It’s not until after I became a mom that I’m interested in hearing other people’s birth stories. It’s so true that every birth is unique in its own way and every baby wants to be born differently. Read on and find out how baby Liv made her dramatic entrance to the world. Spoil alert, I was in the hospital for 10 days!
35 week 0 day pregnant
It was an uneventful night. Johnny and I were home packing our hospital bag thinking it’s about time to start preparing. There were a few things I’ve yet to buy so I picked up my laptop, walked from the dining room to the living room. Just as I was walking, a gush of warm water leaked out of my lady parts. “Am I peeing? This is a lot of pee”. I looked down and saw the puddle of water, soaked my pants. I looked up and said to Johnny, “I think my water just broke”. I started panicing and said to Livvy, “It’s way too early! Only 35 weeks!”. I didn’t feel any contraction at all!
We rushed to the hospital and were admitted right away. The OB said the plan was to have me stay in the hospital, hoping I’d keep the baby in my tummy longer. They hooked me up to antibiotic IV because the risk of infection to baby and mom is high when the water breaks. It’s like having an entrance for bacteria to go into the sac. Generally speaking, babies get delivered within 48-72 hours after the water breaks. There is no need to induce labour right away because any additional time in the womb is a blessing to the baby – they grow much better in the womb than out in the world.
35 week 1-3 day pregnant
I honestly don’t remember much about these 3 days in the hospital. Johnny had been with me the whole time. I remember we’d high five with every 12 hours passing because it meant Livvy was getting all the nutrients and growing she needed in my tummy. I was doing so well that the doctor even talked about sending me home. Nurses were telling me encouraging stories about how some moms, whose water broke early, were able to keep the baby in tummy until week 37 (which would make the baby a term baby).
35 week 4 day pregnant
Then the day came. I started having cramps around midnight so we called the nurse. The nurse said there is a chance this was just false labour and needed to observe a bit. I remember feeling annoyed because it was late at night, I just wanted to sleep. The cramps didn’t go away and even got stronger. “So this is what contraction feels like” I thought to myself. The nurse called the on-call OB over, who examined me and said I am about 2 fingers dilated. Things became very real very fast. They wheeled me over to the birthing room, hooked up heart monitors for baby and me. Johnny sat beside me, watching the heart rates for both of us going up and down. By early morning, I was only 4 fingers dilated. Six hours passed and only progressed 2 fingers!? Gahhh! The OB came and said they needed to induce labour. Doc wanted me to seriously consider getting epidural because the pain grows much more intensely when inducing labour. I said yes to the epidural and they got me hooked up to the machine. I was in heaven! How nice it was to be pain-free!
Meanwhile, the heart rate monitors kept beeping. Beep, beep, beep! Both of our heart rates were high and wouldn’t go down. After an hour or so, I was told that the high heart rates indicate that there was an infection brewing for the baby and they need to do an emergency C section. At this point, even inducing would’ve taken too long.
Off I go to the surgery room. While I was wheeled to the surgery room, Johnny was prepped (changed into a scrub) in another room. I could not stop shivering, it was the most uncomfortable thing. The anesthetist said the shivering was a side effect of the epidural and the freezing. I was numb from the chest down during the procedure so I didn’t feel much. Some pushing here and some pulling there, in less than twenty minutes, Livvy made her dramatic entrance to the world. Johnny couldn’t stop crying. We went through so much for the last five days. This moment seemed too real and hard. The nurses showed me Livvy on a screen as she was being cleaned. At barely 5lbs, Livvy was tiny and precious.
Livvy’s Day 1-6
It’s hard to describe the next six days in the hospital, full of emotions and chaos. I was happy that Livvy was healthy. I was in pain as freezing subsided. I was overwhelmed by all the ins and outs of breastfeeding. I was loved by all my friends and families. I was relieved to finally have Livvy in my arms.
The doctors and nurses checked on Livvy constantly because she was born prematurely. She was such a fighter and passed almost all the tests. The only issue she had was that she had jaundice, which was easily treatable with phototherapy. She only had to go under the lights for two rounds but seeing her lying in the blue light broke my heart. Her tiny little body with eyes covered (to protect her eyes from the light). She’d roll away from the light because she hated the bright light and cried for being uncomfortable. We took day and night shifts to make sure her eye patch stayed on.
I, on the other hand, wasn’t doing so well because it turned out I had a urinary infection from the catheter. The infection was from a drug resisting bacteria that turns out to be the same bacteria that was infecting Livvy and I, and caused me to go into labour. This bug was so relentless that it even infected my c-section wound after I was discharged from the hospital! Talk about the amount of antibiotics I had to take!
With strong antibiotics, pain killer, stool softener and narcotic, I was under so much medication that I barely remember a thing from those six days. But Livvy and I were very loved. My parents, mother-in-law and Johnny took turns to stay with us.
The day she was born was magical. To say it changed my life is an understatement. We were so worried and distracted about her being a preemie that we didn’t thoroughly enjoy her birthday. Even with the pain, I’d relive the day over and over just to savour every moment. And now, I enjoy being with her every day. Seeing her grow, discover her personalities, what she likes and what she doesn’t like. We love her so much!