Birth Story

I love telling my birth story. I love reliving that amazing day. Describing it takes me back there. To the room, the smells, the memories of my miracle baby being brought into this world. Meeting the love of my life, the man of my dreams.


I am not sure where I left off but for a variety of reasons (including a history of heart decels in the baby) the doctors allowed me to have an induction at 39 weeks. I could have gone on to 40 or 41 weeks but my anxiety was taking over and we were being seen 3x a week for non-stress tests and Biophysical Profiles and those were quite expensive. Dh would be able to schedule time off (not a deciding factor but a factor nonetheless) as well. He was going to take 2 weeks of vacation. At 38 weeks I was 1-2cm dilated and 90% effaced. It was decided that I would just go in the morning of 39 weeks and they would start pitocin. No need for cervical ripening.

Dh and I arrived at the hospital on Tuesday September 15th at 8:00 a.m.. They found us a room and we unloaded all of our labor stuff. I changed into the gown and the nurse got me hooked up to the I.V.. By the time they finally started Pitocin it was 9:30 a.m. I had been having contractions for almost 2 months at this point, I really thought starting the pitocin was just going to trigger immediate painful contractions. That was not the case. They kept increasing it and I was contracting every 5 minutes but they were not painful at all. After a few hours of these I was getting frustrated. I kept saying I wanted the painful contractions to start so we could get the show on the road and I could meet my baby. The nurse suggested I get on the labor ball and rock in hopes of getting the baby's head to push on my cervix with contractions. It was about noon I think when I started doing this. After about half an hour I had my first real painful contraction. I was so happy! The painful ones continued and the nurse said they were talking about breaking my water. Right then I felt a trickle down my leg. I told the nurse I thought my water just broke. We waited to see if it would turn into the big gush that would allow for more effective contractions. About half an hour went by with just a trickle so they decided to rupture my bag all the way.


When they came in to break my water the rest of the way I was having for real contractions. I asked the nurse if they could get the "epidural people" ready so I could have my epidural right when they were done. She told me I was doing so well with my breathing and in control she wanted to know if I wanted to keep trying without the epidural. I knew I wasn't going to be allowed to get up and walk around (had to be on monitors for decels) and the contractions were going to be even worse once they broke my water so I said I wanted my epidural!. They went ahead and broke my water the rest of the way and it gushed like Niagara Falls! I was overcome with emotion at this point. There was no turning back. I felt guilty for my 39 week induction. What if there was something wrong with my baby and I forced him out early and I could have had a couple more weeks with him. These thoughts didn't last too long because the contractions and pain didn't allow me to dwell on this for long.

They came in and gave me my epidural shortly after that, although it felt like forever. They allowed my hubby to stay in the room but way across the room. I was so frustrated because I was having these painful contractions and they were telling me to hunch my shoulders but straighten my back and lean over and all these contradicting instructions with my huge belly in the way. I cried out that I thought the baby was ripping me in half. They assurred me he was not. Dh told me to breathe through the contractions. I politely told him to shut up. They finally got the needle in and the catheter positioned. The epidural slowly started helping and I was feeling the contractions less and less. The epidural was my best friend! They checked me and at this point I was 3-4 centimeters and it was around 3:00p.m. I think. They told hubby this would be a good time to go get lunch. He asked me if it was okay for him to go and I said I was great now that I had my epidural and that he should go. I was gonna try to rest and maybe nap a little. I still felt some pressure when the contractions came but no pain. It was interesting to have completely numb legs and not really being able to move them.

Dh went and got some lunch and I am not sure if I napped or not. I know he wasn't gone too long and when he came back I had the shakes pretty bad. I thought it was from the epidural since I have had the shakes as a reaction to anesthesia before. The nurse came in and said she thought I was beginning the transition stage of labor and said she bet I was 8cm dilated. She checked me and sure enough I was 8!. She went ahead and called my dr. and said it wouldn't be long. This was the same dr. who told me to prepare for a 20-24hr induction. About an hour passed and she checked me again and I was fully dilated. She went to call the dr. again to tell him to get on over. At this point I was having a weird pain/sensation in my right hip. They sent anesthesia in and gave me some extra meds. I now realize that this was the beginning of the push/urge sensation.

The Dr. finally came in at 5:30. He checked me and I was fully dilated and a plus 3. The baby was right there! I started pushing which was strange without the urge there anymore. I regret getting the extra medicine. I didn't know when a contraction was coming and the nurse had to tell me when to push. I felt like that made my pushed not as effective as they could be. The nurse also had me lying flat and I couldn't get much force behind my pushes. I pushed like this for a while. The entire time my sweet boy was right there, we could see his head. I didn't want to keep looking though because it was not the prettiest sight. His head was beautiful but I didn't realize I had hemmroids and those weren't so pretty! After close to an hour of pushing the dr. decided to do an episotomy. They had been preparing me for tearing the entire time. After the episiotomy he came out with the next push! My Tuna weighed 8lb 2.5oz and was 20in long. He had a poopy as soon as he came out (thankfully I didn't but I did pass gas) they took him right over to be cleaned up. I didn't even realize I had already delivered the placenta. The relief once he was out was so immediate and amazing. While they were cleaning him up they were sewing me up. Ironically the resident who was putting me back together graduated from high school with me! This was weird anyway but the fact that we are only 25 made it even more strange.

They brought him over to me and I started nursing him. One other regret I had is that I didn't get to have that skin to skin contact right away but he was nursing well. They transferred us to the recovery room shortly after and took him to the nursery to be checked out. My mother in law had come by this point and I was starving, she brought me Subway. I hadn't had it the entire pregnancy, for fear of listeria from the lunch meat. That was delicious. The epidural had wore off and I could feel the episiotomy incision, ouch! They gave me pain meds and I ate.

We stayed in the hospital for 2 days and I breastfed him the entire time. I did notice that one of his ears was squashed and his right foot was turned out. They asssured me that he was okay and it was from pregnancy and birth. They put him on antibiotics for his hydronephrosis and set up an appointment for him to see the urologist at 9 days old. I was having a lot of anxiety at this time and started the 50mg Zoloft the day after he was born. We went home on 9/17/09. Bringing our little boy home was an amazing day! I had no idea what was in store for me the next week. It had nothing to do with our boy though. The next post will explain it. I think I will title it "The Worry Hole's Revenge"!