K is for Krystin!

I went through hell 9 years ago.

My original due date was August 22. Taylor was born September 27. You do the math.
I carried her over by a full month! Doctors said I was measuring too small and that my dates must have been wrong. They were sure I wasn't due. I begged for an amniocentesis to verify if her lungs were ready yet, I KNEW she was ready to come out. What they found was meconium in my amniotic fluid, not a good thing, so they agreed to induce labor.

After nine hours of petocin induced labor, we're talking extremely violent, painful, no relief labor, I requested an epidural. I couldn't take it anymore, I was a scared 16 year old girl who was in no way ready for that type of suffering.

The next 3 hours went by rather smoothly, they were able to up the pitocin dosage and prepared to deliver my baby. I was told to she would only weigh 5-6 lbs and would most likely need to have a special team assess her due to the miconium, the baby can swallow it and be become ill.

Suddenly, more people were in the room, a lot more. I didn't think too much of it. They put oxygen on me, I assumed that was normal. A nurse told me we needed to do some "practice pushes". I couldn't feel a damn thing below my waste, how was I suppose to do that? But I tried. After 15 minutes, the doctor looked worried and said, "Let's try the vacuum." The what?
The vacuum kept popping off her crowning head, a no go. "Let's try the forceps." The WHAT?
The first pull of the forceps pulled me half way down the bed. This kid was S-T-U-C-K, stuck.
My mom kept looking at my monitor with tears in her eyes. I was confused, wasn't this a happy thing?
The doctor then declared,"We might be looking at a C-section." Doctor #2 "I don't think there is time, try an episiotomy." (I asked for a mirror, I wanted to see what was going on down there.)
The next 20 minutes are very blurry, I remember them tell me to push, push, PUSH! And then watching the doctor reach INTO me and pull out my baby. I then blacked out for a moment.
When I came back to reality, I froze. Something didn't seem right. Where was Taylor? It took me a moment to see through the crowd of hospital people (medical term) surrounding her. They put my oxygen back on, apparently I kept taking it off and throwing it at people.
After what felt like hours, they announced a girl! 8 lbs 3 oz 22 1/2 inches long!!!!!!!!!!!
(So much for that 5-6 lbs?)
It took another 2 hours to take care of me. My placenta had ruptured during delivery, causing Taylor's heart to drop drastically with each contraction and push. That was why my mom was so worried, she saw it on the monitor, dropping and not coming up all the way. That was why there was no time for a c-section, Taylor wouldn't have lived long enough. Her cord was also around her neck. She was too large a baby for me to push out, I suffered a fourth degree laceration and it took nearly 200 stitches to repair the damage. I wouldn't sit without a doughnut pillow for 3 weeks. They also had to "manually" remove the after birth due to it rupturing.

I'll never forget the moment when they finally handed her to me. The relief out weighed all the pain I just went through. She was bruised from the forceps, her lips were a little blue from lack of oxygen, but she was content. She looked around with eye drop filled eyes, she whimpered just a little. She was beautiful. Born Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 5:07 am.

Taylor might have been born to an under-age, inexperienced mother, but because of her I grew up. Without her I would not have such a full life. She taught me responsibility and what love truly is. She is the best big sister any kid could ask for, her siblings look up to her and know they can rely on her as a friend. I can't believe it has really been 9 years since that miserable day, she was worth every stitch, contraction, and moment of that hell.