Family

My induction date was scheduled for September 15th which was already 19 days before my originally due date of October 3rd. Our beautiful baby girl, Dallas Rae, had other plans and decided to make her grand appearance on September 13th at 7:38am weighing 6lbs 5oz and measuring 19.6 inches long.

I hadn’t been having too many contractions or “real” problems for that matter up until this final week. On Monday September 9th I ended up going to the ER with uncontrollable bloody noses and spent a few hours getting monitored before being sent home because everything looked okay (the OBGYN on site that night told me “I bet you we see you before Friday”) and he sure was right. Tuesday September 10th I woke up feeling like I had got hit by a bus with aches, chills, fever, congestion, and all of the nasty stuff so I ended up going back to the hospital because I couldn’t keep my blood pressure under control. At the hospital they ran different tests and blood panels to see what was going on all while keeping an extra close eye on baby girl; after about a few hours it came back that I had adult RSV which unfortunately has no cure except rest and relaxation and I was determined not to go back to the hospital until Sunday. Wednesday was a fairly easy day and I spent the day resting to hopefully break the nasty cold I had, however, I did spend a few hours getting my manicure and pedicure because I knew it’d be my last.

Thursday September 12th, the day that would be the beginning to the greatest blessing in my life thus far. Anthony woke up and went to work like normal and I slept in until about 7:30am or so and then hopped on my work computer quick to schedule a few calls for later that day. Around 8am I went to walk Mia and when we got back to the garage an uncontrollable gush of water happened and I couldn’t stop it, that’s when the panic started because we live an hour away from the hospital. After many calls to Anthony, my mom, my aunt, and the doctors office plus the uncontrollable leaking as I walked I quickly packed up a few things (my hospital bags were already in the care getting prepared for Sunday) and started driving to the hospital still completely convinced I was coming home that day, boy was I wrong. Once I got to the hospital they checked me in and swabbed me to see if my water had broken, I didn’t even get the results back until a doctor was in my room checking to see if baby was head down and to let me know it was baby time. I called Anthony and told him to head to the hospital and then my parents so they could head to Illinois, with it being my first birth I knew we had some time but I definitely was having the nerves kick in. The nurses came in and told me they were going to start Pitocin around 1pm after I ate my last meal because after that it was clear liquids from there on out. The nurses had trouble finding my veins which made for lots of issues because I needed a few different medicines and I ended up having an IV in each arm which was extremely irritating. The nurses let me know they’d be monitoring me and baby from the desk and coming to check in on me every 15 minutes to see how labor was progressing and to give at least 30 minutes notice as to when I wanted an epidural due to pain. I lasted until about 6pm until I threw in the towel on the contractions and asked for an epidural, the anesthesiologist was in my room within 15 minutes and was ready to get started. I was not concerned or scared for the epidural at any point, but it turned out to be the worst part of my whole experience. When placing the epidural the doctor wasn’t getting it in the right spot and it was sending shooting pains down my legs and into my back and it was one of the worst pains I had ever felt, finally, once the pain calmed down and we believed it to be in the right place he went ahead and started giving me the medicine. Almost immediately when the medicine hit I felt so extremely sick and the next thing I know I’m turning as pale as they come and telling the nurses I’m sick, I remember her saying her blood pressure is tanking and doctors coming in trying to get medicine into my IV to stabilize me, I believe at one point my blood pressure was 40/30 or something extremely low and I truly felt like I was slipping away. Once they finally got me stabilized I was too terrified to hit my epidural button so I just sucked up the pain as best I could and attempted to get some sleep. That night was the most uncomfortable night I’ve ever experienced, I was hooked up to so many IVs and the contractions were getting terrible and the epidural didn’t feel like it was working plus I wasn’t progressing with dilation and was still only at 2CM around 11pm.

Friday September 13th – the day our baby girl was born! Around 2am I couldn’t take the pain anymore so I called the nurses and told them I wanted to push the epidural button but wanted them in there. I got some relief from the button and nothing like the first experience but it was still extremely painful so they told me we’d have to flip every hour or so to allow the medicine to gravitate around and at this point I was still only 2CM dilated but about 75% effaced. It was just a waiting game at this point, around 4am my nurse came in and told me we needed to sit straight up and try to get the baby to drop and this was the absolute worst contraction and pressure I’d ever felt and I could only take it for about 30 minutes before I told them I couldn’t sit like that anymore, we moved onto my side and continued to play the waiting game. At about 6am I called the nurses because I was so sick to my stomach I was sure I was going to throw up and within about 5 minutes I sure did but my nurse told me this was a really great sign and she wanted to check me again and as soon as she did she told me it’s go time as I was now at 9CM and baby girls head was right there. They started getting the room prepped for delivery and called the doctor but assured me I’d be pushing for a few hours because it was my first baby so the doctor who was supposed to be attending to surgery told us to just keep pushing at every contraction and call her in a few hours when it gets closer. They allowed Anthony to suit up and help the entire time, which was probably one of the coolest parts of the whole process as he was able to not only hold my legs but feel the baby inside and watch every step of the way. The first hour or so of pushing really wasn’t terrible, the worst part was the fact that I was still dealing with RSV and couldn’t breathe! Once 7:15am hit the pain was so intense and Anthony and I kept asking about the doctor and they assured me she’d be in soon, but I was pretty adamant we needed her now. The contractions at this point were every 1-2 minutes and when the doctor came in she said yep she’s right there, a few more pushes and she’s out, however, she’s flipped with her face the wrong way so I’m going to try and turn her and when I tell you she put her hands inside me and just turned this baby was the most painful but insane thing ever. With every contraction, I tried to push stronger and breathe as much as I could which luckily I had oxygen on but at that point nothing was helping. Anthony, the nurses, and the doctor was so encouraging throughout the whole time and I knew it was a matter of minutes before we’d get to meet our baby girl. A few big pushes later and at 7:38am our perfect bundle of joy entered the world 🌼💕. She was absolutely perfect and I couldn’t help but cry as it was the most rewarding experience of my life thus far, they got her all cleaned up, initial baby tests passed, and then handed her over for us to begin our new normal with a newborn baby.