Courtney is here!

Here is my birth story:

On Monday, May 31, I started having contractions at around 4:00pm. I had Mike start timing them. They were about 4-5 minutes apart and lasting around a minute and a half. We were told by the hospital to come in after they were 4-5 minutes apart and lasting about a minute for 2-3 hours. So I stuck it out at home and at 6:30pm, Mike called the hospital. They told him I could either hang out at home a bit longer or come in. I was sweating and pretty much on the verge of tears so I said “Let’s go.” We packed up the car and headed in to labor and delivery. I declined the wheelchair and slooooowwwwllllyyyy walked to the elevator to go to the 3rd floor. They hooked me up to the monitors and I was in fact contracting every 4 minutes and they were lasting between a minute and a minute and a half. These were the longest minutes of my life. The nurse checked me and I was 1 ½ centimeters. They hadn’t decided to admit me yet, but the nurse filled up the Jacuzzi tub for me to relax in to see if that would help with the contractions and to help me progress. It really was relaxing. The dimmed the lights and put on some soft music (not part of my birth plan, just something they did and it was nice). I labored in the tub for about an hour to an hour and a half. I had my blood drawn while in the tub (to check my kidney function and a few other things). I started to sweat really bad while I was in there so I was ready to get out. I got out and got back into bed. Contractions were still about 4 minutes apart and about a minute long. I got checked again and was 3-4 centimeters. I was truthfully shocked. The nurse called the on-call doctor and he decided to admit me. She mentioned that he didn’t want to get mean epidural until I was 5-6 centimeters. At first I thought “Oh God. Can I wait that long?” We decided to take some stadol in my IV at about 11pm. This stuff was great. It didn’t take away the pain of the contractions but I was able to rest between them. By about 2:30am the stadol was worn off and the contractions were really painful again. I was “whooing” through them. Mike would rub my arm and tell me I was doing good. The nurse checked me again and I was about 5 centimeters. At this point she called the anesthesiologist on-call to come on in. She got in at about 4am and administered the epidural. The only painful part of the epidural was the numbing injection that felt like a bee sting. Nothing else hurt. By my next contraction I felt nothing. Oh my! I was in heaven! I never felt another contraction after that. Immediately after the epidural I was checked and was 6 centimeters. I was pretty proud of myself for waiting all the way to 6 centimeters before getting the epidural. I was also proud that I had progressed to 6 centimeters without any use of pitocin (the drug used to increase contractions). After the epidural my blood pressure dropped and they were having trouble getting a good read on Courtney’s heart beat. It was about 5:30am at this point. They went to check me again and I was 9 centimeters with a small lip of cervix left. On the verge of being fully dialated. When they checked me this time my water broke. All I felt was a warm gush. I asked about the fluid and they said it was clear, but they when they lifted me up a bit they saw some meconium (baby’s first poop). They said they weren’t really concerned since it was a small amount. Meconium can be dangerous if they baby inhales it during her first breath after birth. I was even more shocked when they told me I had gone from 6 to almost 10 in a little more than an hour. At this point they called the on-call doctor and put an internal monitor on her head that picks up her heartbeat. She was still doing really well (or so the nurses said). When the doctor came in he introduced himself and took a look at my contractions and Courtney’s heartbeat. He also checked my progress and said that I was 9 centimeters and she was at 0 station and that my tissues were still very tight. After talking with the nurses he came to talk with me and Mike. He said that he was concerned that during contractions, Courtney’s heartbeat was decelerating instead of accelerating and that my tissues weren’t loosening up for her to come down. He then mentioned the dreaded c-section. My first response was to cry. He knew I really didn’t want the c-section so he said we would keep an eye on her for about an hour to see if her heartbeat started accelerating again and then he would check me again. The team did prepare the OR for a possible c-section. An hour later she was showing signs of improvement in her heartbeat but when he checked me I had made no changes in the last hour. That is when we decided to go with the c-section. They started prepping me at about 7am and by 7:50am I was in the OR with Mike next to me. During the whole procedure, I just stared at Mike. They pulled and pulled and I felt tons of pressure. I was truthfully shocked at how much tugging they do. Mike said he thought they were just shy of putting one foot up on the table to pull. Then I heard them say to Mike “Daddy her head is out.” Mike jumped up to look over the curtain and not one second later she was screaming (not even all the way out yet). At 8:02am on June 1, Courtney Holland was born with her cord around her neck. She weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 19 ½ inches long. She has brown hair and bluish gray eyes. By 8:30am I was being rolled in the recovery room. The nurses kept talking about how quick m doctor was at the c-section and from what I’ve heard he is pretty well known around town for being great. I was able to rest in the recovery room for about 45 minutes before they actually brought Courtney and Mike down to see me. I tried nursing her but of course had no idea what I was doing. Because of those first few tries I have some nice damage already. I’m working with the lactation consultants from the hospital and Courtney and I are working together to get breastfeeding down. I am just head over heels in love with her. We stayed in the hospital for 2 days. I still have the staples in my incision and will get them removed at my appointment on Tuesday. Each day gets easier and easier for me to move around.

Sorry so long!

Introducing Courtney Holland!