Hi moms!!! I am so happy to finally share with you Caitlyn’s birth story! Processing your birth story SO important. It’s also something that should be done totally in your timing. Birth stories provide realistic insight of how women experience birth. I’m honored to share birth stories of home births, hospital births, birthing centers births, scheduled inductions, scheduled c-sections, twins and higher order multiples.
On Monday April 20,2020 I was scheduled to be at the hospital at 4pm to start inducement and expected to have my daughter either that night or possibly Tuesday depending on how everything went. Of course this is during COVID-19 so it was definitely a weird experience not having family in there with me (which I’m super close to). Once I was settled in, they felt to see if my cervix was thinned or if I was dilated at all. The Dr. said I wasn’t dilated, however my cervix was really thin. They hooked me up to the heart and contractions monitors, after staring at it, the drs asked if I was feeling anything. Of course I answered no & they told me the whole time I’ve been having contractions. They inserted a pill that dissolved into my cervix to thin it out more. They checked back in around 2:30AM & did it again. Came back after 4 hours and still nothing. Now Tuesday, April 21, 2020 around lunchtime time they suggested to insert a foley balloon to help dilate me- I was told once it fell out, I would be approx 4-5cm dilated. The balloon didn’t fall out until 5PM. In my whole experience that was the worst- it hurt SO bad when they inserted it. During the whole time my contractions were getting worse. You couldn’t walk the hallways, so I would walk in circles around the room for hours. I then asked for the epidural, I was to the point where I was so tired and just couldn’t take it. They had to give me 2 bags of pitocin before the epidural. During the epidural, I got stuck twice due to the dr having it in the wrong spot the first time. It hurt but it was bare-able. Once the epidural kicked in, I was still on Pitocin to see if it would speed up the process. They kept an eye on her heartbeat and kept noticing it was dropping. After about an hour they took me off of pitocin to see if her heartbeat would remain dropping or pick back up to where it was. It did go back to regular. They checked to see if I dilated anymore and was still at 4-5cm. This is day 2 of me being in labor. Tuesday night they started the pitocin again for an hour and her heartbeat started dropping again. So they took me off pitocin and just wanted to wait, checked me about every 1-2hrs to see if I dilated which I didn’t & they finally broke my water.
Here it comes midnight, Wednesday April 22,2020 the OB suggested if things didn’t progress, I would have to have a C-Section. At this point I honestly didn’t care, just as long as my babygirl was healthy. (I was always warned that your birth plan never goes how you want it too).
Once they scheduled the C-Section, they took me into the room, and not long after my fiancé was joining me. My daughter was born Wednesday April 22 2020 at 1:48AM by c-section. No one warned me about the shakes.
A fed baby, is a happy baby!!
About an hour after, they took us up into a room & of course the lactation nurse came, my obgyn, more dr/nurses to do their routines. The first night was a little rough without any family there, it was definitely something I didn’t like. So now on Thursday, April 23rd 2020, all the Drs came to see me. I had issues breast feeding, it was like she wasn’t getting enough. She was up almost every hour not sleeping at all. I had to use a nipple shield (come to find out, they gave me the wrong size and my nipples were bruised). Breastfeeding was definitely something I wanted to do and planned on today, but things changed. It hurt SO bad all I could do was just to cry. The lactation nurse suggested to pump to see if that worked (again gave me the wrong size for my nipples- at this point they were black/blue). I was hanging on by a thread with breastfeeding because it was like she wasn’t getting anything and I hurt so bad, but I stuck with it because it’s something I planned on doing.
Thursday I was told we would be able to go home, I was so ready. The pediatrician came to see me and suggested that if my daughter didn’t have at least one more wet/dirty diaper they would start her on formula the following day (friday) and see how it went. I asked if we could just go ahead and start that night (I was SO ready to be home). They started her on forumla & you could tell she wasn’t getting enough breastfeeding. I was so exhausted and worn out (remember during COVID) I asked if I could just get an hour of sleep and asked about how they were doing the nursery or if a dr could sit in here with me. The nurse did say nursery was closed, however she would be happy to sit in a room by herself with my daughter to give me a break- as much as I didn’t want too, I knew I needed to rest.
Finally FRIDAY- GOING HOME DAY!!!
It seemed like it took FOREVER for them to release me. I didn’t get released until after lunch. This day I was so looking forward to. I got up, took a shower myself, got my daughter ready and was just waiting so impatient. Once she gave me the papers, I went out that door!
I’m sure I’m missing some of what happened, I would do it again for my daughter but unfortunately my hospital experience was horrible.
I had no help taking a shower after the took my bandage off from the C Section, I didn’t get any advice and couldn’t breastfeed because of the lactation nurse- but a fed baby is a happy baby!!
I wanted to say thank you again to Caitlyn for sending in her birth story. I’m sorry that things changed from the way you may have originally planned to have your baby. I’m also sorry that you were disappointed from not being able to breastfeed, but you’re so right, a fed baby is what’s important. Congratulations on your beautiful baby girl!!
If you’re interested in sending in your birth story, email me- michaelabfink@yahoo.com
Michaela Fink's Newborn Care, LLC 