Aurora Alice
Born on February 17, 2016
2:52 am
6 pounds 9 Ounces
18.5 inches long
Birth story
On February 15 I went in for a normal appointment and started talking about the possibility of getting induced. I got checked and was excited to find out I have progressed to 3cm dilated on my own. All went according to plan so my husband and I decided to go grocery shopping afterwards. When we got the store and started walking around I felt a huge gush. I decided to go to the bathroom and check just in case it was my water breaking. When I got to the bathroom to check I found blood. LOTS of it. I knew bleeding was normal after a check, but this was way too much blood to be comfortable with. I called my OBGYN and they told me to head to labor and delivery. I had a feeling this was going to be it, but I tried to contain my emotions. When we arrived at L&D they too felt uncomfortable with how much I was *still* bleeding and decided to keep me over night for observations. They were concerned with possible placenta abruption, but believed it could only be a partial tear if anything. Problem was there is no test to confirm a partial abruption. After a day of observation, and slowed down bleeding my doctors were unsure about sending me home or inducing me. They couldn't induce me without a referral due to me being barely one day shy of 39 weeks. They explained to me that they could send me to maternal/fetal medicine and if high risk doctors deemed it necessary to induce me they could go ahead, if not they could send me home. After a lot of waiting and stressing my husband and I were very anxious about the whole thing. We felt like I was ok now, but really afraid that something could go wrong at any time. This made us scared of the possibility of going home. After consulting with the high risk doctors and getting another ultrasound everyone agreed it would be best to go ahead and induce me.
The induction started at around 6pm. I was told they would up my pitocin dosage every half hour until contractions started to pick up. I decided I wanted to try to labor naturally (as naturally as you can with artificial medicine in you) until I couldn't bare it anymore. By 10pm contractions still weren't really picking up with the pitocin dosage at a 14 (max is 20) so my doctor decided to break my water and see if things would get going. I was about 4cm dilated at that point. After my water broke the contractions came on strong and fast. I labored naturally for about three hours doing everything I could to get through the pain. I did NOT want to stay in that bed. I tried many different positions and made everyone nervous how much I was moving around. I was letting my body lead the way to get me through the pain. At around midnight my husband and I started discussing the possibility of an epidural. Although the contractions were painful, I was handling them fairly well...however my body was getting exhausted and I didn't know how much longer it was going to take to birth my baby. Doctors explained to me over and over again that first time moms can take a long time to birth their child. When I asked about an epidural I was told the wait was over 40 minutes long, so I decide it was a good idea to put my name on the wait list now before it got any longer. I needed some rest to be ready to push. I got my epidural around 1 am and got checked again. I progressed to 6cm dilated. Everyone started to settle in to get some rest thinking we were in for a long night. Aurora was moving around a lot and the heart rate monitor was having a tough time keeping track of her. They had me turn from my back to my left side to get a better reading. After a couple minutes the heart rate got lost again so they flipped me from my left side to my right side. Shortly after that I felt pressure, crazy amounts of pressure and pain. I freaked out and got scared thinking my epidural wasn't working and the contractions were back. I cried out for my husband to help and he paged the nurse. The nurse came in calmly and explained that everything was fine (I was just checked after all) and to try and calm down and work with the pain. She decided since I said there was a lot of pressure that she will check me just to reassure me. When she checked me she realized she was completely wrong because the baby was at a + 5 station and ready to come out. She announced it was time to have a baby! Yet again I tried to contain my excitement because yet again I was told by the nurses that first time moms can typically push for hours, and yet again I proved them all wrong. We did one practice push to try it out, and the babies head was already coming out. The nurse told me to stop pushing and rushed to get my doctor. The doctor came in and with two more pushes Aurora Alice was born. I had one small tear that wasn't even considered to be first degree. Baby was happy, healthy, and perfect in every way.
As for right now everything is going better than I ever could have imagined. We are home and baby is eating, sleeping, and pooping like a champ! I am healing up fast and daddy is over the moon in love.
