Gabrielle Grace Nelton's Birth Story

Well I'm a bit late on posting this but here it goes, I will try to remember everything it was a very long day...

Well I started to have contractions on Friday evening about every 10-15 minutes all weekend long. I went back to work on Monday morning I had to call Damon at noon to come get me I was not feeling well kind of how I felt when I went into labor with Devon. So I sat at his work for a few hours with contractions about 10 minutes apart. We decided to just go home and tough it out. I stayed home on Tuesday from work because I did not sleep well with the contractions all day and night on Monday well Tuesday morning we went back to the hospital because they were not letting up so we brought Devon to his grandparents early on Tuesday morning and off to the hospital. When we got there I was 80% and 2CM, so I progressed from my last appointment the week before where I was 40% and 2CM. Well we walked for an hour with contractions about every 5-8 minutes and nothing happened so they sent us home. Well it started to snow that night (1st big snow storm of the year I think too). I decided to stay home on Wednesday because of all the snow and I was pretty sure the baby would be coming soon! Sure as I had it the contractions started again at 7am sharp! 6 minutes apart right from the beginning and hurt a lot more than they were since Friday. So at about 9:30 I called Damon thinking it was time but so unsure (I did not want to go to the hospital again and be sent home) Well he called his mom to come and get me anyways because there was a ton of snow on the ground and it was still snowing. He left work at that time to meet us at the hospital, we got there about 10:30am Wednesday. On the ride there they were between 4-6 minutes apart. Well I got all checked in and was at 3CM and 80% so Dr Freeze decided to keep me!! I walked around for an hour then laid down for 20 minutes with the test strip on and decided to get in the tub after that, the water felt great made the contractions a lot less intense. Well at 2:30 I decided to get out of the tub and in bed to get checked I was at 5 Cm 100% effaced with bulging waters and my contractions picked up a lot since I got out of the tub. So I decided to get an epidural at that point because they wanted to break my water. I got my epi at 3 pm and was feeling much better by 3:20:) Laura came in between getting out of the tub and getting the epi. I rested right away when I got it after everyone got pictures of me happy. Well I went from the 5 to a 6 right away and 6 to 8 by 6:30 I believe, but then I was stuck at 8 CM from about 6:30pm to 10:30pm they decided to start pictocin at this time because my contractions were not regular like they should be, and that's when the doctor and nurses decided that she was sideways and stuck. I was also feeling a lot of pain in my tailbone by this time as well, but they had me flipping from side to side to get her to turn and she never did on her own. By 11pm I was having so much pain in my tail bone that I couldn't take it so they gave me a 'balsk' of meds in my epi it helped a ton:) at 11:30 pm I finally went from 8-10CM!! Well they had me doing 'practice pushes' 1 because I was completely numb from the pain meds they just put in my epi, 2 because my contractions were only coming about every 8 minutes or so, and 3 because the doctor was delivering another baby at the same time. Well Dr. Freeze came in at 12:40am and helped us a ton he used the vacuum to help me push her out and he had to turn her face down as well. I barley tore only 2 stitches. YEA! I don't think that's to bad at all:) Gabrielle Grace Nelton was born via SUCCESSFUL VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) after 18 hours of labor on Thursday December 10th at 1:01am, 7.8 pounds 21'' long. She was perfect and you could not even tell we used the vacuum to get her out.

Gabby did have to be sent to the level 2 care nursery because I developed a fever about 2 hours before she was born. So she was on IV antibiotics for 2.5 days. She was also diagnosed with Brackley Plexus Injury as well from being stuck sideways through labor. I left the hospital Saturday afternoon and Gabrielle got to come home with us Sunday night. It was hard to come home without her but we made it! Now she's just about 8 weeks old!!