My Birth Story of Little Miss Katie

Posted by CoderMom in Baby Photos, Baby Thoughts | 10 comments

Nov 16, 11

So what can I say? The birth of my daughter happened so quickly, I didn’t even have time to blink! It must have all started Tuesday night. I couldn’t sleep all night and found myself waking up every few hours from some pains — Braxton Hicks contractions, so I thought. I’ve been telling my doctor and nurses about them a few days prior and they reassured me those are contractions, but they’re just a way of getting my body ready for labor. So I didn’t think much of them and reassured myself that the baby will come sometime in December. I mean, I still have my surgery next week, she wasn’t due for another month, and another baby class to take before she comes right? Wrong.

My little girl had different plans. Wednesday morning, I woke up early, ate breakfast, and decided to finish working on Thank You cards for the gifts from the baby shower. I got through most of them and decided to stay up to work on some articles. I was tired, but I didn’t want to lay down to sleep again for fear of those contractions. It was a nasty pain I felt on my right ribs every time I laid down, and sometimes sit as well. I can tolerate the pain, so it was bearable, but definitely not comfortable.

Around 2pm, I felt this sudden urge to go to the bathroom, and quickly jumped off my seat. I was reflecting on how many glasses of water I drank so far… not enough to have this “I really have to go to the bathroom feeling!” And by the time I could process that thought, a gush of fluid just came out. I can only say that I was very lucky I was home! I ran to the bathroom to empty the fluid. Then I had to run back to the living room to call my husband! I was so cold and nervous, I could barely dial the number. All I kept thinking about was the baby! I knew she need the amniotic fluid to move around so I wasn’t sure how much time I had! I just wanted her to be alright. After I got a hold of my husband, I became calm and packed a few little things like my shampoo and iPad into my suitcase. I just kept talking to the baby in hopes that she’ll respond and tell me she’s alright. She didn’t do her usual kicks, so I got really worried.

My husband got home and was kind of panicing and moving all over the place. He moved all the bags into the car and grabbed his big camera bag. Then off we went to the hospital. I texted a few friends “my water broke” and kinda let them figure out what was happening. lol We got to the hospital around 2:45pm or so, and I was just wondering why everyone was so slow! I mean, don’t you want to move a little faster during emergency situations? Yes, I was very worried about my little girl, but I remained calm, knowing if I panic, it wouldn’t help her at all. I had to be in control. We waited what seemed like forever before the nurse even took me into the back and got me a room to diagnose me in.

I kept asking her how the baby was. She put the baby monitor on me and saw that the baby was fine. Thank goodness! We could hear her heartbeat, and I smiled when she finally kicked me to let me know she’s alright! After that, my worries just drifted away. My mind was clear and I told her exactly what she needed to know — TACO — the time, amount, color, and odor of the amniotic fluid, that I needed to have the cerclage surgery removed first, and that I was at Week 35 and 5 days. She really wasn’t moving that fast… but she said I was really dilated, close to 7cm already. I thought that was weird because in class, we learned that early labor happens first, and then you feel really strong contractions in active labor (5cm – 7cm). I didn’t feel anything that was strong or super painful.

When the on-call doctor came in, he checked and just said, “well, a baby is coming out any minute now.” Albert asked what that meant. He said, the baby will come out really soon, she’s already 9cm dilated. What?! I had to ask, does that mean I can’t get an epidural? He said, there’s no point, you already got this far. I had to ask the nurse if the pain was going to get worse than it already did. And she just calmly said, nope. Either I can really tolerate pain, or there’s something wrong with my body! I didn’t have any urge to scream my head off (like you see on tv shows!) I felt the same pain for the last 2 or 3 weeks, thinking they were small fake contractions. They finally started moving and quickly wheeled me into the OR. There was a row of nurses, maybe 6 or 7 sitting nearby and asked how far I was. My nurse said she’s already at 9cm. When they heard that, they were rooting me on and wondering why I was so quiet and calm. haha Knowing that the pain wouldn’t hurt much more than it already did, I did feel really calm. All I wanted was my baby girl out safely. Plus, I knew my baby was fine and that’s what my focus was on.

