As my due date was getting closer, I kept being reminded to make a birth plan. I did some research and kept reading stories of women having their birth plans and then nothing going as planned. I was all over the board- did I want to do a water birth? Then I learned water birth meant no epidural. Was I tough enough to give birth without an epidural? I consider myself to have a very low pain tolerance so that option was ruled out.
I decided I was going without a real defined birth plan, just sating that I absolutely did not want to have a cesarian section. I only did minor research on cesarians knowing that I did not want one. I knew the recovery time was much longer and more painful.
I had to be induced at 39 weeks due to having high blood pressure throughout my pregnancy. I went in on a Monday evening to start the induction process. My doctor checked on me first thing Tuesday morning and everything was going fine. He manually broke my water then and suggested that I get an epidural as soon as I started to feel any contractions.
I think I ordered my epidural at the right time. I felt a few very painful contractions that I rated high on the pain charts. As soon as my epidural kicked in I was having contractions and could not feel a thing and was carrying on normal conversations. I applaud the women that do not get an epidural!
Tuesday afternoon my doctor came to check on me again and noticed the baby’s heartbeat was not changing how it should with my contractions. He went back through all the logs of the heartbeat for the duration of the day and said something is not right. He looked at me and said we must get that baby out of there now.
I panicked. They put an oxygen mask on me, assured me it was for the baby, not for me. Which made me start to cry thinking that there could be something wrong happening with my baby. I kept trying to calm myself down, but I did not have much time for that. They gave my husband a set of scrubs to put on and wheeled me back to the operating room.
Because I already had the epidural, I did not have to get another needle inserted, but rather just more medication before they would do the cesarian section. As they were prepping me it was chaos all around me. I think there were 12 people in this operating room. They are discussing what they are about to do to me, and I can’t quit shaking and I am freezing. They tell me this is normal from the medication.
They start the cutting and I cannot feel pain, but rather just pressure of them moving around down there (There was a sheet up so I could not see what they were doing). Within less than 10 minutes of starting I heard my baby cry. They cleaned her up and put her on my chest right away. I was shaking so bad that I asked my husband to take her.
Once I was in recovery, I was able to hold my baby. It truly was the most beautiful thing. Not the moment I expected to have, but I cherished it. After I was out of recovery and back in our room I was still in shock, in awe that after all these months my baby girl was here. I could not get out of bed and walk around. I was bed ridden for the next 24 or more hours.
I was released on Thursday morning. I was prescribed pain medication and told to take it easy. Which was hard for me, even being in pain I like to always be busy and doing things. But I took it as easy I could while still caring for my brand-new baby. It was painful to get up out of bed, painful to sit down on the toilet, painful to shower, but every time I held her in my arms it was so worth it.
My only physical activity for six weeks was going on walks. It was a slow healing process, but I would not change it for anything. My doctor made the incision in a place where only I will ever to be see it and it healed nicely. Not my original birth plan, but I had a healthy baby and that is all that matters.
