Ainsley Elise Jones – Birth Story

This is going to be very long because I feel like this all starts at 33 weeks when I went into Pre term labor with her.  If you know about my PTL story and want to skip to the day of her birth, go down to the bolded portion.

For a few weeks I had horrible heartburn and acid reflux and a lot of pain in my sternum area.  A few days prior to 33 weeks I had a horrible night of acid reflux and threw up once.  Then two days later another really bad night of acid reflux, threw up twice, but this night was accompanied by a stomach ache and lower back pain that didn’t go away until the next morning.  Landon basically begged me to make an appointment that morning to go in and at least get something for the acid reflux.  I didn’t want to because I had an appointment coming up that next week.  But I went in and my doctor decided to go ahead and do a cervical check because for weeks I had also been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, more than the normal 4-6 an hour sometimes.  So she checked me and low and behold I was 2-3 cm dilated and 60% effaced.  So she sent me to the hospital to get monitored.  I was hooked up and sure enough having contractions every 4-7 minutes.  I barely felt them, but since I was dilated they decided to put me on a magnesium drip to try to stop them.  So I stayed in the hospital for just over 48 hours hooked up to the magnesium drip and IV liquids, also antibiotics because we didn’t know if I was GBS + and might have to deliver her.  We got the two rounds of steroids for her lungs, just in case.  Fortunately though the medicine worked and my contractions stopped by the time I was released I was 3cm and 60-70% effaced.  We were released and I was put on strict bed rest for two weeks.  At my 35 week appointment (35w5d) I was 3.5 cm and same effacement so she was ok enough with taking me off bed rest. 

I went back two weeks later for my 37 week appointment (37w5d), I was 4cm and same effacement, 60-70%.  Then the next week (38w5d) I was 4.5cm she said she could easily stretch me to 5cm and now 80% effaced.  By this point both my doctors were shocked I was still pregnant and believe me my whole family and I were ready and starting to get impatient.  I think if the whole PTL thing hadn’t happened we all wouldn’t have been so anxious, but for so long we were told I probably wouldn’t make it much further and so we had been thinking “any day now”.  Either way both doctors and everyone I knew said things would probably go fast, little did I know!

At my 39 week appointment (39w4d), I was 5.5cm and easily stretchable to 6cm and still 80% effaced.  Baby was still at a -2 to -3 station though.  My doctor wanted to send me to the hospital to get induced because she was worried about infection from being so dilated.  This shocked me as I was not thinking I would need to be induced and definitely didn’t want to go that route.  But she was making me worried I was putting our baby at risk.  Ultimately she left it up to me and allowed me to go home to at least talk to my husband about it.  So with that information and talking to my doula and getting her opinion and lots of praying, we made the decision to wait a few more days or at least till my next appointment, we felt that since my water was still intact that I shouldn’t be any more at risk of infection than I had been for about 6 weeks.   I just really wanted to at least get past her due date.  But I was more determined than ever to try to help her along now.  I made an appointment for the next day for an acupuncture/acupressure session.  I went there praying it would work but trying not to get my hopes up.  I definitely had some contractions while I was there, but nothing stronger than I had been having.   I went home and that night I had a very similar night to that night I had had before I was admitted for PTL at 33 weeks.  I had horrible acid reflux, I didn’t throw up though, but I couldn’t sleep at all.  So I just got up and started walking the stairs and doing deep squats.  Finally around 4am or so I fell asleep. 

The next day, March 4^th, at 4pm I went to the restroom and felt this thud (now I guess it was a pop) and when I thought I was done peeing, I got up but was still leaking.  Maybe I was a little in denial because my first thought was, am I really peeing myself? That hasn’t happened this whole pregnancy, why now? Haha  But then it dawned on me that maybe that was my amniotic fluid leaking.  And probably less than 5 minutes later I started having contractions that were a LOT stronger than any I had had before, even during all the prodromal labor I was having.  These were real, and were coming about every 3 minutes and lasting 1- 1 ½ minutes long.  I texted Landon right away and told him I thought he should come home.  This was at 4pm on a Wednesday and it was raining.  Normally it takes him about 20 minutes if there is no traffic (which is rare), there was a lot of traffic and he still made it home in about 30 minutes.  However, we were so worried he wouldn’t make it in time, I called my doula and after telling her what was going on she came over here to take me to the hospital, by the time she got here my contractions were coming on a lot quicker, then Landon showed up just a few minutes later and we loaded the car with our bags and left at about 5 pm.  My doula followed us in her own car.  I got in the backseat on my knees and spent the majority of the car ride hanging over the back seat, there was no way I was able to sit.  So of course we were in rush hour traffic and it was raining.  It takes 20 minutes with no traffic to get to the hospital, that day it took us 30 minutes (because Landon was driving like a mad man!) , we arrived at the hospital at about 5:30pm.  That was the longest car ride of my life.  At the house my doula was putting counter pressure on my lower back, which was where I was feeling all the pain and that helped SO MUCH.  But during the car ride, I didn’t have that and it was horrible.  I remember telling Landon I needed a pep talk because I didn’t know why I ever thought I could have a natural labor without an epidural.  I guess I still had the ability to think somewhat clearly though because I remember thinking as I said that, maybe I’m in transition.  I started to feel nauseous and pushy when we were about 10 minutes away and I told him that I was scared I might have the baby in the car.  I know he was freaking out the whole time because of all the traffic and worried about how fast my contractions were coming, at this point they were one right after another, I MIGHT would have about 30 seconds between them at that point. 

