Our little baby boy already has his mother's sense of timing and organization, no induction needed, arriving as scheduled on September 1, 2010 at 10:35pm 6lbs 8oz 20 inches long!
After working a LONG day at the hospital, I got home around 6pm on Tuesday August 31st. My contractions started around 5pm and continued to get closer and stronger until about 10:30 that evening when they slowed down / stopped. Tony and I just thought...oh another false alarm. Then at 11:30 my water suddenly broke (luckily I was in the bathroom. There was NO question as I couldn't stop the gushing all the way up to the hospital.) Tony kicked into action and we were out of the house and at the hospital by midnight and excited to be on our way to having this little boy arrive.
I chose to try and have a natural as possible birth. From midnight til noon, Tony helped me move into every birthing position possible and use massage and counter-pressure to help the ever increasing painful contractions. By 2am the contractions were consistent and about every 3 min apart lasting up to 2 min each. We really thought we were going to have a straight forward "easy" birth....oh how wrong we were!
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| (Tony hadn't been shaving for the last week until the baby would arrive, so this was done while I was at the hospital :) |
At noon, my mid-wife checked me and I was only 2 - 2 1/2 centimeters. WHAT?? That's what I was last week. I was so discouraged because I was so exhausted. Tony and I had both been up for 30 hours and I couldn't focus on anything due to the pain. I finally elected to have an epidural. After a little scare with my blood pressure dropping way low, the epidural was in, and I was off to la-la land. We both were able to sleep for a couple hours. I could still feel that the contractions were there, but no pain. It was WONDERFUL!
At 4pm I got checked again and I was now a 7!!! and 100% effaced! :) It's amazing how REST was the solution to getting my body to relax. Over the next few hours, I was comfortable but making progress. By 8pm, I was at a 9-10 and ready to push. However, I didn't realize that I was in for 2 1/2 hours of pushing before this baby would come out. He was stable during the whole labor but started to have some drops in heart rate toward the end. Also, due to a sudden show of meconium, the pediatric team and OB backup also arrived to help with the delivery.
I have NEVER experienced that much pain and intensity in life. The epidural ran out 1/2 hour before he arrived and had Tony not been the most AMAZING coach and husband ever, I really think I would have given up. Without completely checking out, I somehow had an out-of-body experience that finally allowed me to push through all the pain and get this baby out. He was totally posterior and the OB MD had to manually turn him as he was coming out. Miraculously I didn't need an episiotomy nor any instruments to help get him out. I didn't even tare!!
However, as soon as I pushed his head out, I was being yelled at not to push. They had to unravel the umbilical cord 4 times around his neck. Once they were able to untangle him from his cord, he finally started squawking!! They immediately whisked him away to suction and "resusitate" him from the meconium and cord issues. Tony followed him over to the nursery and it was about 2 hours before I was able to really hold him and bond. But in the end, it was ALL WORTH IT!!!
I now am the proudest mommy of the most beautiful baby boy. He is wonderful and Tony and I have to stop ourselves from crying from joy every time we look at him!
