It's been awhile since I've written anything :( Life has been so busy. We've moved to Illinois (end of April) and now we've had our second child! I never wrote about my pregnancy and birth story with Sariah, so I thought I'd share both at the same time.
Pregnancy with Sariah
Being pregnant with Sariah was hard and easy at the same time. Maybe it's because I expected certain symptoms would happen that didn't and had other symptoms instead. For instance, I really didn't get sick. I threw up a couple of times and had a couple weeks of nausea and eating only Cheerios. But other than that I was pretty good. I also didn't really hurt a whole lot as I got bigger. No hip or back pain. Instead my symptoms were being exhausted and nosebleeds. Yes, nosebleeds. I have never gotten a nosebleed in my life until being pregnant. It was soooo annoying. I'm sure the people at my job thought I was so weird because I'd have tissues shoved up my nose to stop the flow. And exhaustion? Ugh. I was always tired. Always. It probably didn't help that I got up super early to get to work because that's when my ride wanted to. Oh and another symptom. Incredible grumpiness and dislike towards the general population of people. I'm sure my sister-in-law Miranda thought I was awful. She and my sister lived with us for a couple months at the beginning of my pregnancy when I was my worst. I wasn't very good at dealing with it. Sorry Miranda!
Overall I thought the pregnancy was easy. I could walk pretty easily. I actually didn't even really start to show until I was 7 months. So lots of people didn't even know I was pregnant. The hardest part of my pregnancy was at the end. I got super sick with a nasty cough. I was literally up most of the night coughing so bad that I'd puke when I coughed. Poor Sam. He of course had to be up to take care of me. He'd run the shower nice and hot and have me sit in the bathroom so my coughing fits would calm down for awhile. I went to three doctors when I was sick and none of them ever told me I could take cough medicine, so that was super annoying. If I had known I could take it I probably wouldn't have gotten so bad. I ended up on the ER one night because I was coughing so bad I felt and heard (yes heard) a pop in my ribs. Long story short they diagnosed me with pluerasy (sp?) of the lungs and bronchitis. I was in pain for over a month though. I think I actually cracked a rib but they never saw anything on the x-rays, so who knows.
Sariah's birth
I didn't have any complications with the pregnancy either. Except for the fact that I never could feel Sariah move. That's actually why she ended up being born a week early. I had woken up on a Monday morning early to go to work. While getting ready I noticed I wasn't feeling any movement. I had already gone into Labor and Delivery at the hospital twice during my pregnancy because I couldn't feel her. And of course both times /I went in she started moving just fine when I was hooked up to the monitors. So this time I wanted to make sure I wasn't just noticing the movements. I drank some juice and laid down and waited. I think I may have felt movement two times within the hour. So when my ride for work came, Sam went out and told her that I wasn't going to work and that I needed to go to the hospital. So she kindly dropped me off there before heading off to work herself.
At the hospital they hooked me up and of course she started moving once I was on the monitors. However, the nurse, Shea, noticed that when I was having Braxton Hicks contractions, Sariah's heart rate was going down. She was concerned about that so she called my doctor and he came up to the hospital to take a look. They decided to have me come back the next day to do an ultrasound to check and see if my amniotic fluid was at the right levels and see how Sariah was doing in general.
So the next day, Tuesday, I went to work and told my boss that I needed to change my maternity leave date to start on Wednesday (I originally had it for that next Monday). I didn't know what would happen at my appointment so I to make sure I had time to be ready for Sariah coming. I worked until like 1:30 and then Alison (who gave me rides to work) kindly drove me back to the hospital. She even bought me lunch at work earlier since it was my last day (which was actually a really good thing). I was late to my appt though because there was a huge accident on the bridge. A truck driver drove over the lanes of traffic and off the bridge.
Anyways, I got to my appt. and they did the ultrasound. The lady there said my fluids were fine but that Sariah's heart rate was still going down during contractions. So they talked to the doctors and decided I was only a week away from my due date, let's just induce you. So I went up to Labor and Delivery and got all set up there. My induction started at 4:30 PM. They wouldn't let me eat anything except for fluids. My water broke at 10:30 PM. It was a very weird thing. I was asleep and woke up feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. I woke Sam up saying I had to go and then said but I can't seem to hold it. And then there was a gush. Blech. It was a mess. And they said I couldn't shower or anything after that because of the risk of infections. Which I got anyways because I ended up being in labor for 28 hours.
I was trying to do a natural birth but because I was hooked up to so many monitors I couldn't move. So I ended up getting an epidural at 1:30 AM. That was wonderful. Except my legs felt like hippo legs. It was a strange feeling. I could feel my legs but not the pain.
My body is very slow it seems when going into labor. It took me forever to dilate. I was tired and hungry. And for some reason they forgot to give me sugar water for energy. So when it came time push the next day at 6:00 PM, almost 26 hours after starting the induction, I had no energy whatsoever. I was sweating and feverish because I got an infection. I was tired because you can't really sleep comfortably in those labor and delivery beds. And for some reason the nurse had my lay on my back to push. Worst position ever to try and push a baby out of your body. Luckily Sam had my back and asked them to let me sit up. He also told them that I hadn't eaten since 11:30 AM the previous day and so I was going on a day in a half of no energy. It was then that the nurses realized I had no sugar water. They hooked me up to that right before I started pushing. I was exhausted! It took an hour for it to kick in. When it finally did I did much better pushing.
It took 2.5 hours to push. Sariah got stuck at some point. Her head was twisted and so they had to bring in the vacuum and ultrasound to try and figure out how to get her out. She finally was born at 8:31 PM, February 20th, 2013. She was 7 lbs. 9 oz. Lots of hair and beautiful. She was perfect. One of the nurses even held her up and said "This is probably the cutest baby I've ever seen! And trust me I've seen some ugly babies!"
