I had my 40 week appointment scheduled with my OB on Wednesday, March 21 at 10am. I have been going to a lot of these last appointments by myself because its always the same thing... heart tones of the baby, vitals of me, and talks about kick counting and signs of labor. This day was different though. I really wanted to Woody to be there for what I thought would be our second to last or maybe last appointment if I went into labor that week. My OB was running behind (like always) so we didn't see her until about 11am. We did all the normal stuff and talked about a possible induction for the following week (at 41 weeks) and discussed March 30th being the big day! After getting the date on the calendar she went to do my cervical exam and after telling me I was 20% effaced and 1cm I felt a rush of fluid. After a quick check by my OB it was determined that during my exam she accidentally broke my water. Immediately she told us we were not being induced next week but that we were actually going to have a baby THAT day! She instructed us to head over to the hospital where she would meet us in a few hours after I got all checked in. Can you imagine the surprise and freak out moment that Woody and I had when she left the room?? I have never seen Woody so terrified in his life! We immediately whipped out our phones and started calling our families to tell them IT WAS TIME!
By 11:15am we were checking into Labor and Delivery at Seton hospital and it was official that our baby was on the way. I was given Cytotec (to soften the cervix) and I dilated on my own to 2cm. It was determined after about 2 hours that Pitocin was needed to help my labor along and that was started about 2pm. Within about 20 minutes I was dilating and contracting and my life went from excited and happy-go-lucky to extreme pain and discomfort. I only labored for about 2 hours before I called for that anesthesiologist! What can I say... I have zero pain tolerance! Over the next few hours I dilated slowly first to a 5 then a 7 then finally to a 9. This is when things went downhill. I stalled at 9cm for many hours and after several cervical checks it was determined that Sutton had entered the birth canal sideways and wasn't going to turn. Dr. Gooch (our on-call doctor) tried physically turning her but she went right back to being sideways. The words I have not wanted to hear my whole pregnancy were finally being spoken to me... "You're going to need a c-section." In that moment I was absolutely devastated that Sutton not only wasn't going to get her naturally and on her own but now they were going to cut her out of me while I was strapped to a table.
In only a matter of minutes Woody was suited up and we were being wheeled down the hall to the OR for my first major surgery. I knew that getting Sutton here safely was the most important thing but I was scared for her and myself as we entered the bright room. Everything happened so fast but the few things I remember were the pain in my shoulders from the air bubbles of the c-section, the tugging and pulling, Woody talking me through everything and of course our beautiful baby's first cry. After she was born Woody went over to the table where they were checking her out and assured me she was beautiful and healthy and everything was fine with her. After a few minutes of them checking her out it was time for her and Woody to head off to the nursery while they finished fixing me up and completing my c-section.
This is kind of random, but sometimes I google Baby Girl Sutton to reassure myself that there are other people out there naming their baby girls Sutton and I ran across your blog and quickly read your birth story. It's kind of ironic because my daughter was born on March 27, 2012 and we named her Sutton Page Smith. I started liking the name a few years ago (from a Broadway star) but it took a lot of work to convince my husband of the name, and we even went into the delivery room with several options (I loved Gemma & Parker, he liked Tatum & Finnley), but he actually made the call and said she looked like a Sutton. I still love her name, but man, it gets lots of bad reviews on baby naming sites! I sincerely hope no one calls her Slutton, but I feel like her name is pretty enough to override that. Your thoughts on that one? I know that as she grows from a chubby little baby into an adorable toddler, she'll definitely grow into her name and add her own personality to it. Best of luck to you and your own little Sutton!
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