Our Birth Story

Here is the entire birth story of how our little GG entered the world. For those of you who don’t care for the whole nitty gritty here are the details.

Audrey Nicole was born on Sunday November 22nd 2009 at 2:04 pm by Emergency C Section. She weighed in at 8 pounds and 15 ounces and 21 inches long. She was beautiful skin color and lots of really dark black hair. She came home on Wednesday November 25th when she was 3 days old. After a crazy entrance into the world she and her mommy are doing great.

One of the first pictures of Audrey

So all along we laughed that our little girl was due on the 21st of November which also happened to be the Ohio State/Michigan game and we constantly chatted about the “best time” for her to be born so everyone could watch the game. Well, needless to say we got to watch the entire game Go BUCKS! I was having some mild cramping that afternoon and we decided after the game to head out shopping to get a video camera that we had been putting off and have some spicy Mexican for dinner to “hurry my labor along”. The entire evening out I was having some mild contractions so I knew it was getting close. After dinner I came home and napped for a few hours just in case tonight was the night.

Around 9pm I started having more painful and regular contractions about 10 minutes apart. This is when I started to realize wow it really is happening today. I slept a bit more in between contractions then started to pick up the house, pack any last minute items, shower, shave etc. It wasn’t until about 3:00am that my contractions were getting more consistent and about 3-5 minutes apart so we called the doctor. My actual doctor was not on call (go figure...This totally sets the stage for the rest of the event). I spoke with the doctor on call that is actually from another practice and shares duty with my doctor on the weekends. Dr. Sanghvi told us to head on into the hospital so we called Family Beginnings to let them know we were on our way so they could get our room ready for us. They were FULL! I had totally not expected this to happen but knew they would make something work for us. They would either make a family move if they had been post partum for awhile (yeah I know that sucks but that is their policy and we knew we could possibly be moved), or they would make me as “at home” as possible in the normal Labor and Delivery.

We got admitted into the Triage area about 3:30 and were there for about an hour being monitored and checked to see if we were staying. That room was so uncomfortable and we were both just so tired and anxious so this was not a very fun hour. At this point I was 4 centimeters dilated and getting ready for the big event. They were not able to make room for me in Family Beginnings and admitted me to Labor and Delivery which I was fine with for the most part. The worst part is 2 of the important things to me which were both very silly were not doable in L & D. I was very adamant that I did not want to be continuously monitored during the process because I wanted to be able to move freely around the room, shower, birthing ball etc. and there they would keep me tied to a machine. I also wanted to be able to eat freely during labor and had appropriate snacks packed and ready but this was a no no on this floor. Of course I started to cry when she told me this news but figured oh well nothing I can do now.

Labor started out fantastic as I walked around the room and bounced on my birthing ball (all within my few feet length of the monitors) The worst part of the whole morning was getting my IV OUCH! Apparently I have some pretty special veins that curve and flip and flop and basically won’t allow an IV. I had about 5 sticks before one actually went in. I am now bruised all over my arm and look like a junkie. We got settled in our room and started listening to music and reading magazines. Eli took a bit of a nap for awhile and I pretty much just “hung out” Started calling our family around 5:30 or so to let them know what was going on. By 8am we had my parents there, Eli’s mom, and my friend Melissa all hanging out with us just enjoying our time. At 10:30am I was 6 centimeters and they gave me the option to break my water and we decided it was time. This put me to almost 8 centimeters dilated so it was getting so close.

For the most part they were really good about letting me move around the room as I wished as long as I stayed hooked up but then around 12:30 or so they said they needed to get a full 20 minute read on me so would have to stay in bed and not move because the monitors really weren’t picking anything up as I moved around. This was the most miserable 20 minutes of my life as my labor continued to be mostly in my back and laying there was very uncomfortable. I started to lose focus and debated the epidural. Our nurse was so awesome and kind and really talked us through the different stages of labor and helped us decide whether the epidural was a good idea or not. I decided to get checked again to see if there was any progress. If I was closer I knew I could make it, if not I knew there was no way I would be able to go on without some medicine. Here about 2 ½ hours later I was still at 8 centimeters so I opted to get the dreaded shot in my back

It actually wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought mostly because I asked a million questions and was talked through the whole process by our nurse and the anesthesiologist. They probably thought I was crazy because I just kept talking and asking questions and wanting to “learn” all about labor and pain medicine. I did feel much better when it was over and was ordered to rest and try and get some sleep. Everyone left the room to get food/rest/read etc. while I was napping. Eli’s mom stayed behind to keep me company.

