The Birthday Story

This is going to be a wordy post. So if you would prefer to just look at pictures you might want to bipass this one. :)













So here is the story of the hours (day & 1/2) leading up to Mia's Birthday. For the 3 weeks prior to Mia's birth the doctor had said that Mia was going to be a big girl. When she was past due at 40 weeks we had another ultrasound and they told us the best guess from the ultrasound is that Mia was going to be just over 9 lbs. This was not so crazy since the doctor had been hinting at 36 weeks that she might be at or over the 10 lb mark by 40 weeks. So 9 lbs (ish) was a bit of a relief. At this point we discussed the risk of C-section with having an induction at 41 weeks, 42 weeks or just seeing how long things go beyond that. We were pretty much told the risk was about the same either way. With dialation at a 1 and baby high up for the entire last trimester and all the way up to her birth and the fact that she was becoming a big girl in there we made the decision to go for the induction if little Mia did not decide to come on her own before 41 weeks. So on Wednesday April 28th we grabbed the hospital bag and got in the car for the long 1 mile ride to Shawnee Mission Medical Center. At 8pm on Wednesday evening they started cervadil (to soften the cervix). Through the night I had random contractions, some of them seemed fairly strong. Morning came and the nurse checked and no progress yet--still dilated to a 1 and baby was still very high up. So at 7am they started pitocin via IV. At 9am the doctor came to the room and broke my water. She was sure that this would get something started. Well a few hours passed of bed to chair and random contractions and the nurse checked again....still dilated at a 1. Every 30 minutes or so they upped the level of pitocin. By 12pm they checked again. The contractions (according to the external monitor) were getting stronger and I could feel them too. But the nurse hesitated....and then told us dilation was still at a 1. I was getting a good amount of pitosin by this point and the contractions were getting so they could be felt pretty good. I was just starting to have to breathe through some of them. In the room we had a sona tub that I was planning on using to speed things up once I was dilated to a 3. The nurse checked again and I was still only at a 1. The external monitor was showing the contractions I was feeling barely registering. I was getting very frustrated by this. The doctor looked discouraged and said that she would see no reason I could not keep trying since myself and baby looked great but that whenever I would be too exhausted she would be fine stopping (meaning c-section) She then suggested putting in an internal monitor. I was torn by this because they meant that I could not really get out of bed when I was already not able to walk the halls (due to being monitored) or get in the tub. But with the internal monitor in they would be able to monitor contractions more accuratley. So once in the monitor showed that I WAS indeed having strong contractions but they were just erratic. So the doctor backed off the pitosin and within minutes the contractions were still as strong but coming every 2 minutes, which is what is needed to make some progress. About 3 hours passed and the nurse checked again....still dilated to a 1. At this point it was pretty late at night on Thursday. It was definitley looking like no matter what Mia was not wanting to share a birthday with anyone (she has 3 cousins with April 29th birthdays). So as I was breathing through some pretty good contractions we decided to make a decision at midnight weather to keep trying...based on any progress shown. So the nurse came in a little after midnight and reluctantly told us that dilation was STILL at a 1 and baby was very high up. One would have thought that 6 hours of intense contractions 2 mintutes apart or so would make some sort of progress. But baby did not want to come down any lower. She just was not going to come out that way (this is what the doctor said later after the c-section). So based on our decision the nurse called the doctor to let her know we were ready for a C-section and the nurse turned off the pitocin.










Within 45 minutes I was getting an epidural and by 1:28 am we got our first glimpse of our perfect little girl. Mia was born at 1:28am on April 30th. She weighed 9lbs 3.3 oz and was just over 20 inches long. The doctor told me she was certain we had all made the right decisions...Mia was just not going to come out any other way. No matter what frustration had overcome us in the hours prior....they were all erased when we heard her first little cry and we heard the nurses and doctors say "that is one big baby girl". Dan was the first to hold her after they cleaned her all up. They look on his face just said it all. She was absolutley perfect. Then Dan brought her to my side and I got to kiss her on the cheek. A priceless moment. We knew in these moments we were so blessed.