What went on in the Labor and Delivery Room will either shock you, not shock you, or give you a laugh like it did for me after. Well first of all, I was really glad I had a clear mind and was aware of everything around me. I told the doctor and nurses I didn’t have the lab results from the GPS test yet (nothing was on the website!), so I had them check again. They didn’t see the results either. If I was positive on the results, I would need two viles of antibiotics to protect the baby. Since there were no results, they gave me antibiotics in my IV just in case. It took a while for one vile of antibiotics to trickle into my body.. so I had to hold the baby in until it finished! The nurse said there’s no way they can get two viles in, the baby’s going to come soon! This was between 3pm – 5pm.

With all the waiting around, I was posting and checking Facebook, Twitter, Google Voice, and SMS on my iPhone — in between and even during contractions. lol I had to breathe through the first hour or so of contractions anyways, why not post things from my somewhat chaotic delivery room? My friend even called me in the room.. and I was talking to her fine. She even heard the baby’s heartbeat over the phone. And all of the sudden, she wasn’t sure what was going on because I was breathing so hard. Well, it was during a contraction and Albert had to take the phone and tell her what happened. LOL I’ll always remember that as being one of the funny things that happened. I was also texting my friends who couldn’t believe I was doing that in the Delivery room. Albert forgot his phone when he rushed me to the hospital, so he got to answer and post things on my Facebook and answer some text messages and phone calls. He called his parents too, saying the baby is coming any minute now! Everyone thought that meant she’d be here in a few hours… but this baby didn’t want to wait!

I didn’t get to finish all of my baby classes, so I was listening to what the nurses told me to do — when to push and when to stop. I never even took the lamaze class, so I was making up my own breathing pattern, and well, it worked and helped me get through the pain. The doctor also wanted me to breathe through some of the contractions so the baby could get some oxygen. That was HARD to do, especially when she was partially out. At the last stretch, I remember seeing Albert look at me and saying, “she has a lot of hair!” That was funny, but I was too tired to laugh.. but, that also meant she was close to being born! Within the next few minutes, and a few more pushes, I heard her first cry and I just gave a sigh of relief! They announced she was a healthy little girl, 5lbs and 12oz, 20″ long. And with a great set of lungs! She let out a few loud cries and was able to soothe herself in a few minutes. It was her way of telling me she’s fine.

I was waiting for them to bring her to me.. but they were busy cleaning her and taking her vitals, etc. Albert was just having a field day with his camera in there… He got some incredible footage and photos.. more than I expected. And of things I had NOT expected! Let’s just say, the baby and delivery was very well documented. They continued to run some tests on the baby since she was so small — there were A LOT of people in the room. It was wonderful to hear that she made it over the cut off and wouldn’t need to be in NICU. I remember Albert telling me that and I couldn’t help smiling. But I was still waiting for them to bring her to me, it felt like forever!

They finally put her on my chest and another nurse came in to take our family photo. That was the moment I waited for, for so long. Seeing her little hands and feeling her little feet for the first time was absolutely incredible. It’s too difficult to describe how I felt right at that moment. Those little punchers and kickers were communicating with me for 9 months, and now I can finally hold and comfort them. Amazing. It was just an amazing feeling.

I thanked all the nurses and doctor in the room for their help. And they thanked me for being such a calm patient! They should really thank “Grey’s Anatomy.” If I wasn’t so interested in that show, I might not be so calm. I just love all the technical medical terms and procedures on that show, that giving birth was much more less dramatic than other things! Other nurses came in to check up on me and the one question I remember them asking was, “On a scale of 1 to 10, what’s your level of pain tolerance?” I just looked at her and said, “I just gave birth without any medicine.. what would you consider that as?” She laughed and said, oh, silly question.

I was finally ready to get up and they wheeled me into the recovery room. Now I had the best of both worlds. My baby in one hand and my iPhone in the other. LOL I was finally able to answer my text messages, and I had friends and family over later that night.

It’s been an incredible pregnancy journey, full of ups and some downs, but now I’m about to embark on another awesome and challenging journey — parenthood. I’m sure it’ll be full of joyous moments, some worries, but lots of love.

Thanks so much for reading my birth story. I hope it was more inspiring than scary. I’ve always feared, yet longed to experience childbirth one day.. and I have to say, it’s one of the proudest moments of my life. Little Katie, aka Coderbaby, welcome into the world. Daddy and I love you more than anything in this world. You’re our joy, life, and happiness. We’ll cherish you for the rest of our lives and beyond.