I conceived my daughter in March of 2005. It was not planned, but it was welcome. At the time, we were living in a very stressful situation as it was so adding a pregnancy on top of that just made life that much crazier. Not to mention, this was our first pregnancy, I have no family down here (other than my in-laws) and was totally clueless about pregnancy and birth.

The entire pregnancy, I was told that she was too big. She was constantly measuring big. Her due date was set as December 27th.

Starting in October, I had to go to the doctor twice a week for stress tests because she wasn’t moving as much as she should of. Each time I took the test at the doctor, I ended up in the hospital for another test and an ultrasound only to be told everything was fine. I did this two times a week for roughly two and a half months before she was actually born.

In November, one doctor told me they would induce at Thanksgiving because she would be a large baby. (They were estimating her to be 12-14 pounds by her due date.) The “head” doctor; however, told me that “he wrote the paychecks” and he wasn’t going to induce me. (Talk about more stress!) I was deathly afraid of giving birth to a 12-14 pound baby!

The first week of December, we scheduled my induction for December 13th.

The beginning of the week of December 13th, I had an ultrasound that resulted in the doctor calling me in a panic telling me I cannot go into natural labor. She was breech (bottom down rather than head down) and that they would have to do a c=section immediately. I was scared to tears! Fortunately, a call back five minutes later assured me that my baby was fine- it was someone else’s ultrasound pictures they were looking at!

When they schedule inductions, you have to call the night before to make sure all is good to go. We called and were told there was no room so I could not come in for my induction. Now bear in mind, I was told I am having a 12-14 pound baby, I was a new soon to be mommy, I was scared out of my mind and I could not go to the hospital to be induced. This was my daily life from December 13th until December 26th. Every day we called. Every day we were told there were too many women having babies and there was no room for me. Every day I cried because my 12-14 pound baby was continuing to grow inside me. I was terrified!

We had just arrived home the night of December 26th at like 9pm at night from a “after Christmas” family dinner. The hospital called stating they finally had room and I could come in to be induced. We called everyone and rushed on our way.

Now for me, I would never recommend induction or want to go through it again. It was a long night of medication to induce pregnancy, no eating or drinking, little sleep because they are constantly checking you- just not my thing. And to top it off, you’re hooked to a million machines. Even worse, I could not get comfortable. If I was not on my left side, Buggy’s heart beat would drop so I would have to move back to my left side. Do you know how uncomfortable it is to lay on your left side for hours on end!?

By 332pm (after three epidurals), my daughter was born

7 pounds 14 ounces

. I didn’t push long (I was far too drugged up to remember exactly how long), and I was violently ill afterward (I am sure it had nothing to do with not eating or drinking since the previous night and then guzzling liquids immediately following birth *note the sarcasm*).

We learned that her heart beat kept dropping because the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. When she came out, she gasped for breath so hard it punctured a small hole into her lung which required her to be put in NICU for two days. The hole healed itself and my 7 pound 14 ounce baby was able to come home with me the day I was discharged!

She is now a happy, healthy 6 year old

pain in the bottom

loving little girl!