Ask The Pros
Pregnancy Photos
Pregnancy Calendar
Birth Plans
Birth Stories
Bookstore
Boy or Girl
Cesareans
Chat Room
Complications
Doulas
Educators
Episiotomy
FAQs
Feeding Baby
Fertility
Finding a Class
Health
Interactive
Labor
Message Board
Monitoring
Newborns
Newsletter
Postcards
Postpartum
Pregnancy
Reviews/Awards
Search
VBAC
Week by Week
Who We Are

Sydney Jennifer Randall Wilcoxson

My husband and I were married on June 21, 1997. We lived in southern Indiana, but my husband was beginning his masters degree at a seminary in Indianapolis, so we moved there to be close by. We had decided before we married that we were going to wait to have children, but our new downstairs apartment neighbors had a baby shortly after we moved in, and we fell in love with their daughter, making our decision much more difficult. Finally we decided that we weren't going to try to get pregnant, but we weren't going to not try. We left it in God's hands. I thought I would have a difficult time getting pregnant, but I was wrong.

I never had had a regular period, so I spent a fortune buying pregnancy tests over the next couple months, thinking I was pregnant when I was only just late. They all turned out to be false. Around Christmas time, my husband and I went back home for the holidays. On our way to my husband's (Kory's) grandma's house, we stopped by the drug store to get film. I was late again, but didn't really think I was pregnant. However, I picked up a pregnancy test just in case. While at Kory's grandma's, I spent time with Kory's cousin who was 3 months pregnant. Everyone was so excited for her, but I spent the whole evening secretly depressed because it wasn't me. We arrived back home from the party early in the morning, around 1:00 a.m after a midnight church service. I took out my pregnancy test and tried it before I got ready for bed. It turned out positive. I was convinced I did something wrong and so was my husband, so we decided to buy another one later in the morning if any stores were open on Christmas Day.

Christmas morning we stopped by an open drug store and picked up another pregnancy test. At Kory's mom's house I snuck into the bathroom after opening presents and tried the test again. Again it was positive. I was stunned and overjoyed. What was really great was telling our families we had a special Christmas present for them--a baby on the way! Everyone was thrilled.

The pregnancy started off kind of rough. I developed a yeast infection immediately after finding out I was pregnant. We chose to go to a certified nurse midwife center, which was wonderful. I made my first appointment after the infection begun. Because of the irritation, a vaginal exam couldn't be done. The midwife told me to try an over-the-counter yeast infection cream, but my experience with it previously was bleeding. I tried it anyway and I began spot bleeding. It wasn't painful, but very scary and I became convinced that I was miscarrying. We ended up having an ultrasound (only transabdominal--transvaginal wasn't possible). The ultrasound showed a healthy 5-6 week old embryo. I was due August 31st. All was well.

The next 9 months were up and down. I had one really bad cold and had to take cold medicine around 3 months of pregnancy, which scared me to death, and I had one horrible case of food poisoning at 7 months. Other than that, I felt pretty good most of the time. My nausea was minimal in the first trimester. I never had any weird cravings, except I loved french fries and ice cream (not together!). At 19 weeks I had another ultrasound and it showed a healthy baby girl. We had been convinced it was a boy, so we were surprised! When I was about 28 weeks, the gestational diabetes one hour test showed up positive. I took the 3 hour and it was also, so I had to begin a gestational diabetes diet and watch my blood sugar by pricking my finger. My gd was very borderline, almost to the point where there was some doubt I really had it, but I tried as best I could to stick to the diet. My blood sugar never topped 125, and that was a high one. Normally it was in the 60-80 range, even after eating sugar. It wasn't an awful experience, but one I could have done without.

August came and I was ready to have that baby! I was carrying really low and I had to pee literally every 5 minutes. It was miserable. The baby was extremely active and nearly drove me crazy sometimes. I had gained almost 48 lbs despite eating well and exercising. I felt absolutely enormous. ( I weighed 128 to begin the pregnancy). Her head had dropped by the last week of July, and sometimes walking was incredibly painful because of the pressure. She had to come early!

By the last week of August, she still hadn't arrived. I was getting depressed and convinced I was terminally pregnant. An exam showed that I was 2 cm and about 40% effaced, which could mean anything. I started chugging raspberry tea and walking 40 minutes a day. I climbed stairs to no end. Nothing. I sailed right past my due date. Everyone thought it would be so cool if I went into labor on Labor Day. (except for me--that was 8 days past my due date!). But it seemed appropriate. We conceived on Thanksgiving, found out we were pregnant on Christmas Day, heard her heartbeat for the first time on Valentine's Day...Labor Day seemed appropriate. And so it was.

