INOVA Fair Oaks Hospital | Fairfax, Virginia | December 1, 2020
ARIELLE HAS ARRIVED!!!! This is going to be a long post, BUT I promise it is worth the read!!! There is also cute pictures at the bottom!
It was 6 o’clock Tuesday morning. I woke up late for work (luckily). I stood up and immediately felt a GUSH! I thought I peed myself at first but then realized…MY WATER BROKE! Arielle was coming earlier than her due date. I was 38 weeks + 4 days. I yelled to Michael that my water broke and he needed to let his work know that we were having a baby ASAP. I called my OB and she told me that because I was Group B Strep positive I needed to be at the hospital within 2 hours. My contractions didn’t start until 7 AM. We made it to the hospital by 8AM. I took my COVID test (which was very unpleasant) and they confirmed my water broke and I was in labor. They had to immediately begin the antibiotics for the Group B Strep.
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We were admitted to Labor & Delivery. Initially, I didn’t want any intervention (going natural or unmedicated). However, they started me on Pitocin because once your water breaks, baby needs to be out in 24 hours. And since this is our first baby, they anticipated a longer labor. At my 38 week appointment I was only a .5cm dilated, I thought by now I must have been at least 3cm because the contractions were way stronger and almost on top of each other, than when we came in at 8AM. – NOPE! I was only 1cm by 1pm and hearing that made my heart sink. I waited about another hour before asking for the epidural. They also gave me the peanut ball to help me dilate. I was disappointed with myself because I really wanted to give birth on my hands and knees and without an epidural – I even apologized to Michael for getting one, because it was a goal I couldn’t meet (he definitely told me I didn’t need to apologize). But, I am thankful I got one because I was able to sleep for a few hours before my OB came in to check me at 5pm.
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I was only 3cm by 5pm. It was starting to look like a long night ahead. My OB said she wasn’t coming back to check me til 9pm because I was going so slow. At 7:15pm it was the nurses shift change. Our Day L&D Nurse (Tiffany) introduced our Night L&D Nurse (Amber) to us. Amber never left our room after that…
I told Amber I needed to push the Extra Epidural button…twice in a row. I told her the pressure in my pelvis was intense and was getting lighting crotch BIG TIME (if you don’t know what I am talking about…look it up). I even felt a burning sensation. At this point the babies heart rate was over 200bpm and you could hear her moving around like crazy in the womb. I was really scared they were going to tell me she was in distress and we had to do an Emergency C Section. I started to cry, partly because of the pain that I was feeling but also because I was so scared something was wrong. Amber paged my OB – Dr. Pickford and someone to add something to my epidural to make it stronger.
She checked me… I was 10cm and could feel Arielle’s head pushing down. She had me do one practice push and as I did she immediately told me to stop pushing. She literally opened the door and grabbed nurses from the hallway. The poor anesthesiologist barley got my epidural booster in while they were suiting up, prepping the room and coaching Michael on what to do.
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After 14 hours of labor and pushing through 4 contractions (10-ish mins), our Little Mermaid became part of our world at 08:22pm. Arielle Lorraine McHugh came in weighing 7lbs 14.6oz and was 20.5 inches long. Michael got to cut the cord! We both sobbed as Arielle lay on my chest. A moment in time we NEVER thought we were going to experience…was here, we got to experience it. She also latched almost immediately for breastfeeding too.
Huge THANK YOU to our Doctors and Nurses!
Dr. Pickford – OB
Tiffany – L&D
Amber – L&D
Margret – Postpartum
Yvonne – Postpartum
Brittany – Postpartum
Julia – Postpartum
INOVA Fair Oaks Hospital
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Stay tuned for more photos of Arielle!!! I will be posting blogs of her growing up!