I've been meaning to get this posted since Skylee was born, but its been such an adjustment having a new baby that I'm only just now getting to it!
Lil miss Skylee Rae was born on Thursday, 03/13/14, at 10:24 p.m. She weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 21.5 inches long!
Her birth story is quite a book in itself, so if you're reading this you may want to grab a snack or something first. You're gonna be here a while. ;)
On Monday, March 10th, (her due date), I went to my clinical shift at 7:30 like normal. I contracted all day while working in the hospital. About 4 p.m., I started timing, and they went from 8-10 mins apart, to about 5-6 minutes apart. I continued timing through the evening, and also went on a walk with Mom, my sisters, Mrs. Patty, and Eba. I think Mom walked me about 4 miles. The walking made the contraction intensity pick up, so I began to consider going in to get checked. I texted Daniel (who was still working at the time), and we decided for me to time it another hour while he got off work, and then he'd come take me in. Around 9:30-10 pm, we headed into the hospital. Contractions were still coming at a steady 5-6 minutes. They hooked me up to the monitors, watched the baby for a while, and then came to check me. My cervix was VERY posterior. The nurse couldn't reach it, and had to call someone else to check me. Those checks were extremely uncomfortable for me because of my cervical position. Anyhow, they told me I was "fingertip dilated" and about 70% effaced. Around 1-2 a.m., they came in and told me that I was in the early stages of labor and would be more comfortable laboring at home in my own setting. Mom and Mrs. Patty both figured with my contractions being so steady that I'd be back into L&D within hours. That made Daniel nervous, so we stayed in Mom's room with her that night. The contractions continued coming, and I was awake for most of the night. Around 8 am, the contractions started to subside, coincidentally right before my 9 am prenatal check up. I had fully expected to be missing that appointment and be close to having my baby in my arms by that time, so I was a little bummed out. We got to the doctor's office and they hooked me up to the NST machine to check on Skylee. I was still contracting but irregularly. Skylee wasn't as reactive as they wanted her to be, so they had me eat something, and then they got the reaction they were looking for. The nurse then came in and told me that my doctor was still out doing a c-section, so there was no one there to check me. She gave me the option of waiting to be checked or just going home, and I opted to go home. I was very discouraged at that point, and I felt like there was no reason to be checked because I obviously wasn't making any progress. Me, Daniel, Mom, and Bentley went to breakfast at IHOP after the appointment, which did cheer me up a little bit. My contractions also started to pick back up in a regular pattern. We went and walked 4 miles again, and then I came back and took a nap. I was exhausted from contracting all night. When I woke up, I spent a couple hours on my birth ball, trying different things to get myself to open up and dilate. By around 5-6 p.m. Tuesday, I was over everything. I told Mom that I was done trying things to start my labor. Obviously she wasn't coming until she wanted to, and I was only depressing myself with everything I tried that wasn't working. I decided to just go home that night. When I got back to our condo, I did all of our laundry and cleaned the whole house from top to bottom. Having my house clean and smelling nice put me in a better mood, for sure. I continued to contract all night, regularly, but was able to sleep better than I had the night before.
The next day, Daniel and I ran some errands, and washed both of our vehicles. I stuck to my decision of not trying any more "tricks", and tried to go about my day in a normal way. Around 4 p.m., my contractions really started picking up in intensity and regularity. Around 8, we decided for me to call the doctor and see what he wanted me to do (even though I was discouraged and felt like there was no point in calling. I was destined to be pregnant forever.) My doctor told me to go ahead and go in to get checked out, but "if you're not in labor, we're not keeping you." I almost let that statement deter me from going.....I was tired of playing games. But, ultimately, I had been contracting for three days and we really just wanted to make sure Skylee was okay and not getting stressed out. So back to the hospital we went. They hooked me up to the monitors, and my contractions were still coming at a steady 5-6 minutes apart. My BP was extremely high for me, I was very swollen, and they found protein in my urine. All of that combined caused my doctor to decide to monitor my BP every 15 mins for 2 hours. It continued to slowly rise, so they decided to keep me overnight to monitor and then discuss what we wanted to do in the morning. I told Mom, Bentley, and Mrs. Patty to go ahead and go home because there was no sense in them sitting in an uncomfortable hospital room for no reason.
They got up to start getting their things together, and about that time my nurse came in and asked me to turn over to my left side. She said, "I think our machines are detecting your heartbeat instead of baby's, so let me adjust you." I didn't think anything of it...just turned over and did what she asked. All of the sudden two other nurses came in, and things started happening very rapidly. One nurse put an oxygen mask on my face, one nurse started initiating an IV, and the other one spread my legs and immediately started checking me. I was terrified. I very quickly figured out that Skylee's heart rate had dropped drastically. Daniel held my hand and tried to soothe me, but I will never forget looking up into his eyes and seeing the same fear that I was very quickly overwhelming me. After what seemed like an eternity, they got her heart rate back up, and left me on oxygen for an hour just to make sure she was getting the oxygen she needed. That moment was probably the scariest thing I have ever been through. I'm very thankful that we decided to go get checked despite my discouragement. After a couple hours things settled back down and everyone went home. Daniel and I attempted to get some sleep, although neither of us slept very well.
