I am so completely overwhelmed right now.
I just can’t believe that yesterday Camryn was still in my belly, and now she is here. The whole thing is just such a miracle. God is so good!
I’m so glad that Derek was updating the blog while everything was happening, or I for sure would not remember. It all feels like such a blur! In typical Derek fashion, he was quick and to the point with his posts…but we all know that I like to talk, so here’s the whole story…(and if you don’t want to hear about my cervix, placenta, or blood, you should probably just skip this post and tune in later for more picture and stories of the boys meeting their sister.)
Let’s start with Friday night. I contracted for about 9 hours straight on Friday afternoon/evening. I really thought that maybe this was it (again.) I was really disappointed when I woke up on Saturday morning with no contractions. You can just ask my mom and Derek what kind of mood I was in for most of Saturday! At around 2:00, my mom and I headed out to do some shopping. It would be a good way to get my mind off everything, plus there were a few last minute baby things we needed. Our first stop was Babies R Us, then Kohl’s, and finally Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart already has their school supplies and lists out, so we decided to go ahead and get all Connor’s school supplies. (Sidenote…I really can’t believe he will start kindergarten in six weeks!) We were meandering around, and I was having a few crampy contractions, but they were nothing major at all. I just figured that they were from walking around for almost two hours. We were headed to the baby section, but first I wanted to check out their Wii games. We were walking past the Playstation games, and suddenly I felt a little gush. I stopped in my tracks, I am sure with a stricken look on my face. “Um, I think my water just broke…” My mom and I watched as fluid ran down my leg onto the floor. I carefully hobbled around the corner, out of anyones way, and my mom went to get some paper towels, just in case I was going to leave a trail. I called Derek at this point to tell him what happened and asked him to get the rest of the stuff ready at home and get the boys ready to go to our friend’s house. I made it to the bathroom (without leaving a trail of amniotic fluid, thank goodness!) and my mom came back with some pads. I checked out (I wasn’t going to leave all those carefully selected school supplies in the cart! Plus I had to pay for the pads we opened in the store.) My mom pulled the car up front, and we headed home. It was about this point I realized that it was for sure my water breaking, and not pee like what happened with Logan. The fluid just kept coming and coming-it’s really one of the weirdest/grossest feelings! I think it was about 5:00 when my mom and I got back home. We took the boys to our friend’s house, stopped to get a bit of food, and arrived at the hospital a little after 6:00 p.m. I was having contractions (but not very painful ones) about every 3 minutes (and I was still leaking like crazy!)
They started the pitocin to get my contractions a little stronger and closer together. By about 9:30 I was ready for my epidural…ah, sweet relief! I was checked again about 10:00 p.m., and my nurse was a little perplexed by what she felt. So she called in two other nurses to find out what was going on. At first, one nurse said I was 9 cm, very soft, but the baby was still way high. Another said I was maybe 7 cm. soft, and the baby was high. And the third nurse said I was 6-7 cm, and the baby was high. And they all agreed that I had something called a forebag or waters, which is basically when there is an unruptured part of the bag that gets in between the cervix and the baby’s head. My “forebag” was unusual because it was very thick, and I was still leaking copious amounts of fluid. But his was why Camryn’s head was still so high.
The next few hours are kind of a blur. I know that at a little after midnight, I was still 7 cm dilated, my nurse was a little nervous about my contraction pattern (which was still not very regular) and Camryn’s heart rate was doing some funky things. I think it was at this point I passed a pretty good sized blood clot, and my doctor came in. Even though I was only 7 cm, she had me push while she was checking me and was basically able to move my cervix behind Camryn’s head and get me to 10 cm. Isn’t that crazy? I didn’t even know doctors could do something like that! (My nurse told me later that only worked because this was my third baby, and that with a first time mom, the cervix would have likely torn.)
Everyone quickly got ready for the pushing part. I started pushing at 12:27 a.m. I could tell that I wasn’t getting the job done during that first contraction. I remember quite a bit of hubbub and feeling like I needed to do everything in my power to get Camryn out as quickly as possible. In all, I pushed through 3 contractions for 8 minutes total. She went from a -2 station to born in only 8 minutes. (-5 is floating, 0 station is when they are engaged in the pelvis, and +5 is crowning) It was intense to say the least!
When she came out, there was another gush of amniotic fluid-only this time it wasn’t clear, it was bloody. The clot I had passed earlier was a red flag that the placenta had started to tear away from the uterus, and all the bloody fluid confirmed that suspicion. Sure enough, when my doctor delivered the placenta, she found a partial abruption. I am so thankful that Camryn came out quickly and healthy! She was crying right away and scored 8 and then 9 on her apgar.
I just can’t believe that Derek and I have a daughter! It all feels so surreal still. She is perfect and beautiful, and we are so blessed. What a perfect miracle!
