In honor of my very first Mother's Day, I figured now was a good as time as any to share Dylan's birth story. Let's go back a month, my due date (April 2nd) was looming and there was literally no indication that Dylan was going to be making her debut. At each doctor's appointment we heard the same thing -- I was closed up tight.
I kept walking and exercising, but I was getting seriously uncomfortable. I tried everything under the sun to "naturally induce" including spicy foods, primrose oil, raspberry leaf tea
and that special eggplant parm recipe from the restaurant in Georgia. No dice.
At my next appointment we started discussing our options. My doctor was on call the following Thursday/Friday and Monday/Tuesday. We could go ahead and schedule an induction based on what we wanted to do. We went ahead and scheduled it for Thursday, with the option of moving it and giving baby girl a bit more time to do it on her own.
Wednesday morning I woke up and just wasn't feeling right. Dylan hadn't gotten active the night before at 9:30pm the way she usually did, and there was a slight pain in my lower belly. My doctor called to tell me that he had everything set for Thursday and when I told him about what was going on, he asked me to go to the hospital for an ultrasound.
We got to Boca Regional around 11:00am and after the ultrasound found out that my fluids were hovering over the "lower limit." Essentially somehow my amniotic fluids had decreased by 50% in less than 24 hours. The doctors conferred and made the decision that we needed to check in and induce right then.
I begged for food, got a nice salad, and then we started. I tried to get some sleep but honestly, hospital beds just aren't conducive to sleeping. You also aren't allowed to use the bathroom and just have to lay there for 12 hours once the cervidil is inserted...so I am really glad I had a good book with me.
Around 5am Thursday morning, they took out the cervidil, checked my dilatation (I was around 2cm) and said I could use the bathroom and take a shower. I don't think anything has sounded so beautiful to me. The second I stepped into the shower I started having major contractions. It caught me by complete surprise, and I spent a solid 45 minutes in that warm shower. The pain was excruciating though, and I was begging for the drugs. Unfortunately, this was about the same time that a woman decided to pull up to the hospital and deliver her baby in her car, which required an all hands on deck situation.
This also started the influx of patients. Basically, if you were having a baby in the Boca area, you were having it that weekend at Boca Regional and despite us calling my nurse several times we had to wait.
I finally got the drugs, which were GLORIOUS, but I didn't progress beyond 4cm in several hours. My doctor was now on call and we made the decision to move forward with a c-section. As it turns out, there was no way Miss Dylan was going to be able to progress vaginally. She was "sunny side up" and she just wouldn't fit through that way. The procedure was pretty quick...I felt some tugging and then she was here. Our lovely baby girl who decided to demonstrate her pipes were working by promptly peeing all over the doctor.
Remember how I said everyone was having babies that weekend? Well that meant they were out of beds and instead of only spending an hour in the recovery room I spent the night there with five other people. It was miserable. Dylan was brought to us, and then no one checked on us. I had just come out of major surgery was exhausted and had no idea what to do with this new baby. I had to complain, which was unfortunate, but it got us a room about 8 hours later.
Once we were settled in our room we were finally able to fully take her in and relish in what is now our new normal.