So we finally make it to the hospital, we get out and walked in the front door, I had to stop three times before we could get to the elevator to get through the contractions.  There was a full room of people waiting on other laboring moms when we walked through, we later found out they all really thought I was going to have the baby in the waiting room! Haha  I guess I made quite a scene.  We finally got in the room and they checked me and I was 10cm and a +1 and ready to push.  While I was trying to do that I had nurses trying to take my blood and put in a heplock.  I made it clear I didn’t want an IV, just the heplock and honestly the poking and prodding hurt so bad, I remember thinking, I’m in labor and having horrible contractions but these dang needles are hurting me?!? WTF?  Lol  I started out on my back and the doctor determined she was asynclitic and needed to rotate.  I decided I wanted to push on my hands and knees for a while and started to turn over and noticed then that they had put an IV in me and I freaked out, and said I did not want an IV, my doctor was awesome and told the nurse to take it out now, that it was fine, and she allowed me to just drink water, which I did drink so much water between contractions.  Anyway I pushed on my hands and knees for a little bit, then they allowed me to go to the restroom and push on the toilet.  That was the best thing for me, it was quite in there as opposed to the chaos in the room, it was just me, my husband and my doula.  With every contraction my doula was putting the counter pressure on my back and the one time she didn’t I could barely handle it.  I think I was on the toilet for about 20 minutes and she suggested I get up and do a deep squat while opening my hips as much as possible.  I did that through one contraction and that was all that was needed to get her turned and down to a +3.  I made my way back to the bed and laid on my side and pushed a few more times and she started to crown and they made me wait through a few contractions so she could stretch me a little, that was the hardest thing ever!  I just wanted her out!  Finally they let me push and her head came out and then in the next contraction the doctor pulled the rest of her out.  The entire time it burned so bad.  But then she was on my chest and everything was right in the world again.  J  I ended up with a second degree tear, and lost a little more blood than average, according to my doctor, but overall I’ve had a great recovery, I was very sore for about 4 days, but other than that it really hasn’t been so bad.  I really recommend having a doula, if I hadn’t had her there, I’m positive it would have been so much worse.  So, all told, my labor with her was almost exactly 3 hours long.  It was the most intense and crazy thing I’ve ever been through, but it was so worth it and so empowering and somewhat surreal.  I’m just really glad it was so fast!

Ainsley was born on March 4^th, 2015 at 7:07pm, weighing 8lbs 15oz and measuring 20 inches long.  She is such a sweet baby! 

 

 

-- I forgot to add that my doctor later told me, she suspects the only reason I didn't have her on the side of the road was because she was posterior and needed to turn which is why it took about 1.5 hours of pushing.  The funny thing about that is, my entire pregnancy I was worried about this very thing and having back labor because of it.  I spent so much time on my birth ball and doing exercises to try to get her to turn into the right position, but God knew what he was doing by keeping her in the "wrong" position! :)  I've very thankful now because that allowed us the time to get to the hospital and in a safe environment! 

Still Pregnant!

 

 

 

I know, your thinking "of course you are, your only 34 weeks pregnant!"  Yes, however most of you don't know about the week we've had.  So, here it goes and just a warning, this will be long and might be a little TMI.  :)

 

For a few weeks I've been having severe, really terrible heartburn, yeah most women get this when pregnant, but I was diagnosed with GERD about 10 years ago, so I know what heartburn/acid reflux is all about.  THIS is different, this makes my whole rib/chest area hurt and causes sharp sudden pains below my sternum, I even began researching other possibilities such as Gallbladder problems and Costochondritis.  Well, Sunday January 11th, I had horrible acid reflux that night and after a few hours of sitting up in bed trying to sleep, I finally got up and vomited.  I felt a little better but not much.  Same thing happened the next night and then finally on Wednesday night, I had a horrible stomach ache and back ache, I thought a bath might help, but it did nothing.  I threw up twice and eventually around 5am, fell asleep for a couple of hours.  Landon urged me to call my doctor for an appointment to get some medicine.  I didn't want to because I didn't think they would be able to get me an appointment for the same day and I had an appointment coming up that next Tuesday anyway.  But he begged me to, and thank God he did...

