The Birth Story of My Daughter Ella Kate

Right around this time last year I was preparing to have my first daughter, Aria. I published her birth story here, and boy is it different from this one! Let me just begin by saying that both my daughters’ births were early and unexpected. Both birth stories are special to me and both will be cherished memories forever.

One small disclosure: This is a honest and vivid description of the true birth story of my daughter. I did not hold back on details as I wanted to express the true emotion and experience that I and my family went through. If you are expecting please know that every pregnancy and birth story are different and it is not to be compared to.

This is the birth story of my daughter Ella Kate…

Because I had a 4th degree tear with my first daughter, Aria, my doctor strongly suggested from the very beginning that this birth be a C-section. I was not really comfortable with the idea all throughout the pregnancy and constantly fought with myself on what I wanted to do when the day came. For many reasons having a C-section just didn’t seem right, but with more education the further along in my pregnancy I got the more it became clear it might be the better way for both my baby and myself.

I was afraid that I would not have as intimate of an experience if I was to do a C-section. And I was afraid that my bond would not be as strong as it was with my daughter Aria. I felt like I would be taking the easy way out and would be viewed to others as a self mother. And I understood that a C-Section would greatly reduce risk to forever damaging myself in ways that could cause many future problems, as well as it could be dangerous for my daughter if I had issues pushing her out when the day came. But nothing was a sure guarantee and I felt guilty taking the easy route when I did not know how the harder route would go… Anyway… that was my internal battle.

Rather than have to choose, though, my sweet little Ella chose for me…

It all started on a typical Saturday night. My hubby and I tucked Aria into bed and settled in the living room to enjoy our dinner and a movie like we always do. We were about half way through the movie when I got up to pee for the umpteenth time and heard Aria coughing a little bit on the baby monitor. I took a peek at her and she appeared to be fine so I sat my big bellied self back down onto the couch to proceed with the movie. A few moments later Aria coughed again but this time it sounded funny and my hubby jumped up really fast to go take a look at the monitor again.

This time he saw that something was spraying from her mouth as she coughed and he ran so fast up to her room I swear I have never seen him move that fast in my life! I hobbled as quickly I could up the stairs behind him and when I got in the room to see what was happening it was revealed that she had been throwing up in her bed. Her sweet little crib was soaked in puke and she was pale lying in it.

Oh my gosh, can I just say right here that I am sure my hubby and I were just as pale as she was at this sight.

Our hearts broke for her, we have never to this day dealt with her being sick and we were a little bit scared. I grabbed her up and headed for the bathroom in which I peeled off both her and my clothes and got into the tub to fill it up and hold her and comfort her. She was limp and shaky. My hubby went to work cleaning up her bed.

Long story short we spent the rest of the night taking turns holding a compulsively throwing up little Aria, sick with a nasty stomach bug. I could tell she was so uncomfortable and it killed me to be so helpless, knowing all we could do is hope that it passed through quickly and that holding and shushing would bring her some comfort….

By morning the nasty bug seemed to have run it’s corse and Aria was back to acting like her normal self, clapping along to Mickey Mouse and playing with her toys. I spent that entire day cleaning and sanitizing the entire house including her play area and wiped down all her little toys. I was determined to make sure she never got sick like that again!

That next night Aria slept good and I got up several times to check on her and of course to pee as a 38 week pregnant lady usually does. I remember specifically getting up at 5am feeling perfectly fine. At 8am I heard Aria stir in her crib so I got up to go get her and start the day when I placed a hand to my stomach and thought “Oh…I don’t feel right..”

It wasn’t a full 3 minutes before I was handing off Aria to my hubby and running to the bathroom to be sick.

This nasty bug got my pregnant self and slammed me hard. I had not felt this sick in years… I spent the entire day going from bed to bathroom getting sick compulsively over and over again. My hubby kept coming in to check on me and it was about 6pm in the afternoon when he started to get concerned. You see Aria got sick but she never ran a temp. I however kept running a high temp and at 6pm it hit it’s peak at 102.7. My hubby had been calling my doctor all day and was informed that because I am pregnant I cannot have a temp that goes beyond 100.4 or I will need to go into the ER.

After giving me some Tylenol and calling the doctors again, my temp resisted to lower and it was time for me to go into the ER to make sure the baby was ok. I remember getting to the ER by about 8pm that Monday night. We had to park somewhat far from the entrance due to the parking lot being so full and during that walk to get inside…

I clearly remember feeling a few contractions…

Once inside we were brought to triage and I was hooked up to an IV and a baby monitoring system and there I sat for about an hour. During that time I threw up one more time, got my temperature down, and maintained contractions. There was a good chance I was only contracting due to dehydration, but after an hour of them not ceasing the nurse decided they better check my cervix and make sure things were alright.

I was only dilated to a 2. The new plan was to monitor me for another 30 minutes and then probably send me home to rest. Ella, however had other plans… I got up to use the bathroom and when I got back I sat down and started to look through my phone for a bit. The contractions started to get stronger and I started to complain a little to my hubby that I thought I might end up going into labor tonight. All the memories of labor from when I had Aria the year prior flooded back into my memory and I got a little nervous.

All the sudden the nurse rushes to my bed and says I need to move, the baby’s heart rate had dropped extremely low.

This scared me but I did what I was told and started getting turned this way and that way…. It took almost 5 minutes before they got her heart rate back up! The most agonizing 5 minutes of my life. I was so worried I was hurting my sweet baby girl or that my fever hurt her. The nurse then immediatly called my doctor who instructed that I have a C-section and that this baby comes out ASAP.

