Alaina Rose Shurtleff

Here is Alaina's really long Birth Story.... Finally



Well On Thursday July 28th Brett, Kaiya and I all went to the hospital around 8 am. We were going in for an Amnio test to check to see if Alaina’s longs were developed enough for us to induce her. An hour after being there and prepped Brett’s Mom came and picked up Kaiya to take her to the beach for the day with her cousins. SO for those of you who don’t know I have a major fear of needles. I just don’t like the idea of it being inside me. So an amnio was a very scary thought to me. But a little back ground on why it was needed….
I don’t do pregnancy well. Throughout Alaina’s pregnancy I was on bedrest since 18 weeks because they were concerned with her size. I kept trying to tell them “I make small babies” but they still wanted to watch it. From 25 weeks on I had to go in 2 times a week for NST testing (hear monitoring) and for Ultrasounds to check her fulids. I also had to go to a specialist every 3 weeks to check on her growth. Alaina always stayed in the 5th -7th percentile. To add to all of this, I get EXTREME itching when I am pregnant. I got it with Kaiya as well, it’s called Cholostasis. So we wanted to induce at 37 weeks, but we also wanted to make sure Alaina’s lungs were ready to enter the world.
So at 37 weeks 4 days Pregnant here we are ready to do our Amnio. I had the day before made 135 cookies for our Dr’s and nurses. I let the Dr know that he could only have cookies if the amnio came back positive for her lungs and we got to stay. Otherwise the cookies were going home with me! For my amnio I ended up with 2 nurses, 1 was new and asked if she could watch the procedure, so I said sure. Well then my Dr told me they had 3 new residence that wanted to watch an amnio and asked if it was okay if they came in as well. So I ended up with 2 Dr’s doing the procedure 3 watching, and 2 nurses. It was a small crowded room. With Brett smashed in the corner by my head. They had to numb two different spots because I got light headed and had to move to my side which made my fluid shift. I got really light headed for it, and had to have wet towels and ice chips to get me through it. I told you I am a needle wuss. But it didn’t really hurt. Just the needle that did the numbing. The Dr told me when he was done, after looking at my placenta he would bet me 6 cookies she would come back ready to go. Haha We waited around for about an hour for the results. One of the residence came in the results that her lungs were developed and asked where his cookie was .

On to the induction: Well they started my induction around 3pm that afternoon. They started out with some meds to try and get things going since I wasn’t close to being dilated or effaced. After 4 hours of that they checked me and no progress had been made. So at 7 they put in some more. Around 9:30 I asked if I could get up to walk around. We were making laps around the delivery floor and every time I passed this one nurses station I would have a contraction. YAY finally something was happening. At 11 I got back in bed and they checked me again, fully prepared to just insert another dose. Well to every ones surprise I was at a 3 YAY, now on to the potocin .

So we started potocin around 11:30. Because I tested positive for GBS I had to have 2 bags of antibiotics before I delivered. So they got those going. Around 12:30 I got my epidural, yup another needle. By this point my contractions were getting kind of strong. So when I was sitting up for the epidural I got a contraction and it was so hard to sit still for it. Also I was going faint from the needle in my back. Dang needle fears. They asked me to hold still just a bit longer and then moved me to my side. After a little bit it kicked in and was AMAZING. It worked so good through the rest of my labor. So much better then my last one, although it was pretty good too.
So not much happened between then and 5 am. Well except at some point, I don’t know the time, my blood pressure dropped. I started freaking out, saying I needed to throw up and couldn’t breathe. I kept coughing and she kept telling me to calm down. Which wasn’t happening. It didn’t last long and they got my blood pressure under control and I was back to sleep. I woke up around 4 am was joking around with my nurse again. She said that made her feel much better that I was back to normal haha. They came in at 5 and broke my water.
So throughout my whole labor process I had nurses checking out the clothes I had made for Alaina. So My nurse asked if she could see some of my other clothes I have done. So around 5:30am I pulled my lap top and we were looking through my stuff. At this point I could feel my contractions getting a little bit more intense but I could breathe through them. Around 6 I told my nurse I needed to put the lap top down cause I was feeling a ton of pressure. I said I even thought I needed to push. So Brett who had been sleeping on the couch came over to see what was going on. She checked me and said Alaina was right there and it was push time, she said try not to push while I get the dr. Yeah TRY not to haha. Well the Dr came in and it was the most interesting experience.
I felt so calm and totally in control. I could feel my contractions enough to know when to push and they left it all up to me. As contractions came I pushed about 3 times per contraction. After 3 contractions, our little Alaina was born at 6:22am, She was 5 pounds 11 ounces and 17 ½ inches long. Everyone in the room was saying how much she looked like Kaiya. But I could tell she was Alaina, her own special person.
With Kaiya I had, had a ton of post partum bleeding and rushed to the operating room. They were ready for it this time but it never happened. The Dr even complemented me on my great control while pushing. I told her I had been “pushing” since I was a baby. Lots of practice haha. I was lucky not to have any tares and by later that day I was already feeling really good.
We had a few scares in the hospital. They said they heard a heart murmur in Alaina’s heart and made us stay extra for her to have an Echo. They said if we didn’t get the results back by 6pm on Sunday we had to stay another night. Well at 5:45pm they came in and said she was clear to go. That her heart would be fine and everything should close up. After such a long pregnancy we are so happy to have our family of 4.