natural childbirth – BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR! There are no words to describe the pain that you are in, I still shiver at the thought of natural labor! Well anyways, in the past couple of weeks I started to think a lot about what the labor would be like with this baby because we were getting closer to the due date and I was entertaining the thought of a natural childbirth again! Then I realized hold your horses! Whatever happens, happens – I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself for the perfect birthing experience only to be disappointed if it didn’t work out the way I had wanted it to, so I decided not to think about labor and let me enjoy these last 6 weeks of pregnancy I have left!
Everything had been running very smooth my entire pregnancy and I was really starting to get very excited for the impending arrival! Also, I didn’t want to know the sex of the baby so not knowing the sex was adding on to all the excitement I was feeling! During the week I had started to feel more Braxton Hicks than I usually do but I figured it was because kiddos are on summer break (I’ve been keeping them really active) I’ve been packing the house getting ready to move in a month and this is also my 5th pregnancy – Braxton Hicks intensifies and increases in frequency with each pregnancy, so there was a perfect excuse for everything! On Friday night I was feeling very crampy and I figured that I have been doing so much I just needed some rest, I went to sleep around 11 o’clock, I woke up around 3 AM in some pain, I was uncomfortable but able to deal with it. I finally fell back asleep around 6 and this time woke up at 8 in pain, I had this gut feeling I was going into labor but I was also trying to brush it off – I didn’t want to look like the idiot who is having her 5th child and doesn’t know the difference! There was also a part of me in denial because I know if I have a premature baby he/she will stay in the hospital without me, and that’s a scary thought, to leave your brand new baby with people you don’t know.
Well, like I said by this time I was in pain and decided a shower would be best. The shower definitely helped with the contractions, they were less painful and not as intense as before. At this point I know I’m not going into labor, everything was going to be fine and I was going to make it full term. I decided to lay down in bed for a little bit, the kids were still sleeping so I would get some rest while I could! Not long after lying down I needed to pee so I got back up to go to the bathroom and as I was getting up there was a huge gush of fluid going down my leg, I looked down and immediately picked up the phone to call 911. I had never seen so much blood before, I was beyond scared, my husband was at work, I was home by myself with 4 kids and I didn’t know whether or not I was loosing this baby. The EMTs got to my house as fast as they could and they were great, they calmed me down, helped keep the kids away and made sure I was comfortable through it all. Luckily for me, my primary OB was on call that day and was able to treat me. He decided to preform an emergency caesarean and put me under general anesthesia, he felt that was best for me and the baby because my blood pressure was dropping and the baby’s heartbeat was at 90 bpm – and he didn’t want to waste time on prepping for an epidural. At this moment all I felt was panic, I’m in the OR alone, no one is there to comfort me, my husband is at work and I have to be cut open, it was all so overwhelming but I knew I was in good hands and I need to trust.
They woke me up about 30 minutes later and told me I have a beautiful baby girl! I was ecstatic and still am! I am so grateful for the doctors and nurses that helped me along the way. I will be posting some more pictures of the baby hopefully soon, because of how early she was, she hasn’t been allowed to leave NICU and I haven’t been there too much because the doctors want me to rest, I am hoping by today the doctors will let me stay with her. Unfortunately, I had a lot of complications so it’s been hard. Anyways, I will try to keep you guys updated with the sales this week but it may be hard – I hope you understand!
PS – Remember when I set up for a Target Baby Registry?, I received a free gift bag for creating a baby registry through Target and I can’t wait to try some of these products on the baby, I also received a 15% off coupon for my entire baby purchase whether it’s purchased online or in store, this will definitely come in handy for diapers! You can see the gift bag here: Target Baby Gift Bag.
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