Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Brielle's Birth Story

 Wow this feels like it just happened, but just so I don't forget all the little details I wanted to document Brielle's birth story for me and everyone else that was a part of it to remember! :)
  I was patiently waiting for my weekly appointments by this time, and I was asking to get a sonogram for my 37 week check (which they didn't do,due to the fact that they said the baby reaches a certain size and it's much better to do a vaginal check to see how soft my cervix was and how far dilated I was than to d
o a sonogram at that time since I wasn't experiencing any complications), and so I waited another week and I had my bags packed at this appointment because I just had a feeling that something wasn't right (even though everything checked out fine, it was my mother's inutition.)  I live 50 minutes from my hospital that I was delivering at and I just knew I did not want any complications to happen in between my house and there.  My Doctor said he usually doesn't induce before 39 weeks but I was READY to meet my baby girl and get her out to make sure she is a healthy baby girl.
  Shane and I both prayed that we would be soon meeting our baby girl on our way to our 38 week appointment and that he wouldn't send us home. I was 38 weeks and 5 days at this point and he agreed to send me on over to Citizens Medical Center to meet our bundle of joy even though I was having minor contractions they weren't in a consistent pattern and not doing much to get labor started.  I was dilated to a 4 and 50 % effaced by this point and we walked in at 5:30pm, got all comfortable and set up with an I.V, my blood drawn, and they checked to see how the contraction patterns were on the monitor by 6:30pm.  (All my family had already been called and notified and my Mom and Mike were on their way to Victoria, Tx from Austin and my two best friends Adriane and Lauren were on their way from Hutto,Tx.)  It was then that my Doctor suggested that I get started on Oxytocin (Pitocin) around 7pm- which brings on contractions or make them stronger, and is also used to control bleeding after childbirth.All my family and friends got there around 9pm to join Shane and I! They kept increasing the dosage by 2 units until they hit their max which is 20 units and by this time around 3am, Brielle started having heart rate problems where it would jump really HIGH to really LOW in the matter of minutes and so they stopped the Pitocin because she was not tolerating and tried to reposition me, and when that didn't get the results they were looking for, they applied oxygen by mask to get more to the baby and probably about 10 minutes later she started showing signs that her heart rate was getting back to her normal numbers and they allowed me to use the restroom and connected me back on the monitors so they could make sure she was still doing great.
(right before this occurred I was complaining about how it had been over 12 hours since I had eaten anything and I was hoping to have enough energy to push baby girl out when it came down to it, oh and I was also saying that I wished they allowed me to walk around me to get things going but I knew God had it already planned out and knew I had to be in bed in order to see that Brielle wasn't tolerating the medication.) I was praying and hoping that I wouldn't have to get a C-section for her to safely come out. 
  At 4am, they restarted the Pitocin to get a steady contraction pattern going again and they had increased it all the way up to 20 units yet again because that was when the pattern was the best, and I was at a 6 dilation and 75% effaced at this time. I was laughing and joking with my family all night (since there pretty much isn't any chance to sleep during labor). The nurses were telling me that if I wanted an epidural I should get one at this point (especially if I tear, it would be painful stitching it up) and I had been feeling uncomfortable at this time but I prayed about it and knew I wanted to stay as calm as possible to push her out so I opted to get the epidural (it was the weirdest feeling ever being numb from my waist down!) My Doctor came in to break my water manually at 7am, and I went from a 6 to an 8cm dilated  around 9am. By 11:25am I definitely felt "pressure down there," and alerted my nurse that I think I am ready to push! My nurse by this time was different than the night shift and her name was Courtney and she told me to do two practice pushes.  Well after the first one, she was like "oh no, no more pushing you she is going to come out soon you did great!" So she called my Doctor (Zamora) and he came in quickly, set up the sterile field and made sure the warmer was on for the baby and checked everything and said "ok, Sheridan you can do this." Well let's just say two pushes later I pushed her out at exactly 11:37am and my doctor says "Wow, I have never seen that before." That's never good to hear and I asked what it was, and he said she had a True knot, which is where your baby ties a knot in the umbilical cord and if she were to have tightened it she would have depleted all the oxygen coming from me to her and she wouldn't have survived.  That explained all my uneasy feelings throughout the last weeks and I just think they could have still seen it on a sonogram beforehand. (God is truly amazing and led me to get her out as soon as possible!)  After I pushed her out, I tore a little so he worked the placenta out while massaging my uterus and then sewed me up (thank goodness for the epidural I didn't feel a thing!) 
   She weighed exactly 7 lbs 15.8 ounces (which they rounded to 8 pounds) and 20.5 inches long and didn't cry right away, but when they put her on top of me and started drying her off she definitely cried and let her presence be known.  (Shane, my mom, and one of my best friends Adriane, got to see her come out which I think was so beautiful and amazing in so many ways!) I was able to breastfeed her right away and she had such a great latch! After the epidural wore off, I was able to get up and shower- literally right after her birth and it felt SO amazing to get clean and showered and so many friends and family came to visit I loved every minute of it!


Mike wrote down all of our guesses for the weight and length ! 


So ready to meet baby girl, they had monitors on baby so my gown was up! (Right before this picture, she KICKED me so hard you could see her entire foot right through my skin, so precious!)
So perfect! And so much hair! (No, I did not have one day of heartburn with her)
Sorry it's sideways! (Shane, Lauren, Adriane)





  
  

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