Everyone came back in the morning, and my contractions were still regularly occuring. Around 9:30 my midwife came in and told me they had decided to start a pitocin drip and get my labor moving, because of all of my pre-eclampsia symptoms. At 10 am they started the pitocin. When they checked me, I was still "finger tip" dilated, and about 70% effaced. Because of the protein in my urine, they wanted to do a 24 hour urine check and I had to have a Foley catheter placed. That made me completely miserable. After it was placed, I had the sense of urgency that you get if you haven't peed in like 24 hours! It was a constant feeling of misery. The nurse came in and adjusted it because I was so miserable, but it didn't really help anything. Then she brought in some Dermoplast numbing spray, and while that didn't make it go away, it made it at least tolerable. It didn't take long after the pitocin drip was started for my pain level to drastically pick up. I also began to have terrible and unbearable back labor. Because of complications with the baby's heartrate, they made me stay on either my left side or my right side. I think that was the hardest part of labor, because I had originally planned to be as mobile as possible, and also to use my birth ball to relieve the pain. I wasn't really able to move, so my only option was to focus on breathing through the pain. My Mom warmed up heating pads for me and placed them on my back. She and Daniel massaged my hips and placed pressure on my back during each contraction. My sister rubbed my hair and softly touched my skin. I know having such a great support system is the only thing that got me through labor. The pain was unreal. Around 5:30, my midwife came in and checked me. My cervix was much more reachable, but I had only dilated to about 1 and 1/2 centimeters and was now 80% effaced. She told me not to be discouraged, that sometimes "these things" take up to 3-4 days. She said she was very happy with the progression I had made. Imagine how utterly defeated I felt to have been in such horrible painful labor for 8 hours straight (not counting the three days of regular contractions) and not to have progressed very far at all. I was ready to give up. My contractions really picked up in intensity after that. I didn't know how I was going to make it. At that point, I probably would have taken the epidural if I even had the option (they wont give it till 3-4 centimeters). They offered Demerol again, and I had been previously declining because I didn't want to feel loopy. At this point, I just needed some kind of relief, so I took 1/4 dose of the Demerol. Just that small amount of the meds made me where I could barely keep my eyes open. I'd say the drug gave me relief through about 3-4 contractions, and then they were back full force. About that time the nurse came in and said "Hailey, the baby is talking to us on the monitor. We want to check you again." I found that strange, but at that point I didn't care who did what. She checked me, and then said "Do you mind if I have one more person check you just to makes sure we're all on the same page?" Again, I didn't care. So the second girl checked me, and then they both agree that I'm at a 7. WHAT?????? An hour and a half ago I was told that I should get comfortable, it could be several days......and all the sudden I'm at a 7?? My Mom and Mrs. Patty both jumped up and started making phone calls to the rest of the family that they should come sit in the waiting room. About 15 mins later, I felt the need to push and they checked me again, at which point I was a 10. My midwife had already left for the night, so she was en route back to the hospital and they weren't letting me push. They tilted my bed to where my legs were elevated above my head. And the nurse held my legs closed and told me to breathe through the contractions and not push. They also had me get up on my hands and knees but the pain was so unbearable that I couldn't hold myself up in that position. My midwife got there very speedily, and I began to push. It was completely awful. I was so exhausted, in so much pain, and the Demerol was still making me not be able to open my eyes very much. I honestly think at that point, had it not been for Daniel standing next to me whispering that I could do it, and wiping my face with a cool cloth, and putting oxygen on me every couple minutes......I would have given up. My body was just done. Multiple times my midwife had me place my hand down and feel Skylee's head trying to come through. I'm assuming that was supposed to be an encouragement, but every time I reached down and felt how big her head was trying to come through, I felt like this was never going to be over. After about an hour of pushing, I finally was able to push her out and I will never forget the feeling of her being placed on my chest and the utter relief of the worst part being over. Right before I pushed her out, I tored pretty badly. So while Skylee was being weighed and cleaned up, my midwife was stitching me up. She said it was a multilayer second degree tear. I'm not sure how many stitches it ended up being.....it took her about 45 minutes to sew me up. She weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. NO WONDER I had such a difficult time pushing her out. After they got me cleaned up, they brought all of my family and Daniel's family back to see her. I was utterly exausted at this point, but felt so peaceful and content watching her be passed around to so many loving family members.
I'm so blessed that all of our family got to be there. I don't think I could have done it without the support of everyone. Daniel was absolutely amazing through everything. He was sick that day with a fever, but he never complained. I'm so thankful for the husband and family that I've been blessed with.
I think this is enough to post for now. :) I will have pictures to post later when I have the time.
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