Baby Dahl's Birth Story

Date of Birth: 12/01/11
Original Due Date: 11/28/11
Weeks Pregnant: 40 wks 3 days
Baby's Weight: 6 lbs 6 ounces
Baby's Height: 20 inches
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On November 30th I laid down for bed after finishing some work and noticed that I was exceptionally wet. Figuring it was the lack of sex, I grabbed a pair of fresh panties and went into the bathroom to wash and change. By the time I returned to my bedroom I was soaked again, but the baby was moving like she always did and I wasn't even having any Braxton Hicks contracts. So I fixed myself up and laid down.

By 5am my contractions were very much present, and very painful (plus the bulge in my stomach had me slightly worried) so since my midwife was out of town this week I grumbled as I went to the Womens & Childrens Hospital instead of my nice warm birthing tub. Upon arriving they took me straight up, gave me an ultra sound to relax my fears about the bulge (everything looked fine) and I was 5 cm dilated. They took some blood and then took me from the exam room to the laboring room, by this point the contractions were exceptionally painful and I betrayed myself and asked for the epidural... I was in a hospital after all, might as well make use of their techniques since they were not going to let me use any of mine. The epidural was a wonderful thing but by 10pm it was barely dulling the pain and I was at 9cm with no natural urge to push.
This was when I started to worry.
The nurse topped off my epidural and told me to rest for a bit longer but then we were going to push regardless of the baby being ready for it or not.
At the 22 hour mark since my water broke we began to push. 6 hours later we'd made no progress and the babys heartbeat was beginning to drop quickly.

Emergency C-section was all we could do. The knife was in long before I was numb. I felt the first cut and the doctors hand before blacking out. When I woke up my throat burned like I had swallowed a cup of razor blades.
The nurse came in and told me that my daughter was doing fine, and then began to tell me how my body began to shut down when my daughter had been removed from my body and all the steps they had to take to save my life.
My daughter and I spent the next 5 days in the hospital. My daughter was fine, but they were fairly certain I needed a blood transfusion. I declined, believing I was/am fine... I just needed to be home.

Today was our first full day home and we're both doing better.