A Retrospect on our daughter.

Our daughter turned 11 yesterday. To be honest, I was a little down most of the day. I know I should be celebrating her birthday, however, it's getting harder and harder to let go. Eleven years ago, we arrived at the hospital that morning to be induced and I spend most of the day in labor. After about 4 hours I received an epidural due to some heavy back labor so the afternoon wasn't too bad as I watched Wimbledon all day. Towards evening, it started to get interesting. We began having episodes where her heart rate would drop very low and I started running a fever. I never dilated passed 4 cm in nearly 13 hours. After a near code scare, we got wheeled in for an emergency C-section where we delivered a barely breathing, blue 9 lb little girl. We watched as they revived her as they gave her oxygen and suctioned her mouth and massaged her chest. My husband immediately wanted our pastor called in incase she didn't make it. "She'll be fine!" I told him. It turns out, my body does not cooperate in preparation for childbirth. She was also face up instead of down, and thanks to several other complications, she never would have been delivered naturally and survived. The C-Section not only saved her life, but mine too. I had a 104 degree temperature at her birth, thanks to a uterine infection and the stress of the birth. I remember our doctor telling me, "Just 10 years ago, I don't think either one of you would have survived". That's truly a wakeup call to our mortality. She was revived fine and we went home 4 days later. She has had no lingering effects, and she made all of the milestones flawlessly. In this day and age where homebirths, and so on are so popular I always make a point of telling folks that my daughter and I wouldn't be here today if we had opted for a non-hospital birth. Leave a C-section as an option if things don't go as planned. It might just save yours or your childs life!