Elaina's Story
April 20, 2012
Submitted by Laura
"The best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry."
I had been planning a natural birth using the hypnobabies home study course. I listened to the tracks daily and was really excited to have the birth I didn't get with my now 8 year old son.
I was due May 6, 2012. At about 34 weeks, baby was head down already but by my next appointment, she was back to footling breech. We had an ultrasound to confirm though I knew that the giant ball pressed into my ribs was her head. I was very worried about her not turning so I started doing the exercises that are supposed to help baby get in the right position.
On Thursday, April 19, I had an appointment with an OB about doing an ecv [external cephalic version] to manually turn her. The thought of having this done frightened me but not as much as a c-section did. We made an appointment to have this done on the following Monday. I got ahold of my old acupuncturist to see if she could get me in to try moxibustion and I was excited she had an opening that day. Afterwards I felt great and made dinner that night, something I had been too exhausted to do in the previous weeks. I watched a few shows with my boyfriend while sitting on the exercise ball and then bought the "Turn Baby Turn" track from hypnobabies and listened to that. I went to bed visualizing my baby changing positions.
At 4:30 that morning I awoke to a stabbing pain in my cervix and what I thought was pee flowing down my leg. I stood up and it gushed out. I kept telling my now awake boyfriend that it was pee and that I was going to take a shower. He convinced me we had no time and needed to rush to the hospital. It was 16 days before my due date so I wasn't really prepared. I changed while Scott called St. Joseph's Hospital. They had never heard of my doctor. Come to find out he called some hospital in New Hampshire!
Once we got to the proper hospital, it started to sink in that I would have to have a c-section. I used my relaxation techniques while three nurses tried to get IVs in me all while I had intense contractions. I was alread at 4 cm so they rushed me back after a talented nurse got me a pain free IV in my arm. I was panicked but my doctor, who got to assist in the surgery, calmed me. I was in shock when they showed me my giant baby girl at 7:04am and I cried the same as I had when I first saw my son. I learned later that her foot was actually coming out and they had to dislodge it before delivering her!
Besides not getting my natural birth, my biggest disappointment was not getting to hold my precious girl for at least 45 minutes, but she did nurse well when I did get her.
I am thankful for c-sections and will never say never again!!! Elaina Gray was 8.5 pounds,19 3/4 inches, and ready to come out on her terms. We have no idea why she was breech! But she is a healthy little girl now almost three months later and I'm finally feeling normal!
No comments:
Post a Comment