It’s taken me a long time to
sit down and actually write out my birth story. At first, it was out of
embarrassment… my birth plan did NOT go as expected. Then it was out of
exhaustion (who knew that life with a newborn really WAS difficult work), and
then, I just got busy. But now, it’s 4:00 am, I can’t sleep, and I’ve got all
the time in the world to write… so here goes…
Our baby girl was due on July 1, and I
just knew that I was going to have an all-natural birth. No epidural unless it
was absolutely necessary… I’d wait at home until the contractions were just too
close together and then head to the hospital. I’d practice my breathing and do
whatever it took. Ha.
At
my 36-week appointment, we did a final ultra-sound and my doctor said that our
baby girl was already estimating to weigh over 8 pounds. He said that because
of my size and because of the history of required cesarean in my family, there
was a good chance that I would end up needing to have a c-section. He asked if
I wanted to go ahead and schedule it. My thoughts: NOT A CHANCE. My amniotic
fluid levels were also very high… just 0.5 units away from what is considered
too high, so the doctor asked me to come back in one week to check on them.
At the next appointment, my amniotic
fluid levels were still holding high, and the baby was weighing even more, with
no signs of getting close to labor (the baby hadn’t dropped, I wasn’t dilated,
nothing)… the doctor again said that he would be more than happy to help me try
and have a natural birth, but that it wasn’t going to be likely. I listened as
he explained that while he could help me dilate and prepare my body as much as
possible to push out a baby, it was going to be up to me to push the baby
through the birth canal – and that the bigger the baby got, the more difficult
that would become.
My husband and I went home and started
praying about it. I had always had my perfect plan of what my perfect delivery
situation would be. That did NOT include surgery! We prayed for wisdom for both
us and for the doctor… we read the statistics of c-sections in our state (they
are one of the highest of any state), and we read the benefits and dangers of
the procedure. We asked God to show us the right thing to do… and then we went
ahead and set a date. This date was the date that we would have surgery IF our
baby didn’t arrive before then. If the concern had just been a baby that was too
big, I probably wouldn’t have set the date, but because of the high amniotic
fluid levels and because of the history of required c-section in family, we
did.
Originally, I considered being
induced. But after reading the
statistics on inductions that occur prior to the body showing any signs of
preparedness for labor, I opted against it. The absolute worst childbirth
scenario is laboring for hours to end up in an emergency c-section. It’s really
hard on the body and on the baby.
So for the days leading up to the final
appointment, I did everything I could to have that baby – I ate every food
known to induce labor – the spicy foods, the salty foods, the unusual foods. I
walked. I tried massage therapy. Nothing worked. That Tuesday, I went back in for a final
appointment before the surgery. The baby was measuring just over 9 pounds. I
thought to myself “ok – If I have the surgery and the baby weighs more than 9
pounds, then I’ll know I did the right thing, but if the baby weighs less than
9 pounds, I’ll always wonder.
So at exactly 38 weeks, we went to the
hospital and delivered our beautiful and healthy baby girl… all 9 pounds, 3
ounces of her!
This picture was taken the night before she was born!
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