The Birth of Sydney Rae

After 4 weeks of bed rest and intense monitoring of the IUGR diagnosis, we were finally scheduled for induction. I was 38 weeks and the lucky day was only three days away: Friday, February 13, 2009 at 4am.

The night before, neither of us could sleep, so we decided to see a midnight movie (Friday the 13th!) and have breakfast at the Red Rock casino. I remember Sydney being extra active in those final hours. I was so anxious. From there we went straight to the hospital. and settled into our room. I gave a urine sample, changed into a gown, and was hooked up to the monitors. After asking me a million questions about my health and other info, they placed the IV, drew blood, And checked for dilation and effacement. The pitocin was started at 5:38am. I was still only one centimeter! But 60% effaced. They informed be they would up the pitocin every 15 minutes to get a good, strong contraction pattern established. I was miserable from being this pregnant and laying in those horrible labor beds, but not in any pain yet. So we got comfy....

It wasn't very long before the contractions were unbearable. They were 2-3 minutes apart, and measuring off the charts! I was in so much pain I couldn't breathe. The nurses kept offering me pain medication since I wasn't dilated enough for the epidural-I was STILL at one centimeter! I really didn't want IV drugs. They had to insert an internal fetal scalp monitor and internal contraction monitor as the machines weren't registering the strength of my contractions well and baby’s heartbeat wasn't steady. My OB doctor came to check on me and highly suggested I get something for the pain, as I wasn't progressing and it could help me along. After many tears and no relief between the contractions, I gave in and got something and got a little bit of rest. But I was still in excruciating pain. One of the drugs they gave me, Stadol, made me feel HORRIBLE. I was so out of it. Luckily, this drug has a short life span.

The doctor decided to break my water at 1:45, but hardly anything came out. Not a good sign, but she was going to wait and see if the baby's head was just blocking it's exit as she was moving down. At 3:39, over 10 hours of hard labor on the pitocin, my doc allowed me to get my epidural. I was almost at 3 centimeters. The needle was painless by then, it was hard to focus on anything other than the contractions. As he was threading the catheter through my back, I got horrible shock like feeling through my right side. Twice. I thought I was being electrocuted. Almost immediately, I started getting numb at my feet and it traveled up. I could still wiggle my toes. I don't even know what the anesthesiologist's face looked like, but I remember telling Jason he was cute. I was miserable and still managed to make Jason jealous.

I made it to 5cm by 5:04pm-I wasn't getting anywhere. The baby was having heart decelerations. They had me on oxygen and flipped me from side to side. By 5:15, they decided to give me an amnio infusion to put fluid back into my uterus. The baby was NOT doing well. Finally, almost 2 hours and many medical interventions later, they told me they had to get the baby out right away. So emergency c-section it was. I was so scared about the surgery and the baby. I was upset my body didn’t do what it was supposed to do. The last thing I wanted was a c-section. But it was out of our hands.

Thank god Jason was by my side. It was horrible. I felt no real pain, but felt everything-tugging, pulling, organs moving around. I was freaking out and shaking. They got her out and discovered the cord was tightly wrapped twice around her neck, cutting off her oxygen supply and preventing her from coming down the birth canal.

She was beautiful and calm. Her APGAR scores were 8 and 9. The hardest part was not being able to see my baby and hold her right away. I couldn't even hear her because she was calm and not crying. I sent Jason over to assure me she was ok and to take pictures :). I cried when I saw him hold her for the first time while I was on the table. It was beautiful. After I was stitched and stapled and cleaned up, my beautiful daughter was finally put into my arms as they rolled me back to my room. I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Sydney was perfectly healthy and able to stay with us the whole time. She latched on right away with no problems. The rest of the night was a total blur from exhaustion mixed with pain medication. The next day I was extremely sick and pale. I lost a TON of blood during the surgery from my anemia. I still wasn't getting up and moving around. I couldn't take care of my baby. It was awful. Unfortunately, my catheter had to be removed that night so I was forced to get up to use the restroom. I also attempted one lap around the hospital halls. It didn't go so well :o) You don’t realize how much you use your abdominal muscles! I was on painkillers every 3 hours just to keep from crying. On Sunday I was still not feeling well so I had to have a blood transfusion.

After getting the blood I felt like a new person. We finally got to go home Tuesday, the 17th. Recovery was rough. Jason was such a wonderful daddy and partner, taking care of the two of us and being strong. Despite everything, I'd do it all over again for my daughter. I'm so lucky to have Jason. I'm so blessed to have a healthy, beautiful baby girl. I can't believe how much I love her! I'm finally a mommy!