My Birth Story: The Best Laid (Birth) Plans of Mice and Men

Alternate title: When we plan, God laughs
For those who don't want to read the long drawn out birth story, the jist is: Pretty much everything happened the opposite of how I planned. But each step of the way I was able to remain calm and happy and accept God's plan. I'm proud of myself for not breaking down as my plans broke down. At the end of it all, I have been blessed to be the mother to the most beautiful healthy little girl and I know that everything happened how it was meant to happen. 
I knew when I wrote my birth plan that everything was subject to change and that labor and delivery could not be bent to my will. I decided early on in pregnancy that whatever would happen, would happen, but I would have my preference for how things would go in a perfect world. I wanted: 
Breastfeeding Only NO episiotomy  Delayed cord clamping  Little to no intervention Ability to move around freely during labor Limited cervical checks

Well, things pretty much went the EXACT OPPOSITE! 

It all started with being a week past my due date. My OB decided it would be best if I was induced. I went in for my induction on Wednesday October 8th. Induction meant: Intervention, multiple cervical checks, and being on monitors for both my contractions and the baby's heartbeat, which meant mostly being confined to the hospital bed. So just that easy, 3 of my hopes went out the window.

While I woke up early on the morning of the 8th, around 3am, with contractions, I wasn't in active labor so the induction was still on the schedule. I received a dose of Misoprostol (drug that encourages the cervix to dilate) approximately every 4 hours beginning at 3pm. Being stuck in the bed the most I could do for coping techniques was breathing and visualizations. I had planned to be able to use my birthing ball, have Hubs administer counter pressure, and be able to walk around. But as you can see, my plans were not what was happening here.

After the third dose of Misiprostol, in the wee hours of the morning, things were starting to get REALLY REAL. The contractions were harder to breath through, and the immobility was starting to kill me. At this point I'm sure I started driving the nurses crazy because I began getting up and walking, sitting in a chair or on the side of the bed, and doing lunges, all of which made the monitors disconnect, but I HAD to move. Then around 5:30am my water broke, and things got REALLY REALLY REAL. The pain was more than I could manage any longer. The majority of it was pressure in my back. I requested an epidural. Shortly after the epidural my cervix was checked and I had gone from 3cm to 7cm in about a HALF HOUR.

At this point I figured pushing shouldn't be too far off, just 3cm to go. Then nurses started gathering around my monitors. They had me move from one side to the other. They weren't happy with how the baby was tolerating the contractions. My blood pressure went low. Her heart rate went high. Fifteen, that is not an exaggeration, FIFTEEN nurses, doctors and surgeons rushed into the room and said I needed to have a c-section. As they were telling me this they were simultaneously cleaning off my stomach and handing Hubs a set of scrubs to change into. I felt like I was in the Twilight zone. Within minutes I was in the operating room, and shortly after that, Sage was HERE. Our beautiful Sage with a head full of hair. 8lb 15 ounces, 20 3/4 inches long, born at 8:45am on October 9, 2014.

It took them only a matter of minutes to get her out. Closing me up took much longer, mostly because the surgeon was pretty much teaching a C-section class, explaining things step by step to a student or maybe more than one student, I couldn't see. Delayed cord clamping with a c-section just isn't feasible, as you don't want your abdomen sitting open for longer than it has to. So that was another hope dashed.

But absolutely none of these things mattered because we had our baby!  All of her testing came back with her passing with flying colors except her blood sugar. Her blood sugar numbers were not what the pediatricians wanted to see. So after we'd already been comfortable in our room, getting use to our family of three, she was taken to the NICU, having her blood sugar tested every hour. Every hour she was also given formula. So that effectively crossed off every item on my birth plan list. Technically, I didn't have an episiotomy, but I didn't have a vaginal birth so that doesn't count.

She was returned to our room the next morning, with her numbers much improved, and we only had to supplement with formula for that day and she's been all breast since then. She had her first doctor's appointment yesterday and is doing GREAT. She is a happy, healthy, wonderful, beautiful baby and I just can't get enough of her. Everything happens for a reason, and we both came out of labor and delivery as healthy beings, which is all that matters.