Amelia

I thought I had better get moving since our little girl is 4 weeks old and hasn't shown up once on this blog. So here's Amelia’s birth story...

When I woke up Tuesday morning, I noticed right away something was amiss. Up until this point, my pregnancy had been progressing wonderfully. I hadn’t been having any contractions and baby was still moving around like crazy. But when I woke up, I knew something this was going to be an interesting day. My water had broken.

Dave had already gotten up to get Patton up and fed. He was quite surprised to find me up when he returned to our room. I told him that I didn’t think he’d be going to work today and that we should probably head to the hospital. He was more than a little surprised as I had not had any contractions and we both were more than certain this baby was not arriving early!

We arrived at the hospital around 7am. There was no question by then that my water had broken so we were admitted. At this point, I still wasn’t having any contractions but because my water had broken, I couldn’t go home. By 10am, I was hooked up to an IV, was started on Pitocin, and was stuck in bed for constant monitoring. It was not pleasant.

Once the Pitocin kicked in, my contractions started coming hard and fast. I was expecting them to be tough, but nothing like they were. Apparently the Pitocin makes them faster and stronger and they were not fun. By 4pm, I was dilated to 4 centimeters and was ready for the epidural. Going into this experience, I was torn as to whether I’d have an epidural or not. I was open to the idea but I was going to try and get through her birth without one. Let me tell you, those contractions were not nice and the epidural was a huge relief.

I was finally able to relax (at least a bit) as the epidural kicked in. What I didn’t know was that this was not going to last long. I believe it was only half an hour or so after the epidural was administered that my nurse became concerned with Spud’s heartbeat. One minute, I was laying in bed astonished that I couldn’t feel my legs and the next minute an oxygen mask is being put on me and the nurse is paging for help. Nothing was specifically said to Dave or I about what was happening, but I think both of us knew. Dave could see the monitors and had noticed that Spud’s heartbeat had dropped, but I had no idea what had occurred.

Within minutes, our room was filled with nurses, the doctor had been called, an internal monitor was put on Spud, and Dave was handed scrubs. I was being flipped from side to side and all eyes were on the fetal monitor. I later found out that they thought Spud was lying on her umbilical cord and this was causing her heartbeat to drop. Flipping me from side to side was supposed to help relieve the pressure on the cord. Unfortunately, this was not helping. Before I had time to think about what was happening, I was being prepped for a c-section.

Out the door we went to surgery. By this point Dave and I were in shock. We had no real idea on why a c-section was necessary. We just knew it was happening. I was concerned for the baby, but I trusted my nurse and doctor and knew everything was under control. My immediate concern actually rested with Dave. He couldn’t even talk about a c-section during baby class without getting queasy and now we were rushing to the operating room. I thought for sure I’d be seeing him in his own hospital bed with head trauma before the day was over.

Before we knew it, the doctors had me prepped and ready to go. Dave was by my side, firmly behind the curtain and the action was beginning. Within minutes, the anesthesiologist noted that he was looking at the prettiest little girl face. Dave and I were in shock. We didn’t expect a girl and the anesthesiologist must have noticed that because he then asked the doctor if it was a girl! And it was! She was taken over to the warming table and was checked over. Dave was immediately by her side.

All I could hear was lots of crying (which was a relief) and all I could see were the nurses hovering around the warming table. I was told she looked great. That was all I needed to know. The nurses worked on cleaning her up while I was being sewn up. Dave even got involved by cutting the umbilical cord. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he would do that!

So, Amelia Ann Pool was born at 5:20 pm on June 7, 2011. She weighed in at 6 pounds, 11 ounces and was 19 inches long.

Never once during this pregnancy did we think we’d end up with a c-section. My mom has since informed me that I am the only person in her family to have had a c-section! Dave and I definitely had a plan in our minds on how labor was going to go and this was not it. We were fully aware that labor never goes as planned and we were ready for deviations from this plan, but we never, in our wildest dreams, anticipated the day would go like this. It worked out perfectly in the end though and we have a beautiful little girl!