Birth Story & A Few Pictures

I have to admit that my birth story is a little fuzzy as it was so long but I wanted to try to document as much as I could. I do not remember the exact times things occurred but here goes the long version.

On Sunday the 17th, I started having very uncomfortable contractions about 5 to 10 minutes apart for 2 hours and our little guy was being very quiet so we decided to head over to the hospital. I was not really sure if they were real contractions or stronger Braxton Hicks and thought they might check us & send us home. They admitted us right away, monitored us for a while and did a cervical check. My cervix was very far back but the nurse thought maybe I was 2-3 cm along so a little progess since my last OB appt a week prior where I was only a finger tip dilated. My OB came by a bit later and did another cervical check and said it was actually not quite 2cm along, with the cervix being way far back still. I think with being almost 40 weeks, they decided it was best for us to stay and deliver. Being that I was on heparin for several weeks, they first had to reverse the heparin so the gave me a shot in my behind (not fun but not much worse than PIO injections) and had to run bloodwork before anything else could be done. This took a while, but afterwards when the bloodwork looked good, they let us walk the halls and gave me an ambien to try to help me get some rest and see if the contractions I was having were doing anything.

I woke up around 5am on the 18th and was still contracting, but not in too much pain yet. The ambien helped me to get some rest and feel better. My OB came in later that morning and did another cervical check and there was unfortunately no progress overnight as I was still not quite 2cm along with my cervix still being far back. They started to the process to ripen my cervix to see if this might work before going for full induction with pitocin. They let this take effect until about 1pm, when my OB did another cervical check (yes, I got alot of these throughout) and found that I was only about 3cm, but my cervix was coming forward a little. At this time, they decided to start the pitocin.

They slowly ramped the pitocin up every 1/2 hour to an hour so it was a very slow process as there were at least 10 different times they increased the pitocin. I can not remember what time it was but as the process moved along, things started to get painful. I finally took some pain meds to try to help and as I was feeling a little better, my water broke. What a bizarre experience -- I was sort of resting from the pain meds and I heard a loud POP and a small gush, then a bigger gush. Yep, my water had broken on its own (before the pain meds were administered, my dr talked about breaking the water but we decided to wait but administer a few pain meds). And then the contractions/pain really really started - it was the most intense pain I have ever felt in my entire life. There was a point where I felt I was not going to make it though --- this lasted for about an hour before the anesthesiologist arrived for my epidural. There were two of us laboring at the same time and thankfully I was the first one on the list to get the epidural. And I must say the epidural was the best decision I have ever made -- it was the blessing I needed to continue. And the anesthesiologist was fabulous. He walked me through every step and it did not really hurt at all. The meds kicked in very quickly and I was feeling much better. (My poor DH almost passed out during the epidural process, not from seeing it but they used this spray for some reason and the fumes made him sick to his stomach. I guess he turned white as a ghost but I never knew until afterwards.)

I think it was around midnight on the 19th where I fully dilated. However, I did not feel the urge to push so they let me rest for a little bit and I started to push around 1:30am. I can not even describe very well the 2 hours that I pushed except for intense. I remember being frustrated at the nurse as she was not helping much --- she was trying to do too much with helping me, writing things down etc. When my OB arrived, she was the best cheerleader in the world. She got my spirits back up and running as I was exhausted. I think had the OB not come when she did, I would have been pushing for longer. My little guy arrived at 3:37am on October 19th after almost 32 hours. I ended up having 2nd & 3rd degree tears internally so it took an hour for my OB to repair them - thankfully I was able to hold my little guy during the time. I have lots of stitches and this has been part of the challenges of the past four days that I will write about in a separate post.

Our little guy is everything we dreamed of and much, much MORE!!! Although I will never ever forget the world of IF, having my little guy ... there are no words to describe it. I wish that IF could be wiped from our world and that no one else would have to experience it. My thoughts are with those still experiencing IF and my hopes are that you will have your dreams come true as well. I will be cheering you on!!!

Thank you to everyone for your amazing support.