Power Within You: Kristine and Magdalena's Birth Story

Written by: Kristine Foley
This is Kristine's first child

I woke up to the alarm which was set for 4:45am.

Butterflies... is all I remember feeling.

Good ones, nervous ones, scared ones... but mostly excited ones :) So ready to meet our baby girl!! Rode to Aspirus Hospital with the hubby, my mama, and Desi-Lou! SO much excitement in the car!!! Grandpa Mark and Grandma Vickie met us there later. Checked into the nurse's station, so scared they were going to tell us that our induction was post-poned once again... we quickly nabbed the last birthing room available :)

They gave me the medicine to help me start contractions at 6:30am. Around 8am they broke my water. When they broke my water they also found meconium, and lots of it. I could tell by the look on my mom's face this wasn't a good thing. Meconium is the earliest stools of an infant. Since it was present when my water broke the chances of meconium aspiration increased significantly for Maggie in my belly.

If Maggie was to inhale the meconium the inhaled meconium could partially or completely block her airways. Although air can flow past the meconium trapped in the baby's airways as the baby breathes in, the meconium becomes trapped in the airways when the baby breathes out. And so, the inhaled meconium irritates the baby's airways and makes it difficult to breathe.

We decided that we would see how I progressed. If I didn't progress then we would have to think about a non-vaginal delivery, but I wasn't ready to even think about that yet. Throughout the day when I had to be in bed we played Mama Mia the movie over and over and over again :) Singing along and laughing about how cute Pierce Brosnan was calmed my nerves and made time pass more quickly. We threw in some Adam Sandler in there too for some laughs, 50 First Dates and Mr. Deeds :) Having my mom, Desi, Mark and Vickie there, plus of course the hubs was SO nice!! Lucky me :) Daddy and I walked and walked the halls of the hospital, we did everything we could to help move labor along. Every hour on the hour I was checked. Every hour on the hour we progressed slowly, but surely. First we were dilated 2-3, then 3-4, them 4-5, then 5-6. Contractions became intense. We had to stop numerous times during our walks so that I could breath thru each contraction. I held on to Daddy's neck and we would sway left to right together. Breathing, deep breaths.

Contractions were coming on so strong by this time. The contraction medicine was upped as far as it could go. Nate and I had discussed pain options throughout my pregnancy, so at this point when they asked if I wanted an epidural I gladly accepted. After SEVEN pokes to my spine with the biggest needle I have ever seen, I was ready to throw in the towel. After all that, the anesthesiologist still couldn't get the medicine in the right spot, so we settled for an IV thru my spine and he gave me everything he could.

A 20 min procedure took an hour, it was painful to say the least.

By 6pm I was still holding at about a 6, with no progression in the last two hours. The IV medicine thru my spine was helping with the painful contractions, but gave me the uncontrollable shakes. Lynn came in and expressed her concern about no progressing, and we quickly decided a c-section would be the safest thing for Maggie. I was so overwhelmed by this "quick" decision that I cried and cried until my whole body was trembling. I can recall Nate telling me that everything was going to be all right and that our baby girl would be here soon. He gowned up and within 30 min of our decision we were being wheeled into the operating room.