July 8th (Tuesday) I turned 38 weeks pregnant. I had my weekly checkup in the morning, heard baby's heartbeat and everything was good. I hadn't had a single sign of labor yet, so I declined the cervix check until the following week. I figured it was a waste of time. All throughout the day, I felt really sick to my stomach no matter what I ate or drank. I felt like I was back in the 1st trimester! We had family/maternity photos that evening and Derek kept saying we could cancel and do them later in the week since I was feeling so sick, but I was adamant that it had to be that evening or we wouldn't have time to do them in the next few weeks before baby came.
We were at the park from 7pm to almost 9pm doing photos. It was hot and I was a sweaty mess! lol. But it all worked out just fine. I started feeling really tired towards the end (we did a lot of walking) and was anxious to get home and sleep. As soon as we got home, I started having contractions. Not the quick, mostly-painless Braxton Hicks ones that I had been getting sporadically the past few months, but full on contractions. I had read that being dehydrated can cause premature contractions, so I was chugging water and resting in bed in hopes they would go away. I wasn't timing them at that point, but I'm guessing they were about 20 seconds long & 5 minutes apart at that point. They had eased up a bit once I got into bed and I was able to sleep that night with relatively few of them.
For a frame of reference, I had my son 2 days shy of his due date and never had a single contraction until after I checked in to the hospital (my water broke 1st). So this whole experience of having painful contractions at 38 weeks was certainly new to me and I wasn't sure what it all meant.
July 9th (Wednesday) I started having light contractions shortly after I got out of bed. I started timing them and they were still pretty short (20 seconds) and about 4 minutes apart. I was googling like crazy to find out the different stages of labor, trying to figure out if my contractions were leading to anything or not. I'd heard of girls that have contractions for days or weeks and don't progress enough to be considered "real" labor, so I was convinced that's what was going on. We had some errands to run, so we headed out that morning to get a few things done. My contractions eased up a bit while I was in the car and had spread out to 6 or 7 minutes apart. We went to Target to get a few last-minute baby things and I swear I only had 1 or 2 contractions the whole hour we were in there! I guess baby wanted me to enjoy my last shopping trip :)
We got some lunch, then dropped my son off at my mom's house. We had arranged for him to have a sleepover that night so he could get used to being away from home for when baby came. I told my mom he may be staying there for a few days, I wasn't sure yet what was going on. My contractions had picked up a little by then, but were still pretty far apart (maybe 10 or 15 minutes). Since I knew there was a chance baby was coming soon, we decided we needed to pick a middle name ASAP so we were prepared just in case. So on the drive home, we agreed on Mae. Lyla Mae. That was one of the last things we needed to do before baby could come and it felt good to finally cross it off the list.
We got home around 3pm and the contractions really started to get more intense. For the next hour, they were consistently 4 minutes apart and 40 seconds long. Derek was getting ready to work a late shift at night, meaning I would be home by myself until 2am and I started to get nervous. I called my doctor's office and explained the contractions and they told me it was time to get to the hospital. At that point, I was still in denial that anything was really happening, so I told Derek to call his work and let them know he would be a little late. I figured he could just drop me off to be monitored and I could find a ride home. lol, how naive, right?! :) Luckily, his boss told him to take the day off so he could stay with me for the monitoring. So off we went to the hospital.
On a side note, I am very much a planner. So although I didn't expect to have this baby until close to my due date, I made sure all our bags were packed, our freezer stocked, car seat installed, etc. by 37 weeks. I like to be prepared for anything and I'm so glad I thought ahead to make sure everything was done so early!
We got to the hospital around 5pm. I had pre-registered, so I just had to sign a few papers and they took me back to the triage room. They hooked me up to 2 monitors: 1 to check baby's heartbeat and 1 to measure my contractions. Of course, as soon as I got hooked up, my contractions spread way out and weren't happening as regularly as before. I was worried they were going to send me home because of it and was actually willing myself to have more to prove I wasn't lying. haha!! But even though they were spreading out, they were getting more painful and lasting longer (closer to 60 seconds at that point). The doctor on duty came in around 5:45 to check my contractions and cervix. He said I had beautiful contractions on paper (hey, I'll take what I can get! lol) and although they weren't happening super close together, he could tell they were still really strong. The cervix check showed I was 90% effaced, 2cm dilated and baby was at 0 station (meaning very low & ready to make an appearance soon - see photo below). So the contractions were obviously doing their job of moving things along.
The doctor was a little concerned by baby's reactions to my contractions though. He said they like to see that baby isn't affected by the contractions, but he noticed my baby's heart rate was decelerating on occasion after a contraction. He said he was 90% sure they were going to admit me at that point, but would be back in an hour to check again and make a decision.
