The Birth Story of Hensley
April 13, 2019, the day I took a pregnancy test.
Knowing my body very well, I knew that I was pregnant far before I took the test, but part of me was afraid for it to actually be real. I went back into the bedroom and woke my husband up, telling him I was pregnant. He was still half asleep, but said “really?!” He hugged my belly and fell back to sleep (he’s pretty hard to wake up.)
When he did finally wake up he was super excited! He had always wanted to be a daddy.
I remember wanting to tell my cousin immediately. She has a little girl and has been waiting for me to get pregnant. So I took a picture of the test and I sent it to her. She was excited for me, I knew she would be. I decided to wait to tell anyone else until after we had an ultrasound done. Also because the 13th was my younger brother's 21st birthday, and I didn’t want to take his special day away from him.
Two weeks later we had a doctors appointment. We got to see our little bean and hear our baby’s heartbeat, I was eight weeks along. My husband and I were both pretty nervous to tell our families, but when we did everyone was really excited and supportive. We continued seeing the doctor, everything was going very well. My 20 week appointment I was sent to a high-risk doctor because I've had previous kidney issues and my doctor wanted to make sure my body was alright.
My mom and my cousin went with me, we were finding out the gender of our baby so my cousin went with so she could throw my husband and I a reveal party.
Two weeks after that appointment was our reveal! I was so excited to find out that we were having a little girl!! We both couldn’t wait to have her with us.
Two days after the reveal I got into a car accident.
From the second I got pregnant, my biggest fear was having something happened to our baby. My husband pick me up from the accident and we went straight to the ER. Luckily there wasn’t anyone there. I quickly got put into labor and delivery so we could monitor baby girl's heartbeat and movement. That was the first time I really felt her move good, which was a good sign. A lady had come in to do an ultrasound to make sure there wasn’t any fluid leaking. Everything looked great, but they wanted to keep monitoring for six more hours. Baby girl was fine, I had a few bruises from the airbags but all else was good. I had decided to take a few days off work to rest and let my body recoup.
Continuing doctors visits, baby girl was growing good. I believe it was around 34 weeks, I started to get real swollen; my lower belly had a little water pocket, my legs and feet were so swollen that it hurt to walk. I was retaining water horribly, so my doctor wanted to do monitoring for 45 minutes, once a week, checking baby movements and looking at fluid to make sure girl didn’t have too much pressure put on her. Again, everything looked good, my fluid levels were on the higher side, but my doctor wasn’t concerned.
At 36 weeks we went to a doctors appointment and discussed delivery options.
My doctor suggested a cesarean delivery, where I have such a tiny body frame and am under 5 feet tall, and baby was seeming to be a little bit bigger, my doctor said a cesarean may be easier on my body and safer for baby.
At this point, I hadn’t considered it at all. My plan was to deliver vaginally, unmediated.
After hearing what the doctor suggested and asking questions, my husband and I went home and talked extensively about what we were going to do.
We decided to go through with the cesarean for the safety of our daughter.
At our next appointment, we had a date for when we got to meet our girl!!
December 2, 2019.
My doctor said to wait for a call from the hospital the night before and they would give us instructions for what to do and when to be at the hospital. 9:30 PM December 1, the hospital called. I couldn’t eat or drink anything after midnight, I was told to shower or bath in the morning before we went in, and for us to be there at 5 AM for surgery at seven.
Monday morning, December 2 , 2:30 AM,
my husband and I got up, I showered, we loaded up the car, and headed to the hospital! We live about an hour and a half away from the hospital so we got up super early. It was a long, anxious trip to the hospital. We got to the hospital right at five. The nurses put us into an OR prep room where I changed into a gown, the nurse (Kirstin) and I went over my medical history, I got my IV and baby was monitored until it was time for surgery. When Kirstin did my IV, I got sick to my stomach. Between not having anything in my stomach, being nervous, and then the pain from the IV, I threw up.
After two hours of getting fluids and having the baby monitored, it was finally time to get her Earthside!
The anesthesiologist came in to go over the procedure, my photographer showed up so we took some final pictures of my belly, then I headed to the OR!
My husband had to stay behind to get all gowned up to go into the OR, plus he couldn’t be there while I got my epidural. While I got prepped for surgery, our photographer showed my husband how to use her camera so he could get photos of the birth of my daughter. When I got into the OR, the anxiety and fear hit me hard.
It took everything in me to not burst into tears. Surgery has always been my biggest fear so walking back without my husband, realizing what was about to happen, really scared me!
