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Our precious Dallas Rose, the absolute inspiration behind this blog, and the ultimate goal in the Journey to Baby D, made her debut March 19, 2019, at 2:38 pm weighing an itty bitty 5lbs 6oz.
Her entire entrance into this world was nothing but beautiful. The path to her life was inspiring, and the story she will create one day is going to be inexplicably amazing.
I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia at 36 weeks pregnant. That week I had multiple doctors appointments and one with a perinatologist to approve an early induction. During the appointment, we found Dallas had only one artery in her umbilical cord instead of the normal two. There was not too much concern for that since she would be coming out within the week regardless. We knew it meant a possible low birth weight though.
On March 18, 2019, I was admitted to the hospital to begin my induction at 37 weeks and 2 days pregnant. Up until this point, I had felt fine about doing this without my husband. I had not allowed myself to completely breakdown and really feel the fact that he was not going to be there. The second I put on the hospital gown and sat on the bed, it hit me. All I could do was cry and finally allow myself to be sad for ME and not just for him.
The induction began at 10:50 pm with a tiny dissolvable tablet that was placed under my tongue. It was a four-hour medication that would be repeated up to four times if I was not making progress. A short 30 minutes in I started feeling contractions, and they were not calm ones. They started already at 2-3 minutes apart and I felt for sure I would not need the second dose. After what seemed like a lifetime, I was checked for progress and had only made it to 1/2 inch dilated so was given another tablet. The contractions had really picked up at that point and I asked for some pain medicine in my IV. LET ME TELL YOU, that juice knocked me out. It did not take the pain away by any means but it made me so sleepy that I did not have the energy to even react to the pain. It was glorious.
Things certainly picked up from there and after the second round, I no longer needed the tablet and was put on Pitocin. I asked for the epidural at 2cm because the contractions were only a minute apart and I knew I had a long way to go. Getting an epidural was the part of labor I was the most scared for. The pain scared me less, pushing a human child out of me scared me less. After poking myself with 100 needles to get where we are, I knew I could handle one more. It took the anesthesiologist 35 minutes to put the epidural in. The absolute hardest part was not moving during contractions. If anyone is between whether or not to get one because of fear, I say do it. If I could do it, so can you!
The last thing I remember between that point was being checked and being 4cm dilated. When I say I slept the entire labor, I literally slept the entire time. It was a 16-hour process from induction to delivery and I slept about 12 of those hours (yassssss). After being at 4cm, I knocked out again and woke up two hours later at 8-9cm dilated. We were thinking it would still be a couple of hours or so to get to 10 and then some time pushing - they kept saying I would be pushing a while because she is my first. WELL, 30 minutes after being at 8-9, I called my nurse to say I had to use the restroom. She came in and checked me and casually stepped back and said "okay! we're there, lets practice pushing!". She had said multiple times it would take a while of pushing to get Dallas out, so she had me do a practice push and right after the first one she made me stop and called the doctor because it was NOT going to take a long time, Miss. Sass was there and ready to go.
At this point I was feeling it all, every contraction came with the absolute NEED to push. It was the oddest feeling. She put my legs up and we got ready to go!
Unfortunately, she came into the room and said my doctor was in a c-section. Not only that, but after his c-section, there was another mom on her 4th baby who was going to be delivered before me (again, assuming my first baby meant lots of time pushing). For forty minutes I sat there with my legs up, contractions less than a minute apart and told not to push. Something that came so naturally and was beyond hard to control. Between every contraction, I just pictured how much we worked for this, that after all of the time and money and pain we were finally here. I managed not to push at all while we waited and breathed (and cried) through the contractions. Finally, like a knight in (blue scrub) shining armor, my OB walked through the door. He smiles, comes to my head and says "so we are ready to have a baby?", I think my face showed it all because he kind of just walked away! He takes a peek at the open show and literally rushes to put his gown and gloves on.
"It is your first baby, there will be a lot of pushing", nope. Four pushes and our sweet miracle was born with her daddy on facetime to be there for it all. She came out in one push, whole body. I feel that along with her, an entire flood of emotions came out too. They put her on my chest and all I could do was cry. I did it. I had a baby without my husband by my side. I injected myself over 100 times with medicines I will never be able to pronounce, I drove with my husband hundreds of miles to doctors appointments hours away. I got pregnant without my husband there, I had a baby without my husband there. I endured something I never imagined having to go through to have a child. I did it and she was here.
My epidural had completely worn off by the time she was born and I felt every single stitch the doctor gave me for my tear. It was the worst part of the entire pregnancy, labor, and delivery. I was coming off the bed in pain and could feel even the string of the stitch going through my body. While everyone ran to the baby, my mom was there by my side crying with me as I broke down from the pain of the stitches and the pain of missing my husband.
My induction began at 10:50 pm Monday, March 18 and Dallas Rose was born 2:38 pm Tuesday, March 19. The labor was everything I could have wanted, her entrance into this world was just as beautiful as her journey for it.
We pray every day for daddy's safe return home to us and count down the months until she can meet him.
xoxo, ALD