Our Dynamic Life: Maia's Journey Into This World

With this new blog I have decided that it would be perfect to start with the beginning of our new life journey: Maia. So here is the story of how Maia came into this life:

Several times before Maia was born I had false labor where I was having contractions about every 8 minutes for about 5 hours and then they would just disappear. Well I had an appointment set up for wed the 10th but on Sunday I had this feeling that I should try to get an appointment on Monday instead. I was also a bit anxious because Monday was my due date, my mom was coming in on Thursday and I wanted to see if I was progressing at all. So Sean called in Monday morning and scheduled an appointment for me and at 10:30 we headed up to Fishersville (which is about 45 min away) to see the mid wife. Once we got there, Mary, the midwife on call, checked my cervix and told me I was at a 3 almost 4. I wasn't having regular contractions so she decided to strip my membranes and then told me to come back in 4 hours to get checked again. So we decided to go to Costco which is in Harrisonberg which is about 30 min from Fishersville. Sean had some work to do so he dropped me off and went to find a WiFi spot. I went around the store and did my shopping and as I did so my contractions kept getting stronger and stronger.

Once I was done shopping Sean came back and we had lunch at costco getting pizza for Sean and a hot dog for me. By that point we were still needing to waste some time but we decided that we would drive back to the doctors office. Once we got there, I wanted to walk around a bit to help progress the contractions. I was having them about every 5 min so around 3:30 pm we finally went in and got checked again. I was told I was at a 4 almost a 5 and that we could either go home and then come back or be checked into the hospital but either way Mary said that we were probably going to be having the baby that day. We decided that we didn't want to go home so we headed over to the hospital to get checked in.

Once we got up to the labor wing they told me to change and then they hooked me up to a heart monitor and contraction monitor. After being hooked up for about 20 mins, with contractions coming every 2-3 minutes, Maia's heart rate plummeted once. This startled the nurses who put me on oxygen and made me drink grape juice. They monitored me for a bit longer and since it didn't happen again they unhooked me and let me get in the tub. A hot bath while having contractions is wonderful! I was in the tub for about an hour and they finally made me get out to check me. Before I went into the tub I was at a 6 and then after I was at a 7. Mary was a bit disappointed that I hadn't progressed more, so she told me to give the tub a break and walk around. So we walked and just hung out for a while killing time. Mary checked me again at about 9:30 and I still hadn't progressed from a 7 so she said that the next step was to break my water. I didn't want it to be broken so I made a deal that if I didn't progress in an hour she could break my water.

We walked, sat on the birthing ball, and did everything short of jumping up and down to get me to progress. At 10:30 I still hadn't progressed at all so out came the big stick and they broke my water. Two things happened when they did that, there was meconium in the fluid and I went from being dilated to a 7 to a 6 because the amniotic sac was holding open my cervix. Since there was meconium in the fluid I was put on a short leash because I had to be continually monitored. While being monitored Maia's heart rate kept dropping, so they put me back on the oxygen and kept a closer eye on what was happening. Around 12 Mary and the nursed were huddled talking and then Mary told me that she had talked to a OB and because of the meconium, the dropping heart rate and the fact that I wasn't progressing I either needed to get an epidural to see if they could help me progress or I would have to have a c-section.

At this point I was in a lot of pain and the contractions were coming every 1-2 minutes. Going into this I wanted to do everything I could to avoid the epidural but I decided to do the epidural because I figured it was worth the try to see if it could keep me from having a c-section. By 12:30 I received the epidural and I have to say it was wonderful. It was nice to not be shaking and in so much pain. Mary checked me about 15 min later and I had progressed from a 7 to 10. I could finally feel the urge to push! I was allowed to push for about 5 min until Mary said that they needed to monitor Maia's heart rate for an hour to make sure that it didn't keep dropping and if it did they would send me to the operating room. From 1-2 am they let us relax. I was too wound up to sleep but Sean didn't have a problem with that.

At 2 Mary came in and we started pushing. With the epidural, I was having a hard time knowing where and how to push. After an hour of pushing we still hadn't made any progress and Maia's heart rate kept dropping. They started talking c-section again since we weren't making any progress. Well Mary had the nurse turn off my epidural and they put a heart monitor on Maia's head to get a better picture of what was going on with her heart rate. After about 10 min I could start feeling where to push better and could feel the contractions a little bit more. I was allowed to push again and Maia ended up turning as she had been presenting posterior. After about 40 more minutes of pushing and an episiotomy, Maia Jacquelyn Dahlin was born at 3:41 am on October 9, 2012.

Sean was given the chance to cut her cord and then they put her on my chest for a very brief moment and then rushed her off to suction all the meconium out of her nose and mouth. Once they did that they wiped her down, measured her, got her weight, took her foot prints and did what ever else they do right after birth. She weighed in at 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

Here are some pictures from our experience. Labor was pretty tough on her so she really came out swollen and with a pretty good cone shape for a head.