Arya's birth story

At 37 weeks, I started experiencing intense itching of the hands and feet. I took hours of itching to get a little relief. The whole weekend I did everything I could to stop the itching. Monday morning (Oct 29) I called my midwife. She immediately wanted me in for testing. I had labs done and a non stress test done. Everything with the non stress test came back perfect. Later that day I got my lab results back. My Dr immediately called me and it was confirmed that I had Cholestasis, a liver disease you get while pregnant. I was put on 2 meds. One for my liver and one to stop the itching. Besides the itching, it can cause pre-eclampsia and stillbirth. Most Dr’s will induce at 37 weeks. Because I was already 37 weeks and I really wanted to go as long as possible (I wanted to make it through Halloween and Rilee’s jog-a-thon also I had promised a friend I would have her daughter over for a sleepover on Nov 9th), me and my Dr. came up with a plan. I was to take the meds twice a day, non stress tests twice a week, see my Dr. once a week, and labs once a week until I deliver. I also had to do kick counts at home a few times a day and watch for the symptoms for pre-eclampsia. On the morning of November 9th, we attended Rilee’s jog-a-thon. After, Larry, Judy, Robbie and I went and had breakfast. We came home,I took a shower, Robbie laid down for a nap, then Larry, Judy and I went to the store. We got home about 12:30. I was just sitting on the couch and I received a phone call from my Dr. around 1pm. She wanted me in at 3pm to be induced! So we got our stuff together, called my friend to let her know what was going on and come up with a plan for her daughter. We left the house at 2. Picked up Rilee and our friends daughter, we dropped her off with another friend and headed off to the hospital. We got there around 3pm. We checked in and got to our room around 3:30pm. Shortly after that my Dr. came in and checked me, I was already at 5cm. I had no clue. I was not feeling any contractions. My Dr. broke my water and called the anastealogist. He was there within a few minutes and started my epidural. Because I was not feeling any pain he put me on a lower dose, but it came with the button where I could give myself a dose of it every 10 minutes if needed. I was then hooked up to the monitors. Because I was already at 5cm we decided to wait on the pitocin. All of this was done by about 4:30pm About 7pm my Dr came in and checked me and I was still at a 5cm. So we decided to start the pitocin. About 8:45pm my Dr. came in and told me she was leaving for the night and introduced me to the oncoming Dr. I asked for some benadryl because I was itchy. Not sure if it was from the epidural or from the cholestasis. I told Rilee he needed to get ready to go home because it had been a long day! Robbie told him he would go out to the waiting room and play a few more games with him before he left. My mom was with me in the room and around 9:20 I was finally given the benadryl. Also I felt one of the contractions. It still did not hurt but I went ahead and pushed my epidural button to give a boost. At 9:30pm the Dr. came in and I had my mom go get Robbie. The Dr. checked me and she said I was going to have her NOW! Robbie got into the room and he called told his parents that it I was going to start pushing and it would be about 45 min. Around 9:40 I started pushing. I pushed 3 times, one of the nurses made me laugh. Robbie was like dont laugh and the Dr said no go ahead and laugh and at 9:42pm Arya was here. She was then laid on my chest for about 20 mins while the Dr. finished up. She was then cleaned up and weighed. She was 7lbs 14oz. Robbie then went out and got Rilee. We had a few moments just the 4 of us. Robbie then went and got Larry, Judy and Michael. They came in and meet Arya. We said goodnight to Rilee! Then my mom came in and got to meet her! About an hour later we were taken to the recovery room! Here is my pregnancy collage!