Delivery Story

Better late than never, right?  As promised, here's Camryn's birth story.


Tuesday, June 28th, my doctor took me off the Mag.  It was so strange not being hooked up to anything.  I felt so free:)  I kept waiting for the contractions to start the minute the medicine stopped.  Family and friends kept calling throughout the day asking if anything was happening, but everything was normal...no contractions. 

My mom came up to the hospital that evening and stayed the night.  Boy was I glad because around 5am Wednesday morning I started feeling some contractions.  They were mostly in my lower back and weren't really registering on the contraction monitor.  This continued for about an hour or so when the pain increased in intensity and frequency.  The nurse called my doctor who said that he'd check me when he rounded that morning.  I called Corey and told him that he might want to come up to the hospital so he'd be there when the doctor stopped by.

The back labor kept getting worse.  I was pretty sure this was it.  When the doctor checked me, I was dilated to 1cm.  His exact words were, "We're having a baby today!"  They had several C-sections scheduled that morning so I had to wait a few hours.  In the meantime, I was given some medicine for the pain which ended up knocking me out and unfortunately, didn't really help with the pain.

Around 12:30pm the anesthesiologist and the surgery team came and got us and we were off to the OR.  I didn't have a C-section with Connor so I was a little nervous about the procedure.  I was shaking so bad as they were prepping me.  They kept asking me if I was cold or nervous but I wasn't sure which one it was.  The anesthesiologist put what looked like bubble wrap over my arms and chest and then turned on this fan that blew hot air to try to warm me up.  At first, it felt pretty nice but then I started to feel claustrophobic with all that on my arms and chest and the oxygen mask over my face.  By this time, Corey was sitting right next to me and the doctors had started the procedure.  I was really surprised at how quick it was.  The next thing we knew, the anesthesiologist was telling Corey to stand up because the doctors were about to deliver our baby girl.

Everyone in the OR was shocked at how big Camryn was...7 lbs. 2 oz.  Who knows how big she would've been had I gone full-term.  The doctor brought her over to us so we could see her before taking her to the nurses to be examined.  The cord was wrapped around Camryn's neck twice but after some stimulation she was breathing and doing great.  I remember just waiting to hear her cry and to hear if she had to go to the NICU or not.  What wonderful news it was to know that our baby girl was going to get to stay with us.

Once the doctors closed me up, we went to recovery for about an hour or so.  A lactaction consultant met us there, and I was able to start breastfeeding right away or attempting it anyway.  The recovery nurse took Camryn to the nursery while Corey and I went back to my antepartum room where all our family was waiting. 

It was so great seeing the smiles on our family's faces when they finally got to hold our baby girl.  It has been one heck of a journey getting to this point but we wouldn't trade it for the world.  All the pain and everything else we went through was so worth it.  It's still hard to believe that she's here and just as perfect as can be!