Everything from that point on happened so fast! I was still feeling very sick and not to be too informative but I was still running to the bathroom getting sick at the other end all the way up until right before surgery. My doctor showed up 40 minutes after it being decided I would be having the C-section tonight, and 20 minutes after that I was in the OR!

You guys….. From the time the incision was made to the time I was all sewed back up took 15 minutes in total!

I couldn’t believe how fast the whole thing went! Entering the OR I was fully scared. The white walls and floor with a metal operating table in the center was beyond intimidating. There was the anesthesiologist in one corner preparing his stuff and then there were other people, I am not sure their jobs, and little metal tables with operating tools and sharp objects. The doctor was in one corner with his phone plugged in – he was selecting a playlist to play during the surgery.

Everything moved so fast. I was instructed to sit on the operating table and curl forward as they administered the spinal tap. I will be honest here and say that aside from a sting and funny nerve feeling, it did not really hurt to get the spinal at all. Also, I do remember being fully coherent and not one bit loopy the entire time.

They laid me down on the table and I clearly stated that I did not feel numb yet, so as to make sure no amount of cutting or slicing would begin until I said so!

A sheet was drawn up so I could not see past my own chin, and in walked my hubby. He was almost skip-walking in, and just so you all understand, he is the kind of guy that finds things like surgery fascinating.

(My hubby once had surgery on his neck because of a herniated disc and he requested that his surgeon take pictures of the process so he could look at them later. He even got a video of it! …The stomach on some people am I right?!)

Any who, my hubby proudly stood up peeking over the sheet for the entire surgery watching the whole thing and asking questions along the way. I actually had to turn away and not look at him for fear I would puke myself silly watching his eyes widen. Ugh!

The doctor told me he was going to test out the numbness and would not begin until I said so. However 30 seconds later I heard my baby girl cry so clearly he had already started way before then and clearly I was much more numb then I thought!

I cried when I heard her little voice! I couldn’t believe she was really here, tonight! How did this all even happen so fast!

The next half an hour was probably the worst of the entire night. I started to shake after they took Ella to the warming table to measure her and clean her up. With the shaking I began to tighten up and as I was stretching my neck hard to see my little girl all the sudden my whole neck and shoulders charlie-horsed so bad… Oh my gosh it hurt so bad! I remember the anesthesiologist telling me that it was normal and to give it a few minutes and it would go away. But it was an agonizing few minutes to say the least.

On top of that I still hadn’t seen my daughter. Because of the fever I had, she came out with a fever as well and low blood pressure so she had to be taken with the NICU nurse and monitored for a short period of time first. Ella ended up being just fine but I did get to hold her but not until I was in post-partum. My hubby however did get to see her and hold her right away so at least she got that bonding time with her daddy. And to this day I can tell she has a special connection to him.

Once I was all sewed up and moved to the post-partum room, both my hubby and myself were so ready to get some rest.

By now it was a little past 11pm and it felt like the day would never end. We turned down the lights and settled in with our new little bundle of joy for the night. Luckily our sitter was able to stay over night at our home to watch our other daughter Aria.

Now you would think the story would end here, and I wish it did! But no…. About two hours after we dozed off it was time for me to wake up and feed Ella. I called over to my hubby to wake him up so he could hand her to me. But when he stood he instantly put a hand to his stomach and I thought.. “Oh no…” Within moments he ran into the hospital room bathroom and proceeded to be very sick with, you guessed it, that same darn stomach bag myself and Aria had!

Because he was throwing up the nurses said he couldn’t be around a newborn and he was soon sent to the ER. ….Long story short my hubby ended up at home the entire time I was in the hospital fighting this bug while I was left to take care of a newborn and my healing body on my own. My poor hubby got hit much harder with this bug then Aria and I did all together, and it killed me to know he was at home by himself with a fever and sick body hardly capable of even reading my text messages! He later told me he was so delirious he didn’t know where he was at one point! Scary!

While he was fighting that bug I spent the next 36 hours worried about Ella getting sick, bonding with her, and frantically working to find someone to watch Aria since my hubby was too sick and I clearly couldn’t keep her in the hospital with me.

For those of you who do not know, my hubby an I moved to Las Vegas about 6 years ago and do not have any family out here at all.

We made plans to have family in town for the birth, but with all that happened and Ella coming early we were not prepared with extra help. Plus we assumed worst case that my hubby would stay with Aria, who knew he would get so sick! Anyways, that is why this story got even more crazy and we ended up in the pickle we were in.

Suffice to say everything worked out in the end and my friend stepped up to help with Aria until my sister got into town. I was able to call in a cleaning and sanitization crew to come to our house and deep clean it before I brought Ella home, and within a week my hubby was back to 100%.

I ended up leaving the hospital 48 hours after Ella was born and I am now 11 days post-partum and feeling like I almost didn’t even have a baby.

The C-section healing process has been so much faster then the recovery I had with my first daughter, and even though I did not get that instant bonding time with Ella, we have grown a bond that is just as strong and special since then. (My mom said we can nick-name Ella Influenza Ella! Teehee!)

For those of you expecting or planning to have a C-section yourself, please note again that every pregnancy and birth experience is different and this is just mine. I want to be open and transparent in these birth stories to share my true experience with you all with the intent of bringing some relatability.

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