 

So I called and they said I could come in that morning, I was exactly 33 weeks that day.  I went in and described what happened the night before and what's been going on for weeks.  My doctor did think it was severe heartburn, but agreed it could possibly be my Gallbladder and also mentioned that I could be having contractions that radiated to the top of my uterus where everything was tender already because of all my organs being pushed upward.  I thought that was weird and didn't make a lot of sense to me, but whatever.  She decided to check me and low and behold I was 2-3 cm dilated, 60% effaced, baby was at a -3 station and my amniotic sac was "bulging".  WHAT?!?!  She asked me if I've been having contractions and I told her I've been having a ton of what I thought were Braxton Hicks contractions but I was pretty sure they were BH and not the real thing.  She immediately sent me to the hospital to get monitored. 

 

So  I checked in at about 10:30 am and got settled in bed they put a monitor on for the baby and one for the contractions.  And it began, we were able to see that I was indeed contracting every 4-7 minutes!  They were pretty painless, I had a few that were a little uncomfortable and had to sort of breath through a little.  But they weren't happy that I was having so many.  So, I got hooked up to the IV and was given a steady drip of Magnesium Sulfate.  That drug is the DEVIL.  Seriously, it makes you feel like a loopy old woman. I say old woman because it gives you hot flashes like you wouldn't believe!  But I guess it was necessary because they didn't get my contractions to really even slow down till about 6pm that night.  However they never got stronger or more frequent, so that was good.  I was given a shot of steroids just in case we had to deliver baby girl in the next day or two.  I also had to have a drip of antibiotics every 4 hours because we didn't know if I was GBS + or not. 

 

That night was horrible, I only got about 1 hour of sleep.  They had to put a catheter in because every time my bladder got full I would contract.  It was so uncomfortable I could only lay on my left side, every time I tried to roll over it hurt so bad.  Well it also hurt my hips to be laying on one side all night, so no sleep for me.  I finally begged them at about 6am in the morning to take it out of me.  I promised I would empty my bladder before it got full and they agreed.  Ahhh relief!

 

I was told I would be in the hospital for 48 hours after they started the magnesium and then a few hours after that to be monitored.  I also needed that second steroid shot 24 hours after the first one.  I continued to have some contractions, but never as bad as they were on Thursday.  I slept pretty good Friday night and finally Saturday was the day! We would see what was going to happen once they took me off the magnesium.  I would either be going home or be having a baby.  CRAZY!  They said if I started contracting again and had made some progression then they wouldn't be stopping labor again.  Which was pretty terrifying, though they assured me she would be fine, and I had those steroid shots, so that was a tremendous plus.  But she would still most definitely need some NICU time and that made scared me so much. 

 

So 1pm came and they stopped the magnesium, I'm telling you within an hour I was feeling back to normal and I realized then how loopy and "strange" feeling, I had been!  About 15 minutes later I had the strongest contraction I had had since getting there.  I immediately started crying and the nurse walked in to ask if I had felt that and immediately got concerned because she saw me crying and thought it was really bad.  I assured her that I wasn't crying because it hurt, but just that I was scared because that didn't seem very promising.  I calmed myself down and we waited.  I had another milder contraction about 30 minutes later (pretty good).  And then an even milder one almost an hour later.  So, that seemed promising and the nurse was happy with it! Now all we needed to do was check me again and hope that I hadn't progressed during my time there. 

 

I was 3cm dilated, 60-70% effaced and she was going to call baby at a -1 station, but when she touched her head she moved up, so she wrote down -2.  And no bulging bag!  So all in all, good news!  They gave me a dose of Procardia (another milder medicine that helps stop contractions, sometimes) and discharged me! 

 

My orders were to be on strict bed rest, (ie: only getting up to use the bathroom) till at least 35 weeks and we would reevaluate.  So our short term goal is to make it to 35 weeks and we go from there.  I had a follow up appointment with my doctor this past Tuesday and still had not made any progression (Yay!).  She is a very positive person but told me she would be surprised if I made it much past 35 weeks.  WOW, that was kind of crazy to hear, but who knows, my baby could be really stubborn and end up going to her due date! lol 

 

That was very long, if you made it this far, thank you! And we of course will take any prayers and good thoughts you have.  My goal is to make it to at least 37 weeks so she is term.  I also want to be able to have my baby shower! haha.  We are so not prepared to be bringing a baby home right now!

 

But I thank God for our family, they have been amazing and we have a plan in place in case it does happen.  I have round the clock care for as long as I need it.  This week alone, I had my Grandma, sister, MIL and my mom here, all rotating shifts.  They have been cooking/cleaning and keeping me company.  On the Saturday I was released my inlaws and mom came and cleaned my house from top to bottom and my dad made us some food!  I couldn't ask for better family!