Isla Rose Birth Story

Isla Rose was born on May 23rd at 12:04pm. I was in labor for 26 hours. I had been having prodromal labor for weeks before she was born. At my 38 week appt I asked the Obgyn if there was anything I could do to prevent that from happening or to make my labor not stop. She said she could strip my membranes and that it would only work if my body was ready to go into labor anyway. I agreed to do it and I must say she did a thorough job. Youch!

I started spotting and cramping a few hours later and the next day I had bloody show (GROSS). The contractions became consistent around 12:00 and I went in at 3pm to get have my cervix checked. I was at a 2 before my membrane stripping and was at 4 cm when I got checked that afternoon. They hooked me up to the NST machines and monitored me for about an hour and then told me to relax at home until I was ready to have some pain meds. When I was ready for pain meds, I decided to go to the hospital. The pain wasn't too bad but I had to manage childcare arrangements for Avelyn and I just wanted us to be settled in for the night. 

After I was admitted to the hospital, they immediately gave me 2 bags of IV fluids. This slowed my contractions waaay down and when I was checked...I was still at a 4  :(

I walked the hallways for hours and eventually got worn out so I lay down. My back had started cramping pretty bad Somewhere in the middle of the night (3am?) the dr. ordered Pitocin to start at a very low dosage and for the nurse to increase it over the next 24 hours. I should note that my OBGYN office is very non-intervention even to the point of not allowing nurses to check my cervix and they only give meds if they feel they are really necessary. She also said that I would probably be in labor for a while and I needed to rest so if I wanted an epidural, now was the time. 

The anesthesiologist came in and did my epidural. It hurt a lot more this time than last time. I don't know if that was because of the back labor I was having or what. I knew it wasn't quite right because my legs were vaguely tingling but the pelvic and back pain was just as bad as before. They told me to wait and hour and push the button if I needed to. As the pitocin increased and my labor progressed, I pushed the button quite a bit!

The darn epidural was NOT working. 

I started crying and writhing in pain somewhere in there.. it's all a vague memory now. The nurse kept telling me it was pressure and not pain I was experiencing. I seriously wanted to cuss her out. Thankfully I was able to control myself a bit. The dr. came in at 7 or so and decided to break my water to see if it helped move things along (I WAS STILL AT A 4). 

Around 8 am, a new anesthesiologist came in and maneuvered me as well as the epidural and BLESSED RELIEF! Ahhhh. That's what it's supposed to do. He was awesome. 

I was quite comfortable after that and relaxed a bit. Brandon went home to check on Avelyn.

Around 10:30 am Isla's heart rate started to drop and the nurse was concerned. She said that happens sometimes when the baby is ready to come out. My dr wasn't there to check me so she had to call and get special permission to do a cervix check. When she did it, I was at 10cm and ready to push!

I called Brandon and told him to hurry back. I also texted my friend Stephanie. 

Brandon was back at 11:15 but my dr. wasn't around so they told me I had to wait to start pushing. Isl'a heart rate was dangerously low and the nurse was worried. She told me that I might need to request a new dr to come in so I could get her out of there. I told her I would give my OBGYN 5 more mins. Right at 11:45 the dr came in and I started pushing.

I'm not sure what I expected but I didn't think pushing would take as long as it did. Stephanie showed up right after the first push. Brandon was holding my leg and the dr and nurse were yelling for me to push push push. I would give it everything I had but I could feel the baby move back up when I was done. They kept saying what a great job I was doing and I yelled that they were lying to me; because if I was doing a great job, my baby would be OUT already. :)

After a 3 contractions, I asked Stephanie to turn on my favorite song to help me focus. It's by a band called Young Oceans and it's called "Great is our God". I pushed with everything I had (Brandon said it was my 9th push), and felt my sweet baby come out into the world. They handed her immediately and I pulled her onto my chest. I was sobbing the happiest tears! I thanked God for her and kept telling her how much I loved her and how beautiful she was. Brandon and Steph were crying too. It was such a magical and spiritual experience.

I held her for a long time because I requested for them to not cut the cord until it stopped pulsing. I was losing an alarming amount of blood so there was a group of people trying to put things right down there. I pushed out the placenta and that was that.

They took her and weighed her. She was 7lbs 2 oz and 19 3/4 inches long. She was perfect!!

I stayed in the hospital for 3 days. The "after-pains" were absolutely excruciating and worse than labor. They had gotten so bad I was shaking and throwing up. My blood pressure was crazy high from the amount of pain. The nurse said that Isla's constant nursing was making them worse. The recovery seemed really fast other than that. I was up and walking around within a few hours and took a long shower that night. I just reveled in the peace and beauty of baby Isla.