I love reading birth stories. They are some of my favorite posts to read and since having Claire I knew I wanted to share her story on the blog. She was born August 22, 2015 so it has been 8 days since we had her! I can't believe it has only been 8 days, I feel like she has been part of our lives forever, not that it was an easy transition into parenthood but it has been a wonderful transition all the same.
At my 36 week appointment which was Friday August, 14 I got my normal check up and my doctor said I don't think she's coming for another couple weeks (ha). I got the strep b test that day but they didn't check to see how dilated I was. Looking back I wish I had taken them up on the offer because I probably would have been at a 2 already. I left the doctors office and had a relatively stress free weekend. I purchased a bunch of last minute baby items on amazon that I would need at the hospital (thank goodness for amazon prime since it arrived on time).
Monday came around and I went to work, and when I got home I started having contractions, I could tell they were real contractions verses the braxton hicks ones I had been experiencing because they felt like menstrual cramps, starting in my lower back and would continue forward into the front of my stomach. I started timing them and at first they were only 30 minutes apart but by 8pm they were about 20 minutes apart. They stopped over night so we didn't call my doctor or anything cause I knew I wasn't in labor and they would have just sent me home.
On Tuesday the same thing happened, around 4pm the contractions started and lasted until 11pm, getting up to 20 minutes apart. I still just thought nothing of them because they would stop over night and they weren't that painful. Don't get me wrong they were pretty painful but not to the point where I thought I needed to go to the hospital.
Wednesday came and went with no contractions.
Thursday came and I woke up with a really bad migraine, I was throwing up and just sick in general. I called into work that day and stayed home. After resting for the majority of the day and taking tylenol, I got a few hours of organizing in the nursery done, putting away baby clothes etc. While I was working on the nursery I made a list of things we still needed so Zack and I could go to walmart later that day. When he got home we went to walmart and walking around the store for about an hour and a half I was having pretty intense contractions by the end of it. These ones came down to about 15 minutes apart and the pain was worse then the contractions on Monday and Tuesday. I still didn't want to go the hospital or call my doctor because they stopped over night once again.
Friday came and I went to work that day, by the end of my shift I was having contractions and they were at the same pain level as the ones I had on Thursday. I got home and just laid down in bed, drank a lot of water and tried to rest. I was counting the time in between the contractions and it was 15 minutes apart. Friday night we watched Pirates of the Carribean at worlds end and by the end of the movie I could barely breathe through the contractions, they were 10 minutes apart at this point and painful.
I got up and decided to pack the hospital bag just in case. I was a little out of it with all the pain so I packed random stuff that I didn't end up using (which is okay because I did have everything I needed). I asked Zack what he thinks we should do and we both decided to sleep through the night. The contractions stopped around midnight and I was able to get sleep that night. However at 5 am I woke up to extreme pain and started counting the contractions again, they were 6 minutes apart. I was a little nervous and excited but decided to wait until they were 5 minutes apart to wake Zack up (the hospital is 10 minutes from our house so I knew we would be fine).
At 5:50 am I had the most intense contraction and then all this water gushed out onto the bed, I ran to the bathroom (ha ha I had no idea what to do) and said Zack my water broke. He looked at the bed and said, yep, and got up and started getting his stuff together. .He grabbed me a towel and I sat on it in the car on the way to the hospital. When we got there the towel was soaked and I was still leaking a lot of fluid.
We got all checked in and they sent me up to labor and delivery. When we arrived the nurse said usually we just do a check in and monitor but since your water broke we are doing a check in and delivery, you are having a baby today.
Once she said that for some reason it just hit me, we were having our baby that day. The nurse started getting everything set up so she could give me my IV, do some tests and get me ready for labor. I was nervous, I could tell Zack was nervous but we both stayed really calm through out the whole thing. After my nurse conducted a bunch of tests she checked to see how dilated I was.
She told me I was at a 3 but she couldn't tell if the babies head was in the right position or not, so they pulled out the ultra sound machine and found that Claire's head was not where it was supposed to be. She was laying sideways inside my belly with her head on my right side and her feet on my left. She said I'm not sure but it looks like you might have to have a C-Section. A bunch of thoughts started crossing my mind but I knew that if that was the safest way to get Claire here then that is what we were going to do. She said she would go call my doctor, let him know what was going on and have him come down.
While she was out in the hall I looked at Zack and said C-section, he said yep and we just agreed it would be the best thing to do, unless my doctor could turn her then we would opt for that choice. When the nurse came back in she said the doctor didn't want to make any calls yet about the C- section until he could see me in person so she said to just hang out and wait for him to get there.
To find out what happens next stay tuned for Part 2, coming later this week as I have to go take care of a fussy baby now :)
XO
Caitlin
