She's HERE!!

Taylor Ann White
Born Friday, January 4, 2008 @ 5:28pm
Weight: 7lb 10oz
Length: 20in

Taylor’s Birth Story

We checked into the hospital just before Midnight on Thursday. They got me settled in a Labor and Delivery room and we pretty much waited around until 1:30AM when they got me hooked up to the fetal monitors and they inserted the pill to help my cervix ripen. I was scheduled to have a second pill put in at 4:30 am. I was having regular contractions every 2-3 minutes lasting over a minute each, but they weren’t very strong. About 3 AM the baby started running away from the monitor and they couldn’t get an accurate heart rate on her for about 30 minutes due to her position, so they adjusted my bed into an S shape, so I was practically standing! They were able to get a reading again, but they told me I had to stay in that position until further notice. They called my Doc who said to skip the second pill and start the Pitocin at 8AM if I haven’t had more progress.

So, after practically standing in bed (with no sleep) for several more hours, 8 AM rolled around and they came and checked, I was still only 2cm and 60% effaced. They started my Pitocin drip and my contractions immediately started getting stronger. The Doc came in around 9:30 to check on me, I was now 3 cm and 70% effaced. He broke my water (boy was that a weird and disgusting feeling) and said he’d be back to check later, and the nurses would be checking in the meantime.

About 10AM they came in and checked, I was still 3cm and 70% but my contractions were getting much stronger, and much more painful. They said it was a bit early, but I could go ahead and have my epidural if I wanted. Sure, why not? They still kept putting me back in a semi sit/standing position after each check also, so I was less than comfortable.

About 45 minutes later, the anesthesiologist came in to start the epidural. Apparently, my epidural space is small, it took him 3 tries to get it in the right spot. After the first try, he told me to lean forward more if I could so I did and I started to feel another gush of water coming and I couldn’t stop it. I was trying to warn Drew who was sitting in front of me holding my hand that more water was coming and just as I said it, it poured over the edge of the bed and splattered on to the floor. Luckily he was just out of reach to avoid getting splashed but the look on his face was pretty funny. Nothing like having no control over your bodily fluids! I had thought it was all out by that point!

My epidural finally got in, and they started my test dose. I immediately started to feel nauseous and light headed, and my blood pressure dropped to 70/40, so they turned my fluids up more and gave me another injection to bring my blood pressure up, and one for the nausea. I started to come around, and the nurse asked “do you feel that?” and I said “feel what?” thinking she was talking about her hand on my leg which I DID feel. Her and Drew both laughed and said “that was the right answer”, as apparently I was having the biggest contraction yet and I didn’t feel a thing. Wonderful!

All I have to say is I wish I could kiss the person who invented epidurals. After that I was no longer uncomfortable in my sitting position because my butt was numb, my contractions were so strong they were off the chart and they were about every 2-3 minutes, of course, I didn’t feel the pain, just the tightening.

Over the next few hours I even got some rest, no deep sleep, but I dozed off a couple of times in between checks. Somewhere in that time, we heard a poor girl in the next room screaming her head off. About that point, I was feeling pretty elated that I had decided to take the epidural after all! It took until about noon to get to 5cm and 90% effaced, but after that I started dilating quickly. A little after 4pm they came and checked and I was at 9cm and 100% effaced. About 5 minutes after they left I started to feel some pressure down below, and with each contraction I was feeling more and more, so I called the nurse and had her come in, she checked again and I was ready! She started having me push with each contraction to get the baby crowning, then she would call the doctor. After about 30 minutes crowning occurred and she told me to stop pushing . WHAT!??! Luckily Doctor Erwin was pretty quick, it was only about 3 contractions that I had to hold before he got in with the delivery nurse and the nursery staff. They got everything prepared and told me to go ahead and push with the next contraction (I was pushing in sets of 3). After 3 sets, her head was out, and one more set to get her shoulders and rest of her body out and that was it! She’s a girl (thank goodness!!). He put her on my belly and Drew cut the cord. The placenta came out about 2 minutes later and I was done! I never even broke a sweat (though I was pretty sure I was going to give myself an aneurism at some point, and Mom said she thought my eyes were going to pop out, but I think she was exaggerating).

I was pretty happy, I didn’t need an episiotomy, and I only had two minor tears (just in the skin, no muscle) on each side (not in the perineum) that the Doc put a quick stitch in. There was so much going on, phone calls to let people know she was born, Drew and I were both crying, the baby was getting cleaned up and weighed and measured. They gave her back to me and I tried to breastfeed her but she wasn’t too interested. They took her to clean her up and check her glucose and then brought her back a while later where I attempted to breastfeed again. A lactation consultant came in to help, but she still wasn’t very interested. They ended up giving her 10cc’s of glucose water to tide her over until her next feeding, which bummed me out a little, but as long as she’s healthy.

They brought her back at 2AM for a feeding, and she did fantastically! I was very proud. She eats great all night long, but during the day we have some difficulty as she just wants to sleep. She’ll wake up long enough to latch on and give a couple of good sucks, then she falls back asleep. The pediatrician and nurses seem to think she’s doing okay and getting enough to eat for now so I just need to keep trying my hardest. She passed her hearing tests, she’s not jaundice, and she’s otherwise perfect! She has what’s called an Angel’s Kiss on her forehead and nose (just like I did when I was born!) but those should fade away in time.

So that’s Taylor’s Birth Story! We’re happy to be home, though she’s been sleeping almost the whole time she’s been here so it’s almost like nothing has changed yet.. I’m sure it won’t take long for things to pick up (like tonight probably, lol).

Thank you to everybody who's been following along on this journey, and I'll continue to post here with updates and milestones. I'm glad that she's finally here with us and she's absolutely wonderful. Drew and I are both head over heels for her already.