My Birth Story

Hey guys!!!

For my first blog I thought I would just tell you guys about my birth experience.

As a first time mom {and as a control freak lol} I did so much research and reading throughout my pregnancy as to prepare myself for Amelia’s birth. Everything I read said that you can plan as much as you want, but when it comes down to it, it’s just out of your hands. That was the understatement of the century.

Up until I was about 38 weeks pregnant, I planned on having an all natural birth. No pain meds for labor, no epidural, nothing. When I went to my doctors that week, they told me that my baby was breech. For those of you who don’t know, that means that her head was up in my ribs and her feet were facing down. I had to face reality… I was going to have to have a c-section. I had been planning for almost 9 months for this birth, and I hadn’t researched or read one single thing about c-section births because it just wasn’t a thought in my mind. I planned for an all natural birth. I had one week until the surgery, and I came to discover that during a c-section, there really is not much in your control at all.

Okay, I just want to give a heads up to moms reading… I did not have a good experience with my c-section. I don’t think it was horrible, but it just isn’t something that I wanted and I didn’t feel comfortable with the whole thing. I had never had surgery before, or any major medical procedures at all.

So we arrived at the hospital the morning it was scheduled and went into triage. This is where they prepped me for surgery. I had a bad experience with getting an IV started right from the get-go. There were 5 nurses, 2 anesthesiologists, and my doctor all surrounding me in this little room poking at me from all angles trying to find a good vein to start my line. They ended up putting my IV in the top of my foot! {Ouch!!} Then it just got more scary from there. Neil wasn’t allowed into the operating room until I was all set up and had already received my spinal tap. So I walked in the OR wearing nothing but my gown, and they had me crawl up onto the small metal operating table and they had me sit up with my legs straight out in front of me. There were about 6 people running around this small room, hooking me up to machines, putting a catheter in me, and giving me my spinal tap. That was probably the scariest part of the whole experience. I was in a room full of strangers and I couldn’t move any part of my body. They would just move me around and they got everything all set up before Neil came in. Once he was there I felt so much better.

The actual surgery was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I didn’t feel any pain at all, it was just very uncomfortable, because I could feel some pulling inside my body. I could feel when my doctor pulled Amelia’s body out of mine. It was the craziest feeling in the world. Once she was out, my doctor showed her to us over the drape that was in front of me and that was it. I don’t mean to sound cliché, but she was the most beautiful and perfect baby I had ever seen. They cleaned her off and gave her to Neil and we were both just in tears because we couldn’t believe that she was all ours.

The next few days in the hospital were a whirlwind and I don’t remember much of it because it was all a blur. I was on a lot of pain meds {absolutely necessary} and we were both running on basically zero sleep. But the whole experience was just the coolest and craziest thing either of us had been through. Nothing was what we expected it to be. But we went home a few days later with our gorgeous bundle of joy!!

If you guys have any questions, I would love to answer them! Let me know if you want me to make another post that talks about c-section recovery because that is a whole other battle that moms have to go through. I really don’t know how I made it through while taking care of a newborn!

Also, I would LOVE to read about your experiences! Comment below!!

Thanks for reading my birth story!!

Shelb xoxo