Birth Story

sunswifey · August 2010

To catch you up on where it begins... I was showing signs of preterm labor at 34.5 weeks. Everyone thought I would have gone on my own early and never did. DH's family is known for very big babies with very big shoulders. DH tore his mom apart due to shoulder distocia. My doctor wanted him out. I was originally set for a c section on 8/11 but at my last appointment I was almost 5cm and so she decided to try to induce. Her on call date was 8/9/10. The actual date is just a perk.

So, we show up at the hospital at 6am. I get checked in and moved to L&D around 6:45. 7am comes and I'm in the bed getting ready for the IV to get some pitocin going. I was still in that 4-5 range and about 90% effaced. The nurse tried twice to get the IV needle in on the side of my wrist and both times were failures. And, can I say did that ever hurt?!!! Wow! Much worse than any of the contractions I ever felt (including that day). I guess I had some thick skin and she couldn't get to the vein itself. So, she had to get another nurse to try. This nurse went to the top of my hand and did it with no problem. A lot of blood came out though, once I actually looked over. I knew that it must have because she did ask for a towel. 7:15 the pitocin is going and 7:30 my doctor comes in to break my water. Once again she was surprised to see me, thinking that I would have gone before the scheduled induction. Apparently there are 2 layers to the bag of water. She broke through one with ease but the second took some work. I guess I really did have a bag of steel.

Just after 9am I felt the first painful contraction. I didn't want to feel any pain and even though I could tolerate it, I decided to ask for the epidural at that time because I knew by the time they got him to my room, prepared me, and put it in, it would be like 45 minutes before I could feel its effects. As he was administering it (which, wasn't bad at all), I was hunched over towards the nurse on one side of the bed and I was just pouring out water. We did know that I had a ton of water in me (probably a reason for all my stretch marks). By 10, I was in no pain at all.

About 10:15 they check me and I was a solid 5 but still a -2 station. And, he was flipped sunny-side up. So, they give me the peanut to use for 45 minutes a side. At 12:00 or so they check and I was between 5-6. Contractions were not regular at all. It was the pitocin doing all the work. I would have a series of 3 in a row with no rest then would break for 4 minutes and repeat. They kept changing the levels on the pitocin to see what worked best. Would it be 6? 4? 3? Who knows. So, at 12:00 they inserted the monitor to actually measure just how strong these contractions were and stopped the external monitor. At 2:45 I was checked again and was 6-7. My doctor was doing a delivery but was to be informed of my progress.

At 3:15 she came in. We discussed everything again and the fact that my body wasn't taking over doing the contractions on it's own, we decided it was best to do the c section. Shortly after saying those words my body went nuts. I started freezing and shaking uncontrollably. They had to load me up with 4 blankets (1 of which was warmed). I had to take that disgusting base stuff to counteract the acid in my stomach. I started crying unsure about the whole process and being scared by going into surgery.

Just before 4 I was moved in to the OR, dosed up on morphine and ready to go. Oh yeah, I'm still shaking uncontrollably. They move me from my bed to the OR bed and hold out my arms to strap them down then I think they strap down part of my head too, I'm not too sure. DH comes in and they get to work. I couldn't feel anything besides for the occasional tugging and pulling. They tell me where they're at during the whole process, meanwhile my arms are still shaking and they give me yet another blanket for my upper body. Finally I hear that they've reached Hunter and are bringing him out and something along the lines of it being a good think we did the c section and how he have a future lineman on our hands or something. I hear him cry, and I no longer feel DH holding my hand. He was off with our little man.

He was born at 4:12 on 8/9/10 weighing in at 9 pounds 2 ounces and 22.5 inches long. Though, I wasn't done yet. I wanted DH to come back and show me pictures of him but it took him what seemed like ages to do. Soon after I started to feel nauseous. I told the anesthesiologist this, well, I actually said I feel "woozy" as he and his med student were the ones up at my head and I knew they would be the ones really concerned with that. Shortly after, DH finally brings me pictures to look at. He leaves again and I knew I was going to be sick. I tell them again and a nurse comes over with a bowl for me. Finally the nurse holding Hunter comes wanting to know if I wanted to see him but I had to turn her away for how bad I felt. As soon as she left with him (along with DH), I started dry heaving. I did this about 6 times before I finally got sick. Once that happened, I felt better, at least on the woozy front. I started shaking again from being cold (or I thought I was cold) as they continued the process to stitch me up.

I'm finally moved from the OR bed to a bed to transport me to the recovery room. I'm just trying to keep from shaking and trying to close my eyes in hopes of being able to sleep. My husband was not to be found when I got to the room. I got something called The Bear which is some sort of inflatable blanket pumping warm air onto me while I waited for the shaking to stop. Finally, DH comes in and shows me more pictures of our little man. He tells me that he got to take each one of our family members back one by one to see Hunter though he would not let them hold him since I hadn't even seen him yet. I close my eyes and try to sleep while he steps out to call Baby's First Phone Call to leave our message announcing Hunter's arrival. A short time later I hear the wheels of a hospital crib being rolled into our recovery room and I finally got to see and hold him. A few tears ran down my cheeks as they gave him to me.