She's Here!

Abigail Isabella Betts

born November 3, 2012 at 3:17 am

Weight 9 lbs 6 oz

Length 20 inches

 

Abigail's Birth Story

Well I went to bed last Thursday night knowing that my doctor wanted to induce me on Saturday because Abigail was so large and my blood pressure had been extremely high all week.  I'd been in and out of the hospital and appointments all week long trying to keep things in check and make sure our baby was okay until her delivery.  So Thursday night I climbed into bed and said a prayer telling God that I would really like to avoid having an induction but whatever his will I would accept.  At 2 am I awoke and knew I was in labor.  As the early morning hours turned into the day I knew that before the day was over I would have my girl in my arms.  I was so excited.  I was also so grateful my parents had decided to come a day early and would be here by lunch time on Friday. When my parents arrived I was definitely in the throes of pre-labor and all day long I had terrible "back labor" contractions about 15-20 minutes apart.  After dinner things got really intense but I was determined to not go into the hospital until I was sure they couldn't send me home.  I hate having to go into labor and delivery and being sent home empty handed!  At 7:30 pm I went to lay down by Adelaide to put her to bed and the contractions were so intense and so close together I could hardly bear them without having to do serious deep breathing relaxation exercises, I kind of scared her because she could tell I was really in pain and couldn't even lay still, but she said, "mom those aren't bad contractions, those are the good ones that get baby Abigail here huh?!"  So I came into the living room and sat on the yoga ball and finally at 7:45 pm I had my Dad give me a Father's Blessing and then I furiously tried to pack my bags in between contractions that were 2-3 minutes apart.  On the way into the hospital I realized I may have waited a bit too long to come in because I had to stop like every 5th step to breath through a horrific contraction.  They whisked me into labor and delivery and after a check frantically announced I was dilated to a 7 and we needed to get things set up quickly for delivery.  I went from a 7 to a 9 within the next hour and a half and then things got really intense.  My contractions were consistently coming 2-3 minutes apart and the back labor was so intense I asked for an epidural.  By 10:30-11:00 pm I finally got an epidural and then the trouble started.  The doctor said the baby had turned face up again and that her head was not descending. . .The nurses spent the next 3 hours with me attempting to turn the baby and push her down further into my pelvis.  They had me get in so many wacky positions I lost all my dignity I ever had and was so exhausted I thought I was going to die . . .literally!  Nothing was working so they added pitocin to see if stronger contractions would get her to move. . .they were so strong that even with an epidural I was in an extreme amount of pain.  Finally the doctor came and and said that it was time to make the decision for a c-section because no matter what we continued to do her head was just too big!  Scott and I had a moment to discuss and we asked the nurses their opinion and said a little prayer and then moved forward with the idea of a c-section.  They began to prep me for a c-section and apparantly I was allergic to the anti-biotic they pumped through me because all of the sudden my body was on fire . . .my mouth was tingling. . .I had heart burn so bad I thought I would start breathing fire like a dragon!  After they got that all under control they got me in the operating room and I started crying because I couldn't see Scott (he was right next to me) and I was so nauseated and I think I was exhausted and just plain scared.  At 3:17 am my beautiful baby girl was born and I caught a quick glimpse of her before my blood pressure plummeted and I started passing out.  They kept shooting vial after vial of epinephrine into my IV to get it under control.  After about 20 minutes they had me all sewed up and stable and Scott and I got to spend 1/2 hour in the recovery room just bonding with our beautiful new baby girl!  It was an extremely difficult and emotion filled day but so worth every single minute of it.  She is amazing and beautiful and everything I prayed for.  I feel like Hannah in the bible when she says, "for this child have I prayed"