In the OR, Kirstin helped me get up on the operating table, I was sitting up so the anesthesiologist, Shawn, could do the epidural (another thing I was so scared of!) Shawn did really good! I liked him a lot. He walked me through everything he was doing, and it didn’t hurt near as bad as I had anticipated, my IV hurt way worse!
Once he was finished, he and Kirstin helped me lie down (it still blows me away as to how quick you go numb) Kirstin put in my catheter, then my doctor came in to perform surgery!
I then started to freak out again, my husband wasn’t there yet! I thought he was going to miss the birth of his daughter!
My emotions were all over the place.
I was scared knowing I was about to get cut open, I couldn’t feel my body from the chest down ( it’s the strangest feeling), worrying about my husband missing the birth, and being thrilled to finally have my girl here... I was a mess. The doctor prepped my belly, as far as cleaning it and whatnot. I heard him say “almost there, where’s dad at?” Seconds after that, my husband came in and asked if I was alright. I don’t remember seeing him, but I heard his voice so I felt much better.
I then heard my doctor say “oh my god.” I later found out he said that because of the fluid that was released when he cut into my belly. Shawn also kept asking if I was okay, I told him it was hard for me to breathe, like my chest was really heavy. He assured me that it was just from being numb, so I tried to focus on my breathing to stay calm.
Shortly after, my doctor said “here she comes!” I was waiting to hear her cry. I heard my husband snapping pictures, I heard the nurse say “7:24 AM.” My Hensley girl was born!!
I heard her scream. I heard another nurse say “6 pounds 13 ounces.” I remember thinking to myself, “7:24, 6 pounds 13 ounces. I will never forget that."
Hensley continued to cry, the nurse wrapped her up and handed her to my husband. He then put Hensley‘s cheek to mine and she immediately stopped crying. She was so warm, she knew she was home. She knew exactly who I was. I’m still surprised I didn’t cry. I think with all the medications in me, my emotions weren’t quite there yet.
After a few minutes of Hensley and I being cheek to cheek, my husband had to take her back into the prep room that we began in, while I got stitched up. It took about 40 minutes, but only felt like 10. The anesthesiologist kept asking if I was okay, I remember thinking it was weird for him to keep asking the way he was. After about the fifth time he had asked, I started to feel sick and boy did it hit fast! I said I felt like I was going to throw up, and the second I started to, Shawn turned my head toward a bag that he had ready! He said my blood pressure had dropped and that it was common for that to happen, then he put some oxygen on me.
I laid there for a little longer and my doctor said he was finished. Where I couldn’t move, they had to lift me up to place me back on a hospital bed. I couldn’t feel it, but everything was wet.. the blankets, my gown, even the pillow that was under my head. I had THAT much extra fluid in my body. I remember Kirstin putting a new gown on me before she took me back into the prep room.
When I got back in the room, before I saw my husband, the anesthesiologist said, “oh! Dads got baby!” Hensley was wrapped up in his arms, I couldn’t wait to get a good look at her. The nurses were getting me all situated and my photographer was taking pictures, but I barely noticed. I just wanted to see and hold my girl, since I didn’t get to in the OR. I remember asking my husband “how does she look?” He said perfect. He was so right. He handed Hensley to me, she was so little but beyond perfect.
We started breastfeeding and it was really great! We had a good latch right from the beginning. I really wanted to breast-feed so I was glad we didn’t have any troubles there. After a little bit the nurses said we could move into recovery. My husband gathered our things, and I was able to hold Hensley while being wheeled into our room. This is where we spent the next four days. A very long four days.
The first day, Monday (delivery day) wasn't so bad. We cuddle our little girl, we were so in love. I was tired, the pain medication really knocked me out. It made my head feel spacey so I just tried to sleep through it. Later that day the nurses came in to get me to walk.
Walking and the movement wasn’t bad, it was getting in and out of bed that hurt most. Also, every few hours the nurses had to come check my bleeding and push on my belly, that hurt too.
I didn’t get much sleep between the nurses coming in and out, being in a uncomfortable bed, and wanting to constantly look at my baby. My husband had to sleep on the couch, it wasn’t comfortable either.
The next few days were pretty much the same.
