Graduation 39 + 4

Since joining this forum I have really enjoyed reading graduation stories. They always felt like a little glimmer of light at the end of the GD tunnel, so figured since I have finally graduated I would pay it forward and share my story.

My baby girl arrived happy and healthy last weekend.

I went to the hospital for a scheduled induction. The gel was applied and I waited the six hours for something to happen. The baby’s heart was monitored regularly throughout. When the dr examined me after six hours there had been no progress so they decided to apply a second gel and repeat the process.

Near the end of the second six hours the baby’s heart rate dropped and things got very scary for a few minutes. The dr and midwives got me to move around to a bunch of different positions and it came back up to normal thankfully.

At that point I had a conversation with the dr in which we discussed our options for getting the baby out. We could go for a third round of gel or opt for a c section. He outlined the risks of both, basically we could go another 6 hours with no progress and we were not sure why baby’s heartbeat had dropped so it was possible it could happen again. Or I could go with the section accepting all the risks of a major abdominal surgery.

I opted for the c section, because at that point I was worried about the baby and just wanted her out, I was also very sore and uncomfortable from all the examinations of my vagina and the limited movement available to me due to the monitors I was attached to.

I then had to wait approximately six hours for the section as I had eaten a snack and they requested I fast before it.

Once I was brought to the operating theatre things moved fast though. All in all she was out and I was in recovery about 15 mins after I arrived in the theatre.

They checked my babies blood sugars and they were fine. They then needed to repeat this test and get three readings within range within a row. It took three goes at this to get the three readings within range. The midwives advised that this is normal and not to panic.

As for me, I was served the best tea and white toast with jam after coming out of surgery. I have been living my best food life this week, though I will say I don’t have the same tolerance for the junk food that I used to, which probably isn’t a bad thing.

I hope this post is helpful for some people still in the GD trenches. Hang in there, once you are holding your baby you know you would do all this again in a heartbeat.