I can’t believe my daughter is already a month old. Time sure flies! I’ve needed some time for this to all settle in and get in a routine at home, but I’m finally ready to share my birth story. It was a wild one! Buckle in.
Overall I had a totally normal pregnancy. I got pregnant on the first try, had no issues over the whole pregnancy up until week 37. If you want to read more about my first and second trimesters, click here to read that post.
Sick…
On Wednesday, February 19, I got home from work about 4pm. Was doing my usual around the house and all of a sudden got hit with a wave of nausea and vomited pretty bad. I thought that was so weird, was morning sickness back? I continued with my afternoon and out of nowhere 30 minutes later I threw up again. This was weird. I called my doctor and since their office was just closing she suggested I go over to the OBGYN Urgent Care.
My husband met me at the urgent care and we were seen within about 30 minutes. While I was in there I threw up again and then had to rush to the bathroom because it started coming out the other end too.. I know TMI but this was no fun. They diagnosed me with a GI infection (stomach bug basically) and checked on baby girl and she was fine. I continued to throw up every 30 minutes or so for the rest of the night into the next day. It was an awful few hours.
Itchy…
Fast forward to Saturday, February 22. I woke up itchy all over. I had no clue why I was itchy. I thought maybe I had got an allergic reaction to something or did I change a soap or detergent? I went the whole day with this itch and by night it got really bad, especially in my hands and feet. So what did I do? I googled: third trimester pregnancy itchy. One word popped up right away: Cholestasis. I was reading all about it and it seemed like I had most of these symptoms. Cholestasis is basically when there is a lack of bile in the system which effects your liver. I freaked out because while it said there is no harm to mom there could be harm to the baby and the words “still born” were engraved in my head.
I called the on call doctor the next morning (Sunday) and she took all my information and told me my doctor would call me the next day. On Monday I was called into my doctors office to get some blood work done to see if I really did have cholestasis. They checked my liver and bile enzymes and both were very elevated. My doctor recommended I get induced the following day for the safety of me and my baby.
Induction…
Induced?? I had no plan for this. This was totally unexpected and with only a day to prepare, its safe to say my husband and I were kind of freaking out. This would be about 2 weeks earlier than what I thought and I had planned for as natural as a birth as I could. I was so scared now.
Getting to the hospital the next day (February 25), I got all set up and was given cervidil that had to sit in me for 12 hours to try and soften my cervix to prepare for labor. I sent my husband and mom home for the night to get a good sleep and the next day I got checked and was only dilated 1cm. They started the pitocin at 10am on Wednesday the 26th. I went all day with not much happening until about 5pm. My husband had just given me a foot massage and sprayed lavender essential oils around me. I must have been super relaxed because my water broke! It was the strangest feeling but I was so excited my body did it on its own without the doctors having to break it.
Once my water broke, things got moving. I started feeling more of the pain almost instantly but it was nothing I couldn’t tolerate. They checked me again and I was only 2cm dilated. I was so discouraged and knew we were in for a long night. I sent my mom home and my husband stayed with me. Around 11pm I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt like he pitocin was making this way more difficult than I intended and I asked for an epidural. I never wanted this, but I was hoping mostly it would help me relax to get things moving. It sure did.
Baby time!
At 2am I was checked again and I was only 4 cm dilated but the baby was super low which meant I was feeling a lot of pressure. It was so intense but not nearly as intense as it was about to get. 1 hour later they checked me again and I was at 8cm. This baby was coming and coming soon! We called my mom to get back to the hospital and I was feeling the need to start pushing. She was sitting so low all my body wanted to do was push her out but I was told not to. I wasn’t 10 cm yet. At about 3:45am the doctor came in and told me we were ready to go. Once all set up they coached me through the pushes. This was the craziest feeling ever! And at 4:13am on Thursday the 27th of February my beautiful baby girl was born and placed into my arms.
My husband cut the cord and we got some great skin to skin time together. I can’t believe I did this and I can’t believe it only took me 20 minutes of pushing to get her out! I was glad she was sitting so low for that reason. I got all stitched up with only a 2nd degree tear and started to recover with my baby girl.
Scary Surprise…
The following afternoon (Thursday) at 12pm I had 8 doctors and nurses rush into my room. I had been bleeding a lot, and while I thought this was normal, it wasn’t. I was having a postpartum hemorrhage. My body didn’t know the baby was out yet and continued to bleed for the last 8 hours. They decided to rush me to the OR for emergency surgery. I was terrified. I looked at my husband and told him I loved him and to take care of the baby because I had no clue what was about to happen. Leaving my family and being wheeled quickly down the hallway into the operating room I felt like I was in a movie. This wasn’t real. They had me sign a bunch of forms and put me to sleep. 3 hours later I woke up in recovery and all was well. Thank goodness! The hospital priest came to pray with me which made me ball my eyes out and then they rolled me back to my room to my family.
We all cried together for a little while and were so happy that everything was okay. My baby was fine, daddy took good care of her while I was gone and I was so happy to have her in my arms again. We were in the hospital 3 more days after that. I had lost so much blood that they didn’t want me to go home yet until my levels were improving. Finally on Monday, March 2nd we were discharged for me to continue to recover at home.
It has been a long recovery, longer than I expected. I had many lightheaded, dizzy spells and took things VERY slowly. But we are all here, home and healthy. I’m so thankful to the incredible team at the hospital and my doctors. I am thankful for my mom and husband being by my side the entire time and of course I am thankful for my beautiful daughter. This was a long story, but one I wanted to share. For all you mommas out there, don’t ever ignore any weird symptoms during your pregnancy. You never know what it could be.
-Melissa