About 9 years ago to date, I was excitedly awaiting the arrival of my firstborn son and planning details of how I wanted my childbirth story to be. We chose to deliver our son at Plano Presbyterian hospital and it was a wonderful experience. I firmly believe that without their professionalism and medical expertise, my son may not have made it into the world. If someone would have told me that nothing was going to go as planned, I wouldn’t have believed it. In my mind, I wanted my my pregnancy to end as perfectly as it began. However in reality, nothing ever goes as planned – especially in childbirth! I went into this experience expecting to give birth naturally and ended up with a c-section experience to share.

My Childbirth Story

Fast forward to my due date. My OB-GYN induced me at 39 weeks and I expected to give birth naturally with an epidural. We arrived the evening before my planned delivery date at Plano Presbytarian Hospital (which I can’t say enough good things about!) and we were checked into a birthing suite in the labor and delivery wing. They get things like the baby heart monitor started and IV’s so they can begin administering medication to help begin the process. Your significant other will be given a pull-out bed/bench to settle in on while the nursing staff took turns inspecting my lady parts through the wee hours of the morning. Here I am in all my preggo splendar:

Plano Presbyterian Hospital – Maternity

The following morning, it wasn’t long before I felt my water break followed by some pain. It wasn’t crazy intense pain, but painful enough to be on par with a bad period cramp. For most of the day, I layed there waiting to dilate further but I remained stuck at 2cm. As the hours ticked on the pain intensified, so I caved and asked for my epidural. I expected that it would take an hour or 2 for them to get the medication together and administer it, but I was wrong!

The Epidural

Within minutes of asking, I had doctors by my bedside performing the procedure. No, I did not like the idea of a needle going into my spine, but a close friend of mine who recently gave birth had one and explained how it was worth doing and she was right! I will never forget how the attending nurse hugged me while the anesthesiologist did his thing. It quite honestly felt like I was getting a mosquito bite on middle of my back and before I could really get my head around what just happened to me, he said “ok – that’s it! All done!” and that was the end of my epidural experience. Getting either one of my small tattoos was much worse on the pain scale than this was.

Time for R&R

Once I had my pain controlled, it was easy to rest. It had been weeks since I was able to get ANY un-interupted sleep! The urge to pee constantly or general discomfort is what usually kept me from sleeping more than an hour at a time. For the rest of the afternoon, I continued to wait for my 2 cm to progress but it was a slow-go. I stayed there pretty much the entire day despite the nurse’s best attempts to have me shift from side to side.

Finally around 5pm, my OBGYN paid me a visit and did not like something she saw on the baby’s monitor. My son’s oxygen was diminishing and it was quickly becoming a situation in which he needed to come out – immediately. Then things took an even stranger twist that I wasn’t expecting…

One thing I can say for Plano Presbyterian Hospital is that they are highly skilled at what they do. The once bubbly and friendly staff suddenly became rigid and nervous as if they were rehearsing a fire drill. No more smiles, no more jokes and they began to only speak doctor-ese with each other. I got nervous with their sudden weird behavior and sensed something was up. My questions of doubt went unanswered as they quickly worked preparing for what was next.

The C-Section Experience

“Your baby needs to come out..” My OBGYN explained, “His oxygen is dropping to a dangerous level…” she continued explaining. Her voice sounded like the teacher’s from a peanuts cartoon and the only words that fully registered in my brain were “C-Section” and “emergency”. I didn’t really have time to come to grips with the idea and within minutes I was being wheeled off to the operating room.

I can still remember laying there on that cold operating table with the blue shroud draped in front of me. It felt as if I were there waiting for them to begin, but I couldn’t feel a thing. My husband sat close to my left shoulder with the video camera on the ready as the anesthesiologist hovered over me.  He asked me, “Can you feel anything?” and I replied, “no – nothing” to which he replied, “Good – because they are almost done!”

My life as a new mom

Moments later my son’s first cry filled the room. As a first time mom with no baby experience before this was one of the most surreal moments of my life. Turns out that my son had somehow wrapped himself around his own umbilical cord and was cutting off his ability to breathe.

I can’t say I have anything to compare my recovery time with as I’ve only delivered my kids by c-section. I will say this about it: for mamas worried about the scar, it sits ultra low on your bikini line and you would pretty much need to be bottomless if anybody was to see it.  Even if I wore the teeniest of  bikinis, you would never know I had children by c-section. My stretchmarks would give that away instead!

I will always have fond memories of my childbirth experience at Plano Presbyterian Hospital. A huge thank-you to the labor and delivery staff over there – with their help my son was able to safely make it into the world!