Taylor's birth story

I want to remember the details from the days my children were born. The next two posts I write will be about those special days.

Taylor was four years old on May 7^th. Today is August 3^rd, over 4 years since I gave birth to her. I know the details of her birth story will be lacking, but better late than never, right?

My due date for Taylor was May 2^nd, 2008. That day came and passed with no baby. Now for a first time mama, that was a hard concept. I figured that if her due date was May 2^nd, then she would be here by May 2^nd. Hum, I was WRONG. Taylor was comfy in there and decided to stick around for a few extra days (much to her mama’s disliking).

On May 5^th, around 8pm, I started having contractions. They were anywhere from 8 to 10 minutes apart and were not painful. To say I was excited would be an understatement. In fact, I was so excited that instead of sleeping that night, I lay awake in bed. When we rolled out of bed the next morning around 8am, my contractions were about every 6 minutes apart. We decided to run some errands to pass the time. By noon my contractions were every 5 minutes and becoming slightly more painful. We decided to go back home, grab our hospital bag, and head to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 3:30pm. We went up to labor and delivery and I was hooked up to some machine to monitor my contractions.  Once the nurse determined that I was in fact having contractions, they checked my cervix…only 3 cm dilated! WHAT?! I had been in labor for 18 plus hours and that was all I had to show for it?

Even though I was only at 3cm, I was still admitted into labor and delivery. I put on my awesome looking hospital gown and began pacing up and down the hallways with Mark by my side…up and down, up and down for what seemed like hours. 

Once per hour I was hooked up to a machine to monitor the baby’s heart rate. At 9 pm I was only 5 cm. I was tired and feeling defeated. I REALLY wanted to have a natural birth, but it was not looking good. We decided I would go one more hour and then we would have the nurse check me again. My contractions were coming every 2 to 3 minutes. 10pm came around and I was at 5.5cm which was not very encouraging. However, we said let’s try for one more hour. At 11 pm I was falling asleep in between contractions and was only at 6 cm. At that point, I said give me the epidural. 

Within 30 minutes, I had the needle in my back and I no longer felt contractions. So I slept, well sort of. Apparently, the epidural caused my contractions to stop which meant I needed Pitocin. The Pitocin caused Taylor’s heart rate to drop, so I was taken off of it. But then my contraction stopped again.  Back on Pitocin I went and Tay’s heart rate once again dropped. At that point I was given oxygen. 

At 6am my doctor came in and broke my water. He also told me that Taylor had possibly swallowed meconium. If this turned out to be true, she would have to go straight to the NICU without me getting the chance to hold her. I was devastated.  I had been waiting over 9 months to meet this little girl and now there was a chance I would have to wait even longer. 

At 7am I was only at 8cm. We had to start talking about a c-section. This was NOT my plan. None of this was my plan. But it was becoming a reality. We did not have to make the decision immediately, but it was looming over us if I did not progress. 

My nurse came in at 8: 30am to check me one last time. I was a 10!!! I had to hold off pushing until my doctor came (go figure).  By 9:15 he arrived and I was ready to push. Taylor Paige was born at 9:33am. After 37 hours in labor, my baby girl had finally come!
And thankfully she had not swallowed meconium so she got to come straight to me!

Side note….my labor and delivery nurse is also a good friend and neighbor of mine. I was beyond thankful to have her there. She stayed way past her shift and slept overnight at the hospital just to be there for me. She was also the one who made me some sort of heavenly drink right after Taylor was born (after 18 hours of only ice chips)! Love her. 

Taylor’s birth went far from the way I planned. But she got here and she was perfectly healthy.  My nurses were awesome and I have had no complaints about the care we received.  I was just happy that our first born was here.