At 6 a.m. on Labor Day morning I rolled over and felt a gush of water from my vagina. I woke up Kory and told him I thought my water had broken. I went to the bathroom and saw the clear liquid. I paged the midwife and told her. She told me to go about my day until contractions begun and all the other stuff they tell you when your water breaks. We called our families and the excitement begun. We got up and finished packing our bags for the hospital. We had chosen a hospital birth in case something went wrong.

By 3:00, I began having mild contractions. More like a continuous burning sensation. One of the midwives called me and told me she was in the office doing paperwork if I wanted to stop by and be checked out. We rushed over and she did an exam. Still 2 cm, only about 50% effaced. No real change. And she also found that my water hadn't broken, or rather that they weren't sure. The paper strip test didn't really show one way or the other and there was no puddling in my vagina. So we concluded that either it was a high leak or that the outer bag surrounding the inner bag had broken. I was depressed.

As the evening wore on, the contractions got worse. They consistently stayed around 7 minutes apart and did through the night. I was so tired because I couldn't sleep from the pain. By 3:00 the next day, it was still the same--painful and about 6 minutes apart. We went back to the midwives and I was 2 1/2 cm, about 80% effaced. I was so tired and in tears. The midwife suggested that I go to the hospital later that evening and get a shot of morphine to help me sleep if things hadn't changed. I had planned a natural birth, but I could tell it wasn't going to happen. We went to the hospital around 8:00 p.m. and checked in. I got my shot and slept terribly all night. The morphine didn't do much.

Around 8 the next morning the midwife came in to talk to me about my options. I was only 3 cm and 90%. I was so tired. She suggested that I try Cytotek or Pitocin. I hadn't heard good things about Pitocin, so I decided on Cytotek. She wanted to get me up to 4 cm so they could break my water. I took the Cytotek pill and waited. The contractions got worse and stayed around 5 minutes. I was in tears from the pain, so the midwife suggested a little Nubane to take the edge off. Boy did the Nubane take over! I still felt the pain, but was so out of it I wasn't sure what all was going on. Of course, keep in mind I also had very little sleep, so that didn't help.

Around noon I realized I wasn't going to be able to do this naturally. I didn't want an epidural, but at that point I realized I had to have one. Because of the Nubane, I didn't feel a thing during the administration of the epidural. In fact, I was half asleep during it. When the epidural set in, I began to feel better. The midwife checked me again around 2:00 and I was 4 cm. She quickly broke my water and said she'd be back.

Around 3:00 I began feeling pain on the left side of my abdomen. I knew that wasn't supposed to be happening with the epidural so they called the anesthesiologist back in. She gave me another dose of it in my IV, and the pain went away.

At 4:00, the midwife came in and announced I was 9 1/2 cm and 100%. It was time to push. Thus begun 2 1/2 hours of pure hell. My epidural didn't do anything for me and I pretty much felt all the abdominal pain there was. An hour and a half into it I begged to perform my own caesarian. My daughter was situated kind of crooked and that was slowing things down (as if they weren't slow enough to begin with!). I repeatedly told them I couldn't do it and begun crying hysterically. They encouraged me, but it only made me angry. This baby was in no hurry to come out and I was completely and totally exhausted. Not a good combination.

Around 6:00 the midwife called the supervisory doctor in. We decided to try the vacuum. At one point in the beginning the vacuum suction popped off her head and I was so out of it I thought they had pulled her head off. I couldn't cry from being so tired, but I couldn't believe it. When they continued on, I realized it was just the suction cup popping off. That is one thing that I can look back on and laugh at.

Finally, at 6:28 p.m., more than 60 hours from the first day, Sydney Jennifer Randall Wilcoxson came into this world on September 9, 1998 with a full head of black hair, weighing in at 8 lbs, 9 oz. Much bigger than we expected! I didn't have an episiotomy, but rather performed my own natural one-- about a 3rd degree tear. (It was fully healed and painless in 5 days). I dealt with a substantial amount of mild postpartum in the following weeks and struggled with breastfeeding, but I'm happy to say that 6 weeks later, my beautiful little 11 lb girl is thriving and all is right with the world.