Reagan's Birth Story

On Friday, Dec. 5. 2008 I started to have contractions around 9 pm. They were very sporadic and were not very painful, but they were definite contractions. I went to sleep, and woke up off and on throughout the night with the contractions. We began to time them around 7 am Saturday morning, and they were coming every 10 minutes or so and lasting about 30-45 seconds. This continued for about 4 or 5 hours. Then they slowed down to only about two an hour, so I thought for sure it was false labor.

I took a nap and had Trey buy me red raspberry leaf tea to drink per suggestion of an online forum. Around 6 pm, the contractions picked up again and started to become more regular. Trey made me a "bed" on the floor in front of the fire, we watched a movie, and I labored for the next few hours with the contractions moving closer together. We got into bed around 11, and by this time they were more painful and coming around every 6 or 7 minutes. Finally, at about 1 am, we called the on call doctor who told me to come in (contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute or longer).

I got to the hospital and was 3-4 cm dilated. I got an IV and they gave me nubane, which relaxed me but didn't take away the pain. At about 5 am, they contractions were very painful and I was 4-5 cm, so I got the epidural. It didn't hurt at all, and it immediately relieved the pain. A few hours later, I was 8 cm but the baby's heart rate had dropped so they put me on oxygen. Not long after I was fully dilated, but the nurse wanted me to labor down since she was still quite high.

At 11:30 I began doing practice pushes. The nurse (who was amazing and completely got me through the delivery) said I was doing a great job pushing. She had me try different positions, she massaged my perinium, she gently stretched me with baby oil--basically doing everything she could so I wouldn't tear or need an episiotomy. Unfortunately, shortly after I began pushing, Reagan's heart rate dropped. The doctor rushed in and told me they needed to get the baby out, so he started to use a vaccuum. Fortunately, her heart rate got better so he said I could resume pushing on my own. I pushed for another 1.5 hours, and then her heart rate dropped again. This time nurses rushed in and started directing me to push now. They had to get the baby out. I had to receive an episiotomy and I tore more (2nd degree tear) when her head crowned. The pain was incredible and I started screaming that I couldn't do it. But the nurses and Trey were great, and they kept telling me I could do it. She was finally born at 2:05 pm on her due date, Dec. 7, 2008. I labored for 41 hours and pushed for over two hours.

Reagan Estella was 6 pounds 7 ounces and was 19 1/4 inches long. She was born with her hands by her face and her head turned, which was part of the problem of getting her out. They told me that if she had been any larger, I would have needed an emergency C-section. When she was born, I could see she was blue and Trey heard the nurses call for NICU (thankfully, I did not hear this or I would have freaked out). She was having problems breathing and crying, so I held her for 30 seconds before they took her away. They observed her for about 40 minutes and she recovered beautifully from the hard delivery.

She was everything we could have prayed for or dreamed of--our baby girl was finally here.