Around 6:45pm, the doctor came back to check on me again. Baby's heart rate only decelerated once or twice after a contraction in that hour, but it was still something to watch. He also said I was now dilated to a 3. He did have a concerned look on his face while doing the check and asked the nurse to get the ultrasound machine. He thought he felt baby's thigh, which would be bad news since he should be feeling her head. A quick scan verified that she was in fact breech (feet first). He told us that normally they could try to flip baby into a head-down position, but since I was in active labor and baby was so low, it was very risky and he wasn't willing to do that. He said a c-section was my only option at that point and it needed to happen soon. I was in shock and wasn't sure how to process the news. I went in to the hospital thinking this was all a false alarm and they would send me home to wait it out until the contractions got worse. Needing a c-section never crossed my mind in the 9 months prior and I really didn't know much about the procedure or the recovery. I guess that made it easier not knowing in advance since I didn't have time to worry or stress about it. But not being prepared for it at all was a very weird experience.
At that point, things really started to go fast. The nurses asked me some last minute questions, the doctor explained the c-section process, I had blood drawn, the anesthesiologist came in to walk me through the spinal block procedure and I had an IV put in. Only my veins are so "special" that it took 3 different nurses (& 4 attempts) to get the IV in. (Over a week later, I still have some nasty bruises on my arm from the failed attempts). I'm still having painful contractions during this point and am doing my best to breathe through them.
They wheeled me into the Operating Room around 8pm. So just about an hour after finding out I needed a c-section, it was time to have the baby. They did the spinal block (it didn't really hurt, it was just an uncomfortable feeling when it went in) and laid me down on the table. It was really bright and cold in the room. Derek came in shortly after and sat next to my head, where he would remain during the operation. There was a sheet hung by my chest to prevent us from seeing what the doctors were doing on the other side. I wouldn't have wanted to watch anyway, I would have been scarred for life! One of the nurses volunteered to take photos with Derek's camera, so all the photos we have during/after the procedure were from her. I was so thankful for that, as Derek wouldn't have been able to get any of those shots since he had to sit next to me the whole time.
The spinal block worked immediately and I couldn't feel anything below my waist. I started shaking uncontrollably just before they started the c-section and they put a warm blanket on my chest which seemed to help a bit. The actual c-section didn't really hurt, but it was really weird feeling them cutting and tugging at my skin. It's hard to explain if you've never experienced it. Right before they pulled baby out, it started getting really uncomfortable (not sure what they were doing at that point) and I just about broke Derek's hand from squeezing it so tightly.
Lyla was officially born at 8:36pm and was handed off to the nurses to get cleaned up. She didn't cry for a long time and I started to freak out a little wondering why she hadn't made a sound. It turns out she swallowed a bunch of fluid and they had to suck all of it out to help her breathe. She finally did let out a wail and it was the sweetest little sound :) Once she was cleaned up and looked over by the nurses, she was placed on my chest. Derek & I just stared at her and her tiny little features and head full of dark hair. She was perfect and she was all ours :)
A few minutes later, I told Derek to take her off of me because I was going to throw up and didn't want to get it on her. One of the nurses gave me a barf bag, but since I was laying flat on my back & couldn't move, the bag didn't do much good. I got puke all in my hair and on the side of my face. I can laugh about it now, but it was pretty gross. The doctors were stitching me up at this point and pressing a lot on my stomach, which was really uncomfortable. A short while later, they were finished and I was wheeled to a temporary recovery room where I would spend the next 2 hours. I honestly don't remember anything about those 2 hours, but I was moved to my other recovery room around 11:30pm where I would stay until Saturday.
We were able to have visitors at 11:30pm and everyone came in to say a quick hello and meet Lyla before they had to head back home for bed. We have some dedicated family & friends, let me tell you :) The next few days are a blur in my mind. I was finally able to get out of bed Thursday evening and it felt so strange to use my legs again after having no feeling from the waist down for over 18 hours. We had many visitors those few days and everyone just fell in love with Lyla :) She slept most of the time we were there, barely making a peep. Derek slept a lot better than I did since I had to wake Lyla every few hours to eat and had to interact with all the nurses/doctors that came in at all hours of the night. Lyla nursed like a champ and didn't have any issues while we were there.
It's now been 9 days since Lyla was born and I've been feeling pretty good for the most part. My recovery with my son was a lot harder/more painful than my recovery with a c-section. I was expecting to be in extreme pain for days after getting home and that hasn't been the case at all. I've been keeping up with my pain pills which really helps, but I'm able to get around just fine and do housework/cook/play with my son/etc. The last time, I was in bed for days and was in so much pain every time I had to move. I am thankful that so far, this recovery has been pretty easy on me.
I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot of little details, but I wanted to get all this written out before I forgot the major stuff. This experience was definitely not what I was planning on at all, but I'm glad it all worked out the way it did. We have a perfectly healthy and beautiful little girl and that's all that really matters in the end :)
