Birth Story

Before I get too crazy and forget all the little things that had to come to be in order for Aislyn to get here, thought I would share her birth story.

Our original due date was Saturday October 5th, this day came and went with no signs of her arrival, so we went about our day as usual and had dinner with friends that night.  On Sunday the 6th of October I woke up thinking my water had broke I got up to go to the bathroom and had pink watery fluids coming at a pretty decent pace.  I waited around for about four more hours and after calling the on base triage nurse was told to go to labor and delivery.  We got to labor and delivery and went to triage where they did the strip test to check for amniotic fluids, it was negative for both that and urine.  We were told it was cervical fluid leaking and to come back if contractions of more fluids continued.  So went home and watched general conference.  Around 3 in the afternoon I started getting some painful cramping that felt stronger than the Braxton Hicks' contractions I had been feeling for weeks.  I got up and made dinner  because at that point I really didn't want to go back to labor and delivery only to be sent home. I continued to have pains but gave them no merit seeing as though that morning when we had gone in I was still at a 1 and 0%  effaced as well as extremely posterior.  Around 8 that night they were getting stronger and closer together at 8-9 minutes apart and lasting about 30-45 seconds a piece.  I knew that they were not close enough nor long enough to go in yet so we went to bed that night but I couldn't get comfortable by 11 they were 5-7 minutes apart and about a minute each.  I still didn't want to go in so I was up and down all night with pains that were increasing.  I woke Mike up about 5 and said we needed to go in, I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes and they were about 1.5 minutes each.  I knew something was up, I was in severe pain and had been for about 15 hours since that previous afternoon.  We go to labor and deliver on the 7th at 5:00 in the morning and were put into triage once again for monitoring.  I was left in the room to wait for the doctor get there, by this time I was in tears with the increasing pain.  The hospital couldn't give me anything because I had not been admitted yet.  At 9:30 the doctor finally showed up and did an exam, saying my water had ruptured probably the previous morning and I was a 3 and 70% effaced.  They got me admitted and finally gave me an epidural to deal with the back labor pains I had been having since the previous afternoon.

Since my water had ruptured the previous day and I was not progressing fast enough they started me on pitocin to try and speed up the dilation and effacement.  I was on it pretty much all afternoon and was not able to really sleep, I had been awake for 24 hours at this point.  They kept checking me throughout the afternoon and it was not until around 9:00 p.m. that night that I finally made some progress and was a 9.  At this point I realized I was feeling a lot of pain on my right side, come to find out the epidural was wearing off on only that side.  I felt only the contractions and pain on one side and it was excruciating.  I was grasping the bed rails and cringing with every contraction.  They called the anesthesiologist back in and she was kind enough to reload my epidural so I wouldn't feel anything.  When the epidural finally kicked back in it was around 9:40 p.m. and I was fully dilated and effaced.  The doctor came in and had me start pushing.  This had to be the longest hour and ten minutes of my life as well as the most painful.  I felt every little piece of pressure as Aislyn was pushing her way out.  I experienced what a lot of people refer to as the "ring of fire".  She began crowning while I was contracting and the contraction would stop and the extreme pushing and pressure was terrible.  I began to lose my cool at this point and was beyond tired and exhausted.  I had Mike on my left leg and the nurse on my right leg, Mike also had to help hold my back up since I had been awake for almost 43 hours straight and in labor for over 30.  So after 43 hours of being awake and 32 hours of labor she arrived after seventy minutes of pushing she came out with a head full of dark blonde hair and alert as can be.  I had to stay in the bed for another hour while the doctors stitched up several internal tears that I obtained while pushing.  I was also too shaky to hold her from the epidural.  Mike was the first to hold her and it was such an amazing moment to see transcend upon him as he realized he was a father.  I finally got to hold Aislyn around 11:45 that night and was immediately in love.  I had my perfect little girl and have an amazing husband to share her with.  All the pains and long hours were totally worth it for the moment that you realize you brought a life into the world.

Aislyn Grace Struthers arrived October 7, 2013 weighing in at 7 pounds 2 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long at 10:49 p.m.











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