Caitlyn's Birth Story

well a lot of people have been asking about the story of Caitlyn's birth since it was a difficult one for me, so i decided to post it on here so i can just send them here to read. It is going to be a little graphic so if you don't want to know the details then don't read, just as a warning for everyone.

First off, it all started 2am Saturday the 21st, I was woken up with what i thought was a loud pop sound, but then thinking in bed that i just dreamed it and Caitlyn must have kicked me in my sleep (which she did often to let me know that i needed to go to the bathroom to make room for her). So i got up and sat down to go potty when i heard a gush of water and realized that i hadn't gone potty...it was funny to me with it being 2 am and still half sleeping. I yelled for Brian to wake and told him that my water broke and that he needs to get everything to the door to leave. I woke my mom up and got dressed and we headed to the hospital. At this point contractions were very light and just annoying.

I get to the hospital and they check me out and for sure my water broke and at the moment they also saw that there was meconium (which is when the baby has a bowl movement in the uterus), so the nurse just tells me that when i delivery i won't hear the baby's cry and the NICU will take her to suck out the meconium before she breathes it in. At this point i got just a little nervous, but more anxious to get the show on the road. When i finally got to my room they told me because of the meconium I'm going to have to be strapped to the fetal machine and no moving around. So to say the least that my birthing plan just flew out the window then, also my contractions where becoming much stronger at this point. I still wanted to go as long as possible at this point without and medication, that was until i realized that all the pain was coming from my back. I had complete back labor and lets just say you can ask any mom who has had it, that back labor is the worse to have. I am proud to say i lasted 4 to 5 hours without drugs, but by the 5 hour i was begging for the pain medication that goes through the IV. It helped for only an hour and by an hour in a half i was saying no more of this and drug me up....lol

I got the epidural (which did the opposite and sped up my dilation), but it also made my blood pressure drop dramatically and made me sick, which is never fun and scary at the same time. By 11:30 i was complete and ready to push. So i pushed for and hour straight, with Brian right next to me being the best support person i could have ever asked for. The doctor came to check on me and realized that Caitlyn was faced in the opposite direction, which can make it harder to deliver, so he basically pushes her back up and tries to turn her. I believe he was unsuccessful, but told me and the nurses that were in there to keep me pushed for another hour and try to turn her at the same time. I will say i was lucky enough to have 3 nurses in there and one of them the head nurse who really seemed to know what she was doing because she got Caitlyn more turned than the doctor did, but still no luck. The doctor comes in and tells me that I'm going to need some help getting her out and gives me a couple of options, first is that he can get the vacuum and forceps and we can try it that way and if it doesn't work we got to C-section or just go straight to C-Section. Well said i trust him as the doctor and whatever he thinks is best, which was the first option. So he told me to keep pushing until he get back with everything. So 30 minutes later he is back and then we try the vacuum with no success and then he grabs the forceps and tries, which even with the epidural hurt like the dickens and would tell every women to refuse them. Yet again no success, oh and also my epidural stopped working on my left side so i was feeling everything.

So they take me away quickly to the operating room and it felt like i was in a parade because i had all 3 nurses plus some and everyone that is in the NICU following right after me. The epidural lady was pumping me with so much drugs so quickly that it only took a second to realize that i was dead(numb) from the neck down. The most i could do is lift my arm up a couple of inches and then it would just fall. Not soon after Brian is walking though the door and sitting next to me and i have a huge sheet up in front of me. So during this time for me is blurr so I'm going to tell you what Brian told me. They slice me open and start trying to pull Caitlyn out, but she was stuck a little bit and it took a bit of work for the doctor. Brian was brave enough to look over when Caitlyn finally came out and he leans over to me and tells me that he just say my intestines and all i could say is ok. Then he decides to keep being funny and tells me that its a BOY....all i could say is shut up...lol. Brian got up and walked over to were Caitlyn was and they cleaned her up and luckily no meconium got into her system and he brought her over to me to i could see her and then he left with her to the nursery for her to get weighed. Now from this time until i get to my room at 5pm i lost an hour, but all i remember is being in post opp for a short time and Brian walking in to tell me that she is ok and healthy and a big girl at 8lbs 10oz, 21.5 inches long.

So that was the delivery which was pretty crazy, but we were very blessed in that the only things that happened was i lost a lot of blood and Caitlyn had a bad bruise on her head. Also for the first 48 hours of her like she had a lot of fluid in her head and so we had to be really careful with her head but it went down very quickly and so she had a nasty headache all the time and then when she would cry it would make it worse. So she wasn't a happy baby for a while....lol

Sorry about the rambling at the end, its getting late and brian is getting sleepy so now i need to go take care of my precious gift. I love you all.