Okay, I am gonna do my best at trying to remember Ashlynn's birth story though it happened so quickly I don't have as many details as I would like.
At my 38 week OB doctors appointment I was dilated to a 2 1/2 and about 50% effaced. Right after my appointment I started having braxton hicks contractions and that night I woke up with horrible back pain. The contractions continued for a few hours and we were starting to wonder if labor was starting. Needless to say they stopped and we headed back to bed. The next day I was determined to have the baby, so I took the kids to Ikea to walk around to hopefully make some progress. My friend Rachel met me at Ikea and we put our kids in the play area while we walked around for a few hours.
I had contractions off and on while I was there but nothing horrible. I also started out with a little cough but nothing I was worried about. Since I was close to the aquarium and we had passes to get the kids in free- the kids and I then went to the Aquarium for another few hours.
After walking for hours and feeling exhausted, we ended our "Fun Friday" and started home.
The next morning I woke up with the cough getting worse. By that night I was so so sick. Sunday (38 weeks and 3 days) I stayed home from church and slept a lot. BJ took the kids to see his dad get ordained into the bishopric and then over to their house for dinner. I wasn't feeling the baby move very much and wasn't able to keep any fluids or food down. I started to worry so I got in the bath and started counting kicks. I called my OB that morning and he told me to let the bronchitis run its course but to go in if I was worried about the baby at all. After an hour I only felt the baby kick 7 times and they were really light kicks which is abnormal for this pregnancy. So I told BJ I needed him to take me to the hospital to get checked out. We called our OB and he told me to go straight up to Labor and Delivery and have them monitor the baby. They put me on the monitor and found that my HR was 140 and the babies was 180. I was having contractions and the baby was having some decelerations after the contractions so they decided to start an IV on me. It took them two attempts since my veins were so sunken in. After 1 Liter of fluids I totally perked up. I noticed a HUGE difference. They finished with another liter of fluid and everyone kept telling me how much better I looked. My HR and the babies HR came back to normal numbers. They took me off the monitor even though I was having contractions every 5 minutes and sent me home.
I then had to come back the next morning for a NST to check on the baby again. That next morning the baby looked great. I was still having contractions every 5 minutes but nothing too painful so they sent me home to get better. I was praying that I could get better before I went into labor. That monday after the NST I came home to Connor having a fever and sick with the same bronchitis I had. BJ then came down with it as well but not as bad as Connor. BJ worked from home most of the week and took a sick day as we all kept getting better. We sent Kaylee off to friends house to prevent her from getting sick which thankfully worked. After starting Connor on an antibiotic for an ear infection and getting through the week- we were all starting to feel better. I kept the nasty cough but was able to finally eat after a few days. I was by far the most sick I had ever been in my life. Horrible timing right?!
At my last OB 39 week doctors appointment I was still dilated to a 2 1/2 and about 50-75% effaced. The doctor said "think labor". I thought to myself...."I don't wanna think labor until I am totally better!". We then made a plan to be induced the day before my due date (Jan 14) If I hadn't gone into labor before. The OB kept telling me that once I start that it would go quickly. He would have been fine to induce me at anytime and said I was ready. I had lost my mucous plug or part of it by this point and was thinking labor would be coming soon but wasn't in a rush since I still had a horrible cough.
At 39 weeks and 2 days (Saturday early) I kept waking up with contractions. I was sooo tired from the bronchitis that it didn't fully wake me up. I almost felt like I was dreaming about the contractions and that they weren't real. I got up to go to the bathroom a few times and felt a contraction but was able to go back to bed. Heck, I had been having these off and on for weeks now. At around 3 or 3:30 am I woke up with the contractions causing some pretty bad pain. I started to time them and they were happening pretty constantly. I woke BJ up and told him that I was going to try to hop in the shower and calm the contractions down...but that they were consistent and I think this may be labor. I came out and he quickly realized how often the contractions were happening and said "We need to time these". They were happening every 3-5 minutes and were pretty painful. I could tell the difference between these and the braxton hicks and knew I was going to be having the baby. But I kept telling him we should keep timing them and make sure. After a little bit he said "we need to call your dad". We called my dad and told him to start coming and that we would be heading to the hospital. I started to try to get ready and finish gathering my things though the contractions were painful enough I couldn't move and talk during them. The pain was getting pretty bad and the contractions were consistently 3 minutes apart. I was starting to get nervous that my dad wouldn't get there in time and told BJ to call. If he wasn't close- that I was going to have my neighbor Ashley come over because I needed to get to the hospital now! We got to the hospital around 4:30 am and they checked me and found that I was a 5. At this point I was using BJ as a coach and needed him to stand right by me and breath with me. We were in the stage 2 of breathing. The nurse was putting me on the monitor and I remembered that I needed to start the antibiotic since they were treating me for GBS positive due to my last delivery being positive. She said "We would like to have you have these antibiotics for 4 hours before you deliver". I knew at this point that was NOT going to happen and was surprised the nurse didn't understand how quickly I was going to go.
