September 17th, 9:22 AM, the day we got to meet our baby girl, was not what we were expecting but it was so meant to be. It’s hard to believe I spent all of 2019 with her in my belly. Looking back, it’s such a blur, but I am so happy we got to spend an extra 2.5 weeks with her!
So let’s go back to September 11th. I was scheduled for an ultrasound because at my appointment 2 weeks earlier, I was measuring small. Justin had taken off to go to this appointment with me because he missed our anatomy scan, so he hadn’t seen her in months. During this ultrasound, we found out that I had a low amniotic fluid index, which explained why I wasn’t as big for her age (I still think I was fine, I’d gained 25 lbs on a 5”4’ frame!) and seeing as we were just one day shy of that 37 week sweet spot, she told us to come to the hospital at 5AM the next day to reevaluate my fluid levels, and if things hadn’t improved that she was going to have us admitted and induced.
Justin and I were not ready to hear that! We looked at each other and looked at the doctor like, “Excuse me??? You want to do what?!” We freaked out a little, and then hurried to prepare for the very real possibility of bringing our baby home in a couple of days. We went to Target and panic bought things we still needed, and stayed up until midnight cleaning the nursery.
We went into the hospital on 4 hours of sleep, and got set up in the triage room. We were there for about 2 hours, and at the end of it all, they said my fluid got back to an acceptable, but still low, level and that I could go home.
Because of all this, they scheduled me for twice weekly appointments to keep an eye on everything. Thankfully, Justin was able to get the afternoon off to come to the next appointment as well! This time, we were just going to do a non-stress test and since she was a wiggly one, I wasn’t worried. We got hooked up at 2pm on September 16th, and for the next 45 minutes she didn’t budge. Not once. They gave me cold water, I had Justin go buy me some candy, and nothing. I could feel her butt in my ribcage and she had been moving all morning, but just decided not to cooperate. So we waited for the sonographer, and for another 45 minutes, she didn’t move or pee for us. So they called the doc to see what she wanted to do and she told us to get over to labor and delivery to be admitted because, and I quote, “I think it’s time to have a baby!”
We were so not prepared. You would think that after last time, we would’ve packed a bag to keep in the car, but nope we were naively optimistic that we wouldn’t be induced. Justin was my savior, and after he went home to get my stuff (and by stuff I mean my going home pajamas and a nursing bra because hell if I knew what else I needed) he got us some Chipotle. I was so thankful they weren’t starting my Pitocin until midnight so I could eat, it was MUCH needed.
So we made our phone calls to our parents and just hung out until about 10pm, we both were tired and kinda crashing from the rush of having to process that we were about to have a baby. I woke up when the nurse came in to hang my Pitocin at midnight, and asked her some questions. She confirmed my fears when she said that yes, Pitocin contractions are worse than if you go into labor naturally and she’s seen people who have previously given birth without pain meds get the epidural. So I tried to get some more sleep since I wasn’t feeling contractions yet.
I get woken up at 4am for them to check my dilation, and I was at 4cm with contractions that felt like period cramps. The on-call doctor wanted to manually break my water but, seeing as I was already being induced, I wanted to wait and see if everything else would go according to plan. 20 minutes later I’m getting up to pee and when I kick my legs over the side of the bed, I feel a little gush and think “Uhm, did I just pee on the bed?”. So I woke Justin up and he tells me to call the nurse in to check if it was my water breaking, which thankfully it was! She warned me that now the contractions are going to get even worse, and asked if I wanted to get ready for the epidural. Don’t ask me why, but I said I wanted to wait it out. I had this idea that I was going to walk around during this part of labor, but it was 4:30 in the morning and I just wanted to sleep. She told me that she could give me Stadyl to take the edge off so that’s what we did. That was a mistake. All it did was make me feel drunk and sleepy.
The contractions got worse faster than I expected so around 6am I called the nurse and told her to get me ready for the epidural. Not so fun fact: You have to get a whole bag of fluids before the you get the epidural, which takes about a half hour. The contractions were so bad at this point I think the entire maternity ward could hear me scream. The epidural was a gift from the gods. I literally couldn’t feel a thing. The only scary part about the epidural was when Kelsi’s heart rate dropped about 20 minutes later. I barely remember this, maybe because of the drugs or lack of sleep or because I was having problems as well but all I know is one minute I’m laying in bed fine, and the next second I have like 6 nurses around me, putting an oxygen mask on me and trying to get Kelsi out of distress. Thankfully it was just a blip, they think because of the epidural, and we went back to normal.
I don’t really remember much of the morning, maybe because I was drifting in and out of sleep or maybe because of the drugs, but at around 8:45 they confirmed I was at 10 cm and it was time to get her out! I’m not going to lie; I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t go to any birthing classes, simply because the thought of having to push a whole baby out was the scariest thing and I didn’t want to get myself freaked out about it. Ignorance was bliss, and I would do it that way again! At this point, my doctor lowered the dose of Pitocin because my contractions were actually happening TOO fast, and I still couldn’t feel them. I had no clue when to push so she had to tell me when based off my heart rate. Because I couldn’t feel anything, I had no clue how hard I was pushing or how much I was progressing. I only pushed for about 30 minutes, and the crazy thing is it felt like it took SO much longer but also felt like it went by in a second. When they handed her to me, it’s like time stopped. I cried, I held her close, I held Justin close. She was tiny and warm, and I couldn’t (and still can’t!) get enough of her!
Giving birth was so scary but so rewarding, and life with our baby girl has been such a dream. I love her more than my heart can handle! I’m so excited for the day I get to tell her about how she was born and changed our lives forever!
Karli Bri 