The rest of the day is pretty much a blur of remembered images and what I heard from everyone else. Probably within a ½ hour after my epidural I started to go in and out of consciousness and felt very dizzy. I remember telling them that I felt dizzy and I felt like my ears were going to pop, you know that funny feeling you get on an airplane. The nurse kept looking at me and yelling my name….I thought I was responding but obviously I wasn’t. My blood pressure was starting to crash and little baby’s heart rate was dropping. Good thing I didn’t know what was going on because I am sure it was very scary. They started immediately prepping me for an Emergency C Section. Eli’s mom goes out to the waiting room to let everyone know what is going on and of course my parents are freaking out throwing their magazines and laptops down. Eli is down at the cafeteria getting some lunch and runs back as soon as they call him.

I remember the “ride” to the emergency room being straight out of TV they were running me in the bed and ran into a wall of some sort and I made a sarcastic comment that they were going to lose their drivers license. I remember the ride down the hall saying “This SUCKS! I don’t want surgery!” I got in there and just kept saying over and over “I want to watch everything” “Let me see” “Where is my Husband?” “Where is Eli?” Looking back, I wonder if these words were really coming out, or were just mumbles in-between consciousness. Eli was talking to the doctor in the hallway getting filled in on what has happening, and in the emergency room I was trying to convince them that I was okay enough and wanted to watch. I remember them poking my stomach to see how much I could feel. The epidural really wasn’t that strong and wasn’t meant for me to have a C- Section so I could still sort of feel them poking me. I swear I felt them start to cut and remember saying Ouch or something profane probably which made them realize I definitely needed to be put out and the mask came towards my face. Our little girl was pulled into the world at 2:04pm!

I didn’t “come to” until about 6:30pm that night and even then it was still kind of fuzzy. I will never forget the first image I saw and it still brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I wake up in the recover y room and there is Eli sitting there holding our beautiful daughter with his eyes all red and full of tears. It just kills me to see how much I scared everyone. He was just so happy to see that everyone was going to be okay. I guess after the baby was born my blood pressure continued to be really low and I hemorrhaged a lot of blood. I imagine this not being a fun few hours for my family, guess I just needed some extra attention or something.

The next few hours were just scary/sad/confusing/painful as I realized what happened and continued to have blood pushed from my stomach which hurt so bad. I was half out of it but still remember how painful it was an d how much blood was gushing out (sorry a little TMI) I ended up getting 2 pints of blood put back into me this night.

Grandma G and Audrey

Grandma S and Audrey

I finally got to hold my daughter around 7:30pm or so and it was amazing. I really wanted to start breastfeeding, but couldn’t exactly move very well so a nurse actually brought her over and held her for me by my side while I tried to start feeding. Then I got to hold her on my chest and it was amazing and many hours over due.

We made it up to our post partum room about 10:30 that night and got settled in our new home for the next few days. I was still hooked up to an IV with fluids in one arm and an IV from my blood transfusion in the other arm so they had to keep a blood pressure cuff on my calf to keep track of my vitals. I was like a walking machine or something. Not to mention all of my other pokes and bruises from the IV fiasco this morning.

We ended up being in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon which consisted of lots of resting, bonding with baby, getting tons of fluids pumped into my body (my feet are still swollen now) I got more pints of blood pumped in as my blood was still not back to normal and I was actually still anemic when I left the hospital but was just so happy to be leaving!!

We had some of the sweetest nurses there that helped take care of all of us during our stay. So all in all nothing went as planned except for one thing; we left the hospital with a beautiful little girl that we named Audrey Nicole!! We are so happy to be home as a family of three. I can guarantee there is lots of excitement to come. Thanks to those that actually read the entire story, it was hard to capture the emotions and excitement of our new miracle in only a few paragraphs. Hope you felt like you were there!

Proud Mommy

Proud Daddy