Donnie P's birth story (LONG)

JLyn821 · April 2014

OK Ladies...here it is.

You're all well aware of my frustration in our induction being put off. I'm not sure if I updated you all when we got the call at 9pm on Thursday (my original induction time) telling us that the hospital was then 24-36 hours behind on inductions not just the 12-24 hours they had told us that morning. This set me and DH off. We were so mad about having to wait even longer to meet our little guy. We ended up staying up later than usual and DH didn't eat dinner that night. Yeah...that ended up not being a good idea.

1:15am - My water broke. Talk about weirdest feeling ever to wake up to. Thank God for my MIL giving us the suggestion to get the waterproof mattress pad. That saved us from having to get a new mattress! I immediately started shaking DH awake saying, "Babe! Not even joking! My water broke!" He got up and got me a towel. I got it between my legs, got to the bathroom, and then just stood there not sure what to do. lol I stood in the shower for a minute and then had DH get me a Depends (SOOOO glad I had these!). I put it on and called the doc. She said I could take a shower and get something to eat but then head down to the hospital. We got showers but were too excited to eat. We got one last belly picture and hopped in the car.

3:00am - Got to the hospital and got all checked in. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before a triage room was ready for me. I still hadn't started having contractions yet. This made for a much more comfortable ride in and registration.

4:00am - I saw the doc and got checked. I was only 3cm and still just 70% effaced. Mild contractions finally started and DH and I were just watching really bad middle of the night TV in my triage room. I felt gross and soggy, but that comes with water breaking. The nurses started my Hep Lock and getting everything together because they knew I wouldn't be leaving to go home.

10:30am - A labor and delivery room FINALLY opened up for me. 7 1/2 hours in triage SUCKED! DH was so uncomfortable in the padded folding chair and I was so uncomfortable because the mattress was probably only 3 inches thick and terribly hard on my butt. One good thing about triage, though, was that I could sneak a few granola bars without being caught eating.

We were told that our doc would come and check me when I got settle into my L&D room.

12:45pm - Doc was finally able to come and check my progress. When we had gotten to our room, she was in the middle of a c-section and then was pulled right into a delivery room afterwards. Thankfully, there are nice long couches in the L&D rooms and DH was able to pass out for about 1 1/2 hours. I was still only having mild contractions and told him to get the sleep while he could. When the doc came in to check me, I'd progressed to 5cm and 90% effaced. We were all happy to see I'd made progress on my own without having terrible contractions. Doc said she was good with me continuing to labor without Pitocin since I was doing well. It wasn't that long after this that my contractions did start to get hard to talk through. Thankfully, by this point, DH had already run down to the cafeteria to get some lunch for himself and to get me some juice.

5:00pm - Doc came back for a check. 6cm and still 90% effaced. Talk about a kick in the junk. I'd been having harder contractions and in 4 hours I'd only progressed 1cm. At this time, my doc suggested we start the Pitocin to get things moving along since my water had been broken for 16 hours by this point. She also told me that I needed to start thinking about whether I'd reconsider any pain meds. She brought up that women who labor naturally for so many hours tend to get too exhausted for when they need to push. She said she understood my desire for a natural birth, but that she didn't want me to spend a really long time pushing to the point of exhaustion only to end up with a c-section because I couldn't do it anymore. I didn't like hearing this.

8:45pm - In the almost 4 hours between starting the Pitocin and this time, my contractions got MUCH more intense. The part that I didn't expect during labor were the shivers. DH kind of got freaked out by them sometimes. My contractions tended to couple. I'd get three in a row with only about a minute between each, and then I'd get an almost 4-5 minute break. During the 4-5 minute break, I'd fall asleep. One time, my contractions and shivers woke me up so quickly, I sat up a bit with my arms straight out. DH said it was like in the movies when someone comes back from the dead. lol Anyway, at 8:45, I absolutely felt like I had to push. So DH called for the nurses. No one came after 5 minutes. He called for them again. Another 5 minutes goes by and no one comes in. He called for them again getting pissed off because no one was coming. Finally a nurse came in and said the doc was on her way in. This was 9pm. Thankfully, I didn't start pushing because when I was checked, I was only 9cm and 100% effaced. Doc told me I had to do everything I could to keep from pushing or I'd tear my cervix and that would be quite the injury. The progression from 9cm to 10cm was the hardest 40 minutes of my labor. And honestly, I think it's the only part that I thought was really hard. Holding back the biggest poop of your life. There were a few times my body would start pushing for me and DH would just say, "Just breathe. I don't want to see pursed lips. Just breathe!" And he'd pull me back out of the haze I was in.

9:41pm - After calling the doc in and getting confirmation I was 10cm, I was allowed to start pushing. Amazing! I thought it would be harder. When I got close to the "Ring of Fire", I made a point of telling DH not to sing the song since it had been a joke with us a couple weeks prior. Of course, then my doc asked what we were talking about and he told her. DH later told me that she was mouthing the lyrics to herself while I was pushing or between contractions. lol She thought it was funny. I do, too.

10:08pm - Donnie Paul made his appearance. It was incredible. I couldn't believe I'd only pushed for 27 minutes. Especially after the warning I'd gotten from the doc about wearing myself down. They put him on my belly and once they got the cord from around his neck and suctioned his nose and mouth, we finally got to hear him. It was awesome. I still couldn't believe it when they told me how much he weighed. There was no way I'd just naturally given birth to such a toddler.

We did some skin-to-skin time and got him to start nursing a bit and he was great. Seeing DH hold him for the first time (his first time EVER holding a baby) was amazing. Nothing like it.

I'm so glad with how everything turned out. I'm happy I was able to go natural and keep with my plan of a pain-med-free birth. DH was my rock. He was everything I needed him to be. Even those last 40 minutes where I had to try not to push. The doc had told me it'd take anywhere from 20-40 minutes to dilate that last cm. I hadn't been paying attention to the clock and so when I asked him how long it'd been, he said it'd only been 10 minutes when in reality it'd been 40 and the doc was on her way in to check me. I was absolutely motivated to move through the birth experience naturally, but DH was the one who really guided me through. It was awesome.

Donnie Paul is beautiful and I couldn't imagine a better birth experience.