Thursday, September 10, 2009

She's Here! - Abigail's Birth Story

Baby's Name: Abigail Lillian Joy
Due Date: September 10, 2009
Birth Date: September 7, 2009
Weight: 7lbs 3oz
Length: 19.5 inches

Birth Story:
On Sunday the 6th I was experiencing contractions on and off all day. By evening they started to get stronger and closer together. Around 7pm I called L&D and asked when I could come in. They said to wait until the contractions were 5 mins apart, 45 sec to 1 min long and were consistent for 2 hours. Unfortunately for me, mine never made it to 5 mins apart, and at 1am DH called in telling them they were 6 mins or 2-3 mins apart. They were also getting more painful for me to cope with and I was looking forward to some pain relief. They told us to come on in and off to the hospital we went.

While in triage I was told I was 3cm, which meant they would admit me, woo hoo! It felt like we were in there forever as the nurse filled out paper work and DH helped me through the contractions and tried to keep things light by making jokes. My mom arrived in the meantime, which finally started making things feel real. The RN then took us to our room to finish admitting me at 2:00am. I got my IV in (which hurt a lot) and then requested Demerol. I got it mixed with Gravol which immediately made me dopey and did not help the contractions at all.

I laboured with DH and my mom's help until about 6am where I couldn't take the pain anymore and asked for an epidural. The anesthetist came in pretty quickly and the overall procedure wasn't painful or as scary as I thought I could be. Within two contractions, the pain was gone and I was a happy, sane person again! On the third contraction, I felt my water break. The RN checked me and confirmed that it broke, but it was high up and that my forewater was still intact. She tried to break it with her finger, but it didn't work. She did tell me that I had progressed to 9.5cm though. We were so shocked that it happened so fast, but definitely weren't complaining.

The RN told us that the on-call DR was doing a c-section at 7am and that we would deliver after that. So DH and I got some sleep. Well, I slept until I felt pressure from the contractions where I thought that baby's head was going to fall out!

At just before 8am, the DR arrived and I began pushing. I began to tear internally and my contractions were still 6 mins apart, so I was given pitocin and was told to consider an episiotomy. I really didn't want to have either done, but both helped. On one contraction, the DR made the cut and the baby's head popped out! The cord was wrapped around her neck once and her body twice, so they didn't completely deliver her until she was free. I didn't know that she was tangled because I just wanted to know what gender she was. Then, at 8:55am they pulled her out and there was my baby GIRL, which they put on my belly.

DH cut the cord and went with her for all the measurements. She scored 9/9 on APGAR and was a lot smaller than any of us had thought. I spent a long while after her birth getting stitched up, but soon got to meet our little Abigail. We are so thrilled to have a daughter.

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