I stayed in bed and tried my best to lay on my side and relax as much as I could. I remembered with Connor that I kept tensing up and it made it worse, so I kept telling myself to relax my hands and try not to tense up as much as possible. It was hard. I can't remember times at this point because it all happened so quickly. I asked them for fentanyl to help take the edge off at around 6 am. The fentanyl helped a ton. I was able to relax for a few minutes to catch my breath and get ready for transition which happened about 30 minutes after taking the fentanyl. I threw up and said I could feel pressure down there. The nurse checked and told me I was a 7 +. I knew at this point it wouldn't be much longer because I was in transition and it lasted about 20 minutes with Connor. But as I did with Connor I started saying "I can't do this. I need medicine" knowing I couldn't get any medicine but I couldn't not say it. It hurt man :)
The nurse still didn't seem to understand how quickly I was going to go. She did however call my doctor and let him know and started to gather things for delivery. My back labor started in and BJ helped to rub my back with each contraction as he held my hand and breathed with me. Sure enough 20 minutes later I started to feel a lot of pressure and told her she needed to call the doctor again. I was worried he wasn't going to make it. She said he was 2 minutes away but that there were other doctors out in the hall that could help if needed. I then started to push by myself and was thinking "get one of those doctors in here! now!" A few minutes later I was full on pushing. BJ said to the nurse "she is pushing" lol. The back labor came on again quick and was really painful. The nurse would push her hand on my back for counter pressure while BJ stood in front of me and breathed with me. I then continued to push and my doctor walked in. Seconds later I pushed that baby out. The doctor BARELY made it. I pushed the head out and felt the "ring of fire" but pushed through it. The doctor then told me the head was out and to stop pushing. Apparently the cord was wrapped around the babies head twice. My water broke while I was pushing. Once the baby came out they saw that she was covered and stained in meconium. BJ almost in tears said "Its a Girl. It's a girl". I was totally exhausted and out of it. Once they saw the meconium they quickly called everyone into my room. People were running in the room. It was 7:04am and right in the middle of shift change so there was a lot of hands ready to help. They quickly took the baby over to the warmer to work on her.
Ashlynn was born 1/10/14 and weighed 7 lbs 9 ounces and was 20 inches long
I had still not even seen her. I heard her cry once but that was it. They then took her away and BJ asked if he could go with them. He left with them to the NICU while my OB stitched my 2nd degree tear. I was then left in the room all by myself. I texted my mom and called her and my dad and told them it was a girl and what had happened. The nurse came in to check on me and I told them to go tell my husband to send me a picture of my BABY. I wanted to see her face! He finally sent me a text with a picture of her and once she was settled and okay in the NICU he came back to me.
They then took me over to post partum where I was begging to go see the baby so I could see her and try to feed her. The nurse was worried I would pass out and wanted me to pee and eat first. What!? I said, "give me a snack I will eat a cracker, but I am not going to pee before I see my baby". She finally let me go see Ashlynn.
Ashlynn was in the incubator and sound asleep. I tried and tried to get her to eat but at this point she was exhausted and wouldn't eat much. The rest of the day was a blur. I was exhausted. They eventually moved her over to a regular bed and said that she was doing better and that we should treat her like a "well baby". They had to start her on IV fluids. They said with the meconium and the fact that I took the fentanyl within an hour of her delivery that she was just stunned at delivery. She was also on oxygen and on antibiotics. It was hard to see her all hooked up but I was so grateful she was okay. I will write another post about her NICU stay. But this post is already super long. The delivery did not go how I wanted since she had to be whisked away before I could even see her. But I was definitely a lot more in control this time during the delivery. The delivery was 3 1/2 hours long and by far my shortest deliveries between all the kids. BJ was an amazing coach. I know without a doubt that I could not have done that without him. I was in tears after delivery, just filled with gratitude for BJ and all his help and so grateful to have my sweet baby girl here.
