Birth Story

I think it is fitting to share our birth story now that our son has turned one.

Our Birth Story:

I had my 39 week doctor appointment on Friday and consented to be checked.  I was 1 cm, 50 % effaced, and at a -2 station.  The midwife said it will be soon.  Great, I thought, I have another week as I interpret 'soon' as more than a few days.   I spent the weekend relaxing and remember feeling exhausted- not the sleepy kind of exhausted, but the my body just needs to be still exhausted.  I wasn't particularly hungry, but I craved some spicy food- chips and salsa in particular.  I also craved brussel sprouts.  I remember having a little more energy on Sunday so I spent a little time taking care of a few things around the house.  We ate pork chops and broccoli for dinner and watched Amazing Race together.  I hung out on the couch a while longer and at like 10:30 pm I got up from the couch to take my vitamins, refill my water, and head upstairs to bed.  I felt a little gush when I got up and thought- that was my water breaking. 

I told Mike that I was pretty sure my water broke.  He immediately was like how do you know, you need to google it.  So I did and of course google can't be descriptive enough for us to know anything more than we knew.  I decided to go to bed- laying on a towel- and see what happens.  My mind was swirling at this point so sleep wasn't coming quickly.  My contractions started around 11 pm so I decided to head back down stairs to watch TV and work on finishing my baby shower thank you notes.  I sat on my exercise ball and was able to write several thank yous with minimal interruption.  I wrote one or two more during contractions that were more intense and actually required me to stop writing and focus on breathing through each one.  I found going to my third eye to also be helpful and reminded myself over and over again to relax.  I remembered that the midwife gave me the birth folder two or three weeks earlier so I decided to find it and start reading the information.  My water really broke when I stood up- like the huge gush like in a movie.  I grabbed a blanket and hobbled upstairs to change.

I decided to time my contractions and got 45-60 seconds in length and about 1 1/2 minutes apart.  I was like that can't be right.  So I timed them again using Mike's watch.  Same thing.  I still was like that can't be right.  At this point, I decided to wake Mike up- it was like 1:30 am.  I had him time them and he got the same thing.  Mike called the midwife on call and we both talked to her.  She was like there is no way your contractions are that close together, but suggested that I eat something and come in whenever I was ready.  We worked on packing (well really Mike grabbed a few missing items) and spent about another hour at home.   We decided around 2:30 am to go to the hospital.  The hospital I chose to deliver at is about 35 miles from our house.  I was struggling at that point to work through every contraction and told Mike in the car that I was going to cave and get an epidural.  I also remember telling him to watch the bumps in the road, but I managed to give him directions to the correct spot at the hospital (there was road construction that we had to navigate through).  The security guard was very nice to point us to the correct elevator and told us which floor to go to.  The nurse at the NICU nurses station nicely pointed to the button on the wall and instructed us to ask to be let in.  The midwife told the nurses station in labor and delivery that we were coming so they were pretty fast at getting me into a room.  Mike waited for me to get registered and then went down to move our car to the parking garage.

I told the nurse that I was feeling a lot of pressure as she was trying to get me hooked up to the monitors.  The midwife, Marsha, came in a few minutes later to check me and was quite surprised to find that I was 10 cm.  I immediately asked if that meant that I couldn't get an epidural.  She confirmed that the epidural was a no go (I now was going to have a drug free birth by default- which ironically was what I wanted before I was in labor).  I also asked if I could have a water birth- they then realized that my labs from Friday were not there and they also said that it takes 45 min to fill the tub.  I could have a baby before then so I wasn't going to be able to have one this time around.  I did start pushing and pushed for 4 hours.  The first two hours were not bad and then I steadily got more and more tired during the second 2 hours.  Somewhere around hour 2 of pushing, I had an IV line put in and was given a bag of fluid with the hopes that it would slow my contractions and make them a little longer.  It slowed them slightly- maybe a minute and half apart vs a minute.  Finally, around 7:15 am Marsha suggested that we make the call to the OB for a vacuum assist.  I agreed and Mike hesitated.  I agreed again.  The OB, Dr French, arrived around 7:45 am.  She gave a quick overview of everything and then started giving me a few shots of local anesthetic before she inserted the vacuum.  The first round of pushing with the vacuum didn't work.  We get three tries so I started thinking what if this doesn't work?  Thankfully, the second attempt with the vacuum worked and our beautiful baby boy was born at 8:03 am (really he was pulled out).  Mike held the baby and took pictures while I was being stitched up.  I did some skin to skin time around 8:30 or 8:45 and he latched on and nursed for the first time.