Bailey's Arrival

Wow! What an ordeal. I thought I'd share the story of Bailey's interesting birth.

I was 35 1/2 weeks along. On Sunday morning (11/9), I noticed that I started cramping a little, but I thought it was BraxtonHicks, because they weren't really strong. By the afternoon, they were getting stronger, but really sporadic and not yet to the point where I thought it was something to worry about. I went to pick Shelby up from Jami and Leslie's house and asked Leslie if she had ever had BraxtonHicks before and to see if they were the same as mine. They seemed to be the same, but she mentioned that if my back started hurting, then that was most likely the real thing. Later that night, my back started hurting. But they were still not enough for me to really worry about.

I remember waking up that night and feeling them still, which isn't normal, but again, I wasn't worried. The next morning, I got dressed and went to work, like normal. When I told my boss, she was pretty concerned and told me I should probably go home and call the doctor. I wasn't going to, until I went to the bathroom and noticed that I was spotting. Then it started to get real. I sat in my boss's office for another hour and timed the contractions. They were about 5-6 minutes apart. I packed up my stuff, called the doctor and drove home.

When I got home, the nurse called and I explained the problem. She was concerned and asked me to drive over to Labor and Delivery at the hospital to have the baby monitored and to check me out. I was dilated to a 3 and 70% e-faced when I got there and the baby's heartbeat was great. After an hour I was still at a 3 so the doctor sent me home and told me to come back when the contractions were 3 min apart.

I worked for an hour more from home and kept timing the contractions. They were about 4 min apart then. I decided to shower and get ready, because I was sure she was coming soon. I asked Aaron to go get pizza for the girls while I finished getting ready. By the time he was back, they were 3 minutes apart. I wasn't going to be sent home again from the hospital, so I waited for another 30 minutes to make sure they were staying at 3 min. They were getting so strong that I was having to do the special labor breathing and I was crying and moaning each time. I decided it was time to go to the hospital when Gretchen started crying because she was so upset about seeing me in pain.

When we got in the car, the contractions were 2 minutes apart and by the time we pulled in front of the hospital, they were 1 minute apart and I thought I was going to die. Aaron left the car in front of the hospital and helped me inside. Right inside the lobby doors there was a pre-natal class going on and a couple was staring at me as I moaned my way to the elevators. (I think I scared the crap out of them!) I also scared an older couple away from taking the same elevator. Hee hee.

By the time I got settled into the delivery room, I was dilated to a 5+. It was 7:00 pm. I was so loud that they convinced the anesthesiologist to come into my room before helping a lady who was having a c-section to deliver twins. Thank heavens for drugs......

Even with the epidural, I could still feel pain in my tail bone and cried with every contraction. Here's a good picture of me during one.

By about 7:40, I was starting to feel the need to push. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 10 and she told me not to push. Yeah right! I had to really concentrate on not pushing because it was really strong. Then I started to feel something coming out. The nurse checked and it was the water sack. She went to get the doctor because it was happening despite my not pushing.

The doctor broke my water, and 2 pushes later, little Bailey was born. The doctor called it catapulting. :-) It was 8:05 pm. She was screaming the minute she came out which was a relief and the nurses plopped her on my stomach while they cleaned her up. She was beautiful, even covered in all the gunk.

She weighed 5 lbs 2 oz and was 16 1/2 inches long. They were all calling her a peanut, which we thought was a fitting name.

The doctor said I had a tear in my placenta and that was most likely what caused the bleeding and the labor/delivery.

They did all the tests and she was breathing really well, was keeping her temperature well and her bilirubin scores were really low (so no jaundice). we just needed to get her eating and make sure she could ride home in the car seat. We brought her home on Wednesday, 11/12, after she passed all her tests and she only lost 3 oz in the hospital.

Friday, 11/14, we took her to the doctor and she has gained back another ounce, so she is an even 5 pounds. Yay! I'll attach a few more pictures from this special day.