We got to do skin to skin immediately after she was born while the doctor stitched up a tear I got. Then they after that they took her to bathe and stuff. Sam went with them while the nurse helped me get cleaned up and moved to the maternity floor.
I basically got nothing accomplished that I wanted for my labor except for a healthy baby, which is what's important right?
Pregnancy with Emma
Being pregnant with Emma was completely different. We actually thought she was a boy before we found out gender because it was so different.
I wasn't tired, I had no nosebleeds, and I got nauseous a lot. I had trouble eating for the first while with her. And when I was about 6 months along I started getting this weird sharp pains in my side. They felt like a running stitch. As I got closer to my due date they came more frequently and were more painful. Sometimes they'd last for an hour and completely immobilize me. I still don't know why they came.
Another thing with this pregnancy is that we moved during it. Which I would never recommend doing that. We were right around the time I needed to have the ultrasound to check baby's vitals. We barely found a doctor in time to do that. And I was seen by three different doctors throughout my pregnancy. I saw my doctor in Utah for the first two visits. When we moved I had the hardest time finding a doctor. I wanted a family doctor originally because then I wouldn't have to find one later. That's what we had in Utah and it was wonderful. I knew her already and I wouldn't have to switch around to different doctors for different things. But I didn't know of any doctors in Champaign that did that. So I thought it'd be easiest and less stressful this time to find an OB. However, the OB office I went to wasn't accepting new patients. So I tried the other clinic in town. They wouldn't take me until I had insurance. We were in the process of getting on Medicaid and hadn't yet been approved but that didn't count. So my only option was to go to the low-income clinic. They took anyone without insurance. They would just base your pay on an income scale. Luckily since we had just moved we were poor and so we were low. And then we did eventually get put on Medicaid so we didn't have to pay at all.
I met with a doctor at that clinic for a couple months and then ironically they switched me over to the OB clinic I had originally wanted to go to. So it ended up being good. I didn't get to pick my doctor, but he was a good doctor so I have no complaints. He was friendly and informative. Besides I've realized pregnant women really need to pick and meet the nurses they have during labor. They're the ones that really take care of you the whole time.
Emma's birth
Emma ended up being 12 days late. About a month in a half before my due date, my doctor scheduled a day for me to be induced just in case I never went into labor. Silly me thought there was no way I'd have to be induced 11 days after my due date! Alas, I never even had false labor. I barely had fake contractions.
They had me call at 5 Monday night to find out when I was supposed to come in. They said to come in at 7:30 and to not have eaten. However, when we called I hadn't eaten since lunch and I was not about to starve like I did during my labor with Sariah. So we and got custard and Subway before going in.
We got there and I started being induced a little before 9 PM. They put me on Cervadil (sp?) first. AWFUL. I was in so much pain. I literally had no break between the pain. And my leg kept spasming whenever I would stand so I couldn't walk around. They wouldn't let me bath or shower because of that stupid pill. They also wouldn't give me pain medicine either. I still don't know why. They probably said why, but because I was in so much pain I couldn't really remember much. I was literally hitting Sam in the chest, telling him to take me home right now.
I didn't sleep at all. The next morning they finally took the pill out and let me shower. It was AMAZING. It felt so good. I could barely feel the contractions with the hot water. It calmed me down a ton. The nurses could tell too. When they came back after my shower they said I looked a lot better than during the night. I also got my epidural after that. The anesthesiologist did a great job with it too. I could move my legs enough on my own so that I could move around in bed. I just couldn't walk.
They also put me on pitocin at this time. My doctor came in at that point and was hoping I'd progress to a 10 between 3 and 5 that afternoon. He was way too optimistic. I knew my body wasn't going to go that fast. And I was right. By the time 6 PM rolled around I was still only at a 6. And Emma was having the same problem Sariah did with her heart rate going down during contractions. My doctor took me off the pitocin to see how my body would do on it's on and how Emma would tolerate the contractions. My body didn't respond. The contractions slowed waaayyy down and her heart rate was still going down during those. My doctor came back around 7/7:30 and said I could either wait another day or have a c-section. As hard as it was, I knew my body was probably not going to get very far on it's own. I dunno why it refuses to be so lame. So I signed consent to have a c-section.
I was kind of terrified. I had never an operation like that before. I didn't know what to expect. Almost immediately after deciding to do the c-section, my body started shaking uncontrollably. They said it's normal. I shook the whole time during the surgery and then for awhile after. I also was throwing up because of the medicine. The anesthesiologist was super nice though. She talked to me about what was going on, made sure to put warm blankets on me, held the puke bucket for me and just was really calming for me.
During a c-section you can't feel pain, but you sure can feel them digging around in there. It was so weird. Kind of like an alien wiggling around your insides. Emma was pulled out at 8:41 PM, October 14th, 2014. She was 9 lbs 9.7 oz. She had more hair than Sariah did! And it's nice and dark. I got to hold her almost immediately after they pulled her out and cleaned her up a bit. I didn't hold her long though because I was still shaking and I felt like I was going to drop her the way I was laying on the table. But it was long enough.
After experiencing both types of delivery I have to say for the next pregnancy, I might actually be leaning towards a c-section again. I know there's a lot of stigma with a c-section and natural is all the rave, but after going through it and going through the recovery it's a little less stressful. I was kind of terrified to go through the labor pain and pushing again. I didn't know if I would survive it.
Having a scheduled c-section takes away the anxiety of labor. And the exhaustion you have to endure through the pain and pushing. You're going to have pain after either. So might as well go into having a baby refreshed instead of tired right?
Sariah
Emma
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