I Can't Believe She's 8

8 years ago my oldest daughter came into the world and blessed my life. I was due Nov. 5, 2001 with my first child. My due date came and went. No baby. I was growing impatient. My body wasn't giving me any signs I was ready to have a baby. Baby never dropped. I never dilated. My water never broke and I never lost the mucus plug.

The week after my due date (Nov. 13th) I went in for a regular check up and had a sonogram. The sonogram tech said there wasn't enough amniotic fluid, it wasn't alarmingly low, just not quite enough to let me go any longer waiting for labor to begin. I went home to pack a bag and my mom took me to the hospital later on in the evening. I was hooked up to a pitocin drip over night to jump start labor. The next morning my doctor came in to check my progress and NOTHING HAPPENED. I wasn't even contracting yet and had been on pitocin for 12 hours at this point.

So, the nurses increased the pitocin dosage every 15 minutes until I was at the limit. As the day went on I began feeling some of the contractions. Doctor checked me sometime after lunch (now on pitocin for 18 hours) and STILL NO CHANGE. Baby still hasn't dropped into position, no water breaking, no dilating.

By dinner time I was getting contractions every 2-3 minutes and they were getting really uncomfortable. Around 7:30pm (24 hours on pitocin now) the doctor checks me again . . . and . . .

Yup.

You guessed it.

STILL NO CHANGE.

No dilating. No baby dropping. No water breaking. Nothing but uncomfortable contractions. The nurses take me off pitocin because my body is saturated with it and it hasn't worked well enough to jump start labor. So I relax, have some dinner (Chick-Fil-A sandwich and nuggets provided by an old high school friend and his girlfriend).

Around 11pm the nurse comes to let me know that Tabytha's heart rate is a little too high, so she has me lay on my left side for about 30-40 minutes to see if that will help. It doesn't. Her heart rate actually increased a little. The nurse comes back in and puts an oxygen mask on me thinking maybe Tabytha isn't getting enough oxygen and I continue to lay on my left side. Another 40 minutes goes by and still, Tabytha's heart rate is too high (around 210-220 bpm).

The doctor comes in and explains to me she doesn't like the way things are going and my lack of progression. Tabytha's already a week overdue, the amniotic fluid is low and her heart rate won't come down. She wants to do an emergency c-section to get her out since my body wasn't responding to pitocin and wasn't going into labor.

(12:30am, Nov. 15) I muster up enough of a voice to ask if I can call my mom so the doctor can explain what's going to happen. I dial. Mom answers. Doctor says "Emergency C-Section" and mom's dressed and out the door to come be with me.

I'm prepped and taken into the OR. It takes about 10 minutes for the anesthesiologist to get the spinal going.

It.

Hurt.

So.

Bad.

Mom gets there just as the anesthesiologist gets the spinal in. My body gets warm and goes numb. I LITERALLY feel nothing below my ribcage. So much so that I begin hyperventilating because I can't feel myself breathing. Mom reassures me I am, in fact, breathing.

Then it happened. I couldn't feel it, but I knew it was coming. My mouth began to water. I was going to get sick. This should be fun. I can't move. Can't wrench my stomach like a normal person getting sick because the stomach muscles are sleeping from the spinal. I turn to my mom and say "I don't feel so good" and no sooner did she grab a kidney dish, I let all my chick-fil-a out. I didn't feel much better, a couple minutes later I get sick again.

I'm getting so sleepy. I hear suctioning. I'm opened up and they're close to getting Tabytha out. They need to push on the top of my belly to get Tabytha closer to the c-section opening. The nurse says "Ok dear. You're gonna feel a little pressure". Boy, was she wrong. I thought someone jumped on my abdomen and let all the air out of my lungs in a huge "Ouf" I Mom stands up to peek over the curtain and they've got Tabytha's head and one shoulder out. She watches them pull her out and proclaims "That's My Grandbaby!!!!". She goes with Tabytha to finish cutting the cord. I hear her cry and I feel relief. She's here!

The nurses take Tabytha to the recovery room. Mom stays with Tabytha while the doctor puts me back together and staples me up. I'm then wheeled into recovery to meet my new daughter.

She's perfect. She weighed 8lbs, 12oz and was 20 inches long.

It's hard to believe she's 8 years old today.

Happy 8th Birthday my sweet Tabbykotka!