Every morning around 6 to 7 AM my doctor would come in to check on my incision. I got pain meds every 6 to 8 hours. I would feed Hensley. I would hold her while she slept. I couldn’t stop looking at her! I still cannot believe I created a perfect little human! Every so often the nurses would take her to the nursery so that I could get some rest. They would bring her back every four hours to be fed. That was pretty much the routine for our four days. I can’t remember if it was the second or third day but I was able to get my catheter and IV out. It was so nice to be able to move freely! I could finally shower!! The third day, Wednesday, my photographer came to take “fresh 48” newborn pictures. She offered to do them because she wasn’t able to document Hensley‘s birth, although my husband did get some AMAZING photos. Our families were also by to visit. My dad was so excited! He was the first to visit. My sister-in-law came. My mom and my grandmother had also come. Everyone else waited until we were home. The final day!! Thursday, December 5.
My husband and I were beyond glad to finally be going home, sleeping in our own bed.
My doctor had come in as usual, he cleared me to go home I just had to have my staples removed and have a nurse go over the discharge papers with me. He sent a nurse in to do so. She had me lie flat so that she could take the staples out ( again, didn’t hurt.. I freaked myself out for nothing.) she talked us through what to do at home, regarding Hensley's umbilical cord and my incision, how to care for them and so forth.
Then we were on our way!! A nurse had cut all of our wristbands off and we are headed for home! We were beyond relieved to be in our own home, to not be interrupted by nurses at night. It was pure bliss, having our perfect little girl home with us.
Postpartum/ Home life I feel like I definitely got it easy, at least a lot easier than some new mommy’s. My husband took SUCH good care of Hensley and I. He made dinner every single night, (still does 4 months later) he made sure to wake me up when it was time to eat and take my pain medications, he stocked the bathroom with my girly things, he literally took on the role of mom and dad for the first little bit while I was healing.
Bleeding
I didn’t bleed very much, for very long.. I was grateful for this, I anticipated it to be much worse.
Pain My pain really wasn’t bad unless I got up to fast, or sneezed (sneezing was not pleasant whatsoever.)
Sleep For the first little while, sleeping wasn’t something that happened around this house. Hensley had a rough time sleeping in her bassinet so I would end up holding her. She would fall asleep on my chest almost every night, same with nap time.. so I didn’t sleep much, I did it to myself, but I wouldn’t change what I did at all. I loved cuddling her tiny little self.
*4 months later *
After 4 months we have established a bedtime routine, even if she does have to have her pacifier to go down. Hensley is now formula fed instead of breastfed (my production kept getting worse and Hensley wasn’t getting enough to eat.) She is just under 12 pounds, 23 and a half inches long! She can roll from belly to back and ALMOST back to belly (she stops herself because it scares her to roll) she can almost sit up by herself, she LOVES to dance and listen to music or be hummed to. She has a favorite toy, and she likes car rides. We are all so so happy. Hensley brings so much joy to my husband and myself, and all of our family members. We didn’t plan this baby, but will probably plan a second one. 😉
Thank you so much for reading Danielle's cesarean birth story of her daughter Hensley! It is filling my heart reading about how beautiful these births have been despite not wanting to be giving birth by cesarean initially. I loved how she described all of her emotions leading up to the actual surgery and how the anesthesiologist was able to read her body cues to know that she was not feeling well. I also really love how her photographer was able to give her husband her camera to be able to take pictures of the birth in the operating room. I really hope that hospitals start to allow photographers in the operating room more often to capture these moments with their partners and babies.
If you want to read more about baby Hensley and learn more about Danielle and her family you can follow her on instagram @mommad.1
Birth story wrap up
In Danielle's birth story she mentioned how her provider was concerned with her babies size in conjunction with her small stature.
However, in her case she also had health issues that she felt best having a cesarean birth and I truly believe listening and trusting your intiution is the MOST important thing because you know your body and your baby better than anyone.
I wanted to cite an evidence based article relating babies size in pregnancy. Since this comes up very often in pregnancies with a hospital provider, their fear of "big babies" can steer the parents to having c-sections because of this. So knowing the evidence behind this can help parents have TRUE informed consent when they have a suspected big baby.
As always please never hesitate to reach out to me!
Instagram @tristabdoula
or
email me at transformedmaternityandbirth@gmail.com
If you have a cesarean story and or VBAC story that you would like me to share I would LOVE to feature you here on my blog. Birth happens in many different ways and it can be really informative and helpful to read and listen to them when we are preparing for our own births or trying to heal from a birth that maybe didn’t go the way we envisioned. You can send me your birth story on my email listed above OR click on this link birth story layout. Its usually easier to email me your story if you already have it typed out.
When one woman supports another, we strengthen our voices and we start to wake up a generation that has more choices and therefore more empowered births.
I hope you have an amazing day!
Xo, Trista