Pineapple's Birth Story

Pineapple was born at 7:03 pm on Monday, November 23, 2009. She weighed in at a whopping 5 lbs. 5 oz. She is 17 inches long.

My OB started the pit drip at 10:15 am. I was having some mild contrax, but nothing more than what I have been having the last couple of weeks. The nurse suggested that I change positions and had me sit in a rocking chair that they had in the room which was great, because my water broke. This is around 12:30pm. I waited for my body to take over but the contrax were still extremely tolerable. Around 3 pm, I got up to use the bathroom, I had a good gush of water, and my contrax stopped. Back to the birthing bed so I could be checked, and I was only at 3 cm. My new nurse suggested a couple of different positions that I could try to help move things along, and at this stage, I was ready to do anything. I was thinking though, with the change of position, my water gushing, and the pit, things would start to move along.

I had asked for a dry towel, and when we removed the one that I had been using, I noticed some bright red blood, and my nurse said that sometimes that happens. There wasn't a lot, nothing more than a small pin prick, so I dismissed it. My OB came back in to check on me, and I was still at 3 cm. He told the nurse to up the drip every 20 mins, and that he would be back, he had to run to his office. (Which I found to be hillarious, but you have to know my OB to understand why.)

By 6 pm, they had the drip at 30, I still wasn't really feeling any contrax, so they gave me an internal monitor to see what was going on. I was on oxygen at this point, but Pineapple's heart beat kept dipping, there was blood coming from somewhere, and I was only dilated to 4. My OB was pissed (his words). He kept looking at the printout from the monitors, and shaking his head. The Chef said, "Follow your gut"; My OB then decided that I was going to have a C-Section. It was the best thing for both Pineapple and myself.

I was trying at this point not to freak out... The Chef was already on edge. Once we got into the OR though... I lost it. I started bawling. My nurse was wonderful. She held my shoulders as I was bent over. She looked me in the eye and told me that I could do this. She even held a tissue so I could blow my nose. I received a spinal and some other narcotic. I don't remember a lot... but I do remember apologizing to them for "being a drunken elephant." (When they were getting me settled on the table) and then I started laughing. Now see, I am one of those people that laugh when they are nervous, and I would think having an emergency C-Section qualifies as a nervous situation.

Before he started the surgery, my OB said to get The Chef in there. He called him by name, which is one of those small things, but it's one of the reasons why I like my OB as much as I do. Next thing I know, The Chef is at my head, talking to me, and the only thing I could think of is that my fingers were numb. I found that odd that my fingers were numb.

Once Pineapple was born everyone in the OR commented on how little she was. The reason why I was being inducted was because I had gestational diabetes. She was supposed to be my biggest baby, and here she is my smallest. My OB was even more upset, because we still do not know why she was so little, why she wasn't tolerating the contrax, and why I was bleeding.

From the time that it was decided that I was going to have the C-Section to having her, it was roughly 25 minutes. For them to finish with me, it was around an hour.

Pineapple and I were released on Thanksgiving. Who could have asked for anything better to be thankful for.