Nathan's Birth Story - 1/16/2012

catarntina · January 2012

Baby Nathan has arrived! He was very punctual coming the day before his due date. This is long... feel free to skip to the bottom for pictures

I was having contractions on Friday, but nothing to write home about. On Saturday, I pretty much had zero contractions and I was kind of bummed out. I told DH, "Baby isn't coming today. Maybe tomorrow..." I went to bed around 11 PM because I was experiencing some cramping and I thought lying down on my side might help. At 5 AM, I rolled over in bed and heard a "pop." I didn't feel any fluid leak, so I slowly got out of bed to head to the bathroom. Then there was a gush. I got to the toilet fast and peed at the same time, so I was confused if it was pee or fluid. There was a good amount of blood though, so I had a feeling this was the real deal.

I waited about a 1/2 hour, and the fluid stopped but the bleeding didn't. I was very confused, so I thought I'd call my OB's office anyways. The on-call nurse said to head in L&D. I woke up DH, we both took showers and headed to the hospital. We got there around 6:40 AM.

My doctor was the doctor on call when I got there, but he was only there for another 10 minutes by the time I got up to L&D. He came by and asked what was going on and said that it seemed like this was the real deal, but the doctor on-call would have to assess me. Since they were going through a shift change at the time, I waited around until about 7:40 for an internal exam. I was 2 cm, 75% effaced, and -2 station -- not looking promising. Plus the fluid had stopped leaking.

The nurse grabbed a test for amniotic fluid and it came back negative. So, she opened up an AmniSure test that takes 10 minutes for results to come back -- and the results were inconclusive. She was so confused -- the test is supposed to be "sure!" She waited another 20 minutes, and just as the admitting people were taking my information as "out-patient" the nurse runs up and says, "You need to change her to in-patient. She's staying!" Yay! It was baby day. She explained later that my water popped up high, and that's why there was only a small gush of fluid.

They started pitocin around 11 AM. They upped it an hour or two later, and baby's heart rate wasn't responding correctly, so they dropped it back down. The doctor popped my water sometime around 3 since it didn't break all the way the first time. Contractions were coming about 1 minute apart afterwards, so they stopped the pitocin.

At about 5:30, I was 5cm, 90% effaced, and -1 station. I asked for an epidural at this point because the pain was like a 10 / 10.

At 10 PM, I was 10cm, 100% effaced, and +1 station. Hurrah! The doctor said since I hadn't been feeling much pressure, she was going to let me contract for another hour before pushing to help baby down the birth canal. At 11PM, I started pushing with the nurse. I pushed for an hour with the nurse before the doctor came in. Then I pushed for another 45 minutes with the doctor in the room.

Baby Nathan made his debut on 1/16/2012 at 12:46 AM -- after 19 hours and 46 minutes of labor. He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz, and was 20 1/2 inches. He scored 8 and 9 on his APGARs. I ended up with a 2nd degree tear and plenty of stitches. We were able to do skin-to-skin for about an hour before they took him away to the nursery for some breathing issues. They said he had until 5AM to resolve the breathing issues or he'd be admitted to the NICU. That was probably the most terrifying moment of my life when they told me that. However, at 5:10 they wheeled him into my post-partum room and he was able to room-in with me the rest of the time in the hospital.

We're all home and happy -- just trying to figure out how to sleep again.