Rose Lillian's Birth Story

It’s hard to believe, but Rose is already a six weeks old! I suppose I should write out her birth story already, huh?  It’s been pretty busy around here (can you tell, since I haven’t blogged in six weeks!?). Well, Madison had finally adjusted to her little sister, I am feeling much better and getting the hang on having two in the house. But I will fill you all in on that at another time.

Well it was Sunday night August 29^th and I convinced Tim, and two of our friends: Ryan and Kelly to walk around with me at the Palatine Fair. It was 6pm and nearly 90 degrees out still. I WAS going to get this baby out if it was the last thing I did! I started feeling mild contractions as we walked along (and I ate a grilled corn on the cob ;) - they continued sporadically throughout the evening until our friends headed home and Tim headed to bed. I wasn’t tired and was starting to get excited thinking this might be it. From 10:30pm-1:30am I cleaned the house and did some last minute things I knew I needed to get done before Rose came. My contractions were about 3-10 minutes apart, still fairly mild and not consistent. I decided I should try to get some rest.

I continued to labor through the night and slept on and off as contractions got stronger and closer together. I knew I had an OB appointment already scheduled at 9:15 in the morning, so I tried to just labor at home as much as I could. Monday morning, August 30^th, Tim, Madison, and I all woke up around 7:30 am had a big pancake breakfast and then I showered and headed to my doctor’s appointment, while Tim stayed home with Madison. At this point, I was having pretty consistent contractions about 5 minutes apart. When the doctor finally saw me it was 10am. I was 2cm and he said that I was definitely in labor and that I should head to the hospital.  

Tim fortunately had the day off, so he helped me finish packing and cleaning. We called our friends Kelly and Ryan to come over to watch Madison. Meanwhile the contractions had gotten strong enough that I had to stop to breath through them and they were closer to 3 or 4 minutes apart. At around 11:30am Tim and I got in the car to head to the hospital. I was in a good amount of pain by this point and just wanted to get there. But I knew that I wouldn’t be able to eat anything when we got to the hospital, so Tim stopped at Starbucks and we picked up two protein plates to eat on the way.

At 12:10 we arrived at St Alexius Medical Center. We had to wait in waiting room for a labor room to be cleaned. The pain was getting worse and I really had to breathe through the contractions, standing and walking around a bit.

At 1:00pm we checked into the delivery room. My contractions continued to intensify. When the nurse checked me at 1:35pm. I was 4.5cm and 80% effaced with a "bulgy bag" – where the bag kind of twists and makes a bubble just before the opening of the cervix. The nurse thought that she felt something like a ridge – something she shouldn’t have felt. She called my doctor and he said that he would check it out when he came in.

At this point, my contractions got much closer together and so intense that I was in tears. Tim was helping me try to breath through them, but I couldn’t handle it any more. I called for an epidural.

At 2:30pm I got the epidural. Oh sweet relief! I felt warm and calm. 

At 3:30pm – I sent Tim to grab dinner and thought I would get a nap as soon as the doctor came in to check on me.

At 4:00 the doctor broke my water so that we could get things moving and so that he could feel the position of the baby better.  On examination Rose appears breach. He thought he was feeling her foot – or maybe her hand, so he called for an ultrasound. They said I should call Tim and get him to come back just in case we had to rush into surgery or something.

At 4:10 the ultrasound showed that the baby was face-presenting. Her head and neck were cranked way back so that her chin was coming first instead of the crown of her head. Several different doctors came in, including the at risk doctor to check me and look at the ultrasound to help us decide what to do. They found meconium in the amniotic fluid, which could be an indication of distress.

I was starting to get pretty scared, so I was relieved when Tim returned from Chipotle around 4:15. He ate his burrito bowl as we talked through all of our options. The doctors thought if I tried to continue to labor and deliver vaginally, Rose’s health could be at risk. At the very least she would have serious bruising and damage to her face and at the worst, she might become lodged in the birth canal and we still might have to be rushed into an emergency c-section.

At 4:30 Tim and I decided it would be best to get her out via c-section.

At 4:40 I was prepped for surgery.

At 5:20 I was taken to surgery, Tim suits up in scrubs

At 5:42 our sweet Rose was born! We are thankful that even though she came a different way than we had originally planned, that she is safe and healthy!

                                                    

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rose!