Aylin Marie Melton; born to Jeffrey & Kristina Melton at 11:12pm on Thursday February 19, 2009 at Northwest Medical Center, Bentonville Arkansas. Attending physician Amy Sarver M.D.
On Wednesday 2/18/09 we had our fun little episode where I had started labor, but because I had not yet dilated the hospital sent us home. Thursday however was a whole other story. After coming home Wednesday afternoon my contractions never completely stopped. They continued to stay on a 8 - 15 minute schedule. And only let up for about 3 hours from 9pm to Midnight and allowed me to sleep for that short period of time. I continued to have contractions all day Thursday varying between 4 minutes and 15 minutes. Jeff took me to my doctor's appointment at 3pm, and I had managed to dilate to a 3. With that the doctor decided she was sending us to the hospital and was going to have them start me on a pitocin drip to get my contractions more regular and progress the labor. We were hoping this would be the case, so we had packed the car with our hospital bags in hopes that we would end up at the hospital.
On to the hospital; we checked in at 3:50pm. We were settled in a room and I had an IV, put in immediately. Since I had already been having contractions for over 36 hours I decided that an epidural didn't sound so bad after all. I was already exhausted from being in labor so long that it wasn't worth it to try to tough it out. So in went the epidural. Not a terribly fun process, felt like little electric shocks in my back. It's very hard to hold still and curve your back out towards the strange sensations when all that is going on. But I managed OK, and in the end it was the best thing I could have done. Once the epidural was working they put a catheter in, and started the pitocin drip. The pitocin started working immediately. They got my contractions between 2-3 minutes apart and they stayed that way. However when they tried to move me to lay on my left side little Aylin decided she didn't like that so much. Her heart rate started to slow down. So we tried my right side instead... she didn't like that either. So on my back it was. The more the labor progressed, the harder her little feets started pushing on my ribs. Making it harder and harder for me to breathe. I got to where I had to constantly push back with my left hand, else the discomfort become overwhelming.
After 3 hours on the pitocin drip however, my dilation was not progressing past a 5, and Aylin still had not dropped down into the birth canal. Apparenly my pelvis was not only too small, but was more of a football shape rather than round, so Aylin's head wasn't getting through. So the nurse came to inform me that if in the next 30 minutes no progess was made, the doctor was going to do a c-section instead. Rather than risk the health of our little girl and continue to stress her out. 30 minutes came and no progress was made. The c-section was imminent. I was freaked out. I had never considered that a c-section would be necessary. So the thought of one at that point with no time to really think about it, really freaked me out. I started to get naucious. They brought in 3 different kinds of acid reflux medication (1 thru the IV, 1 in pill form, 1 in liquid form) so that while on the operating table laying flat on my back I wouldn't have any problems with being ill... Well my nerves caused me to throw up the liquid. But the other 2 seemed to do OK. As I was wheeled from the nice calm semi-dark labor and delivery room to the super bright operating room the panic started to set in. I didn't have Jeff, I was still having to push on Aylin's feet in order to breathe, and I was completely numb from my ribs down. It was scary for me when they transported me from the bed to the operating table because I was so numb, and they were rolling me from one side to another, and I could do nothing for myself. Once flat on my back in the room the lights were so bright it made it hard for me to keep my eyes open. Then my arms were brought away from my body and put on boards so that they were straight out from my shoulders. This caused huge discomfort because Aylin was still pushing on my ribs. Then Jeff was there. I was still scared to death, but at least I had my hubby to talk to me and try to calm me down. In all of this probably less than 5 minutes had passed since I had been wheeled into the surgery room. And it was only a few more before they were holding sweet little Aylin up over the screen for us to see.
At that moment, there was nothing else in the world for me. Our sweet little daughter had arrived, and I could breathe again! For more reasons than just because her feet were no longer on my ribs! The moment they held her up over the screen I started bawling, and ooooh-ing and aaawwwee-ing. She was just the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It didn't take them long to have her wraped up and brought over to Jeff to hold. He held her close to my face so I could kiss her, and say sweet things to her. Then they were both off to the nursery. They continued to work on me a bit longer, cleaning things up and stitching. Then I was wheeled down to recovery for about an hour while they watched me and waited for the epidural to start showing signs of wearing off. Immediately after surgery, probably because of all my nerves and adrenaline, I started to shiver tremendously. Down in recovery they put 3 warmed blankets on my body, and one around my head to keep my shaking to a minimum. Somewhere around 1pm I was brought back up to the maternity ward and settled in to a recovery room, and shortly there after my hubby and daughter joined.
I was exhausted, and over joyed. Even though things hadn't gone as I had expected them to, the end result was still amazing. I wouldn't change the events for anything. We stayed in the hospital all day Friday, and were released shortly after noon on Saturday. Both Aylin and mommy had recovered sufficiently for release, and mommy for one was ready to be home where I could rest easier.
Jeff has been an amazing support for me, and continues to encourage me every step of the way. He is such a wonderful husband, and takes such sweet wonderful care of me. God has truly blessed me with such a great little family.
Since arriving home, Aylin has been breast feeding like a dream. It was a bit of a rough start, but things have settled down into a rhythm, and she eats and sleeps well. With Jeff's help I have been getting lots of rest and time to recover. Aylin had her first check up at the pediatrician's office Monday, and she is looking wonderful. She had only lost 9oz. She has continued to eat very well, and constantly amazes her daddy and I. Our hearts are over flowing with love for this little one.
