Birth Story (only a month late)

Sorry this is so late, but I thought I'd get it all down on paper, and it has taken quite a bit of time.

After my 38 week (and 5 day) OB appointment on Friday(10/3), I had a number of questions about getting induced, as I had been extra uncomfortable for several weeks. I had an internal and I was at 1cm dilated, and was ripe for induction. All the previous week, I was getting up every 1-1.5 hours, and that was on 2 percocet, and 1-2 ambien per night. I was ready to have this baby, and it felt wonderful to be able to start discussing inducing within the next 10 days (sometime before my Oct. 12 due date). Anyways, I decided to wait to set an induction date until my next appointment for the good of my little boy, well my little boy had other plans.

On Saturday (10/4) I woke up feeling extremely emotional, and tired, so DH decided we would have a day in with no errands, and it was really wonderful to just rest. DH had to pick up a medicine prescription for himself, and we decided to get some Chipotle before watching the CU v. Texas football game. I got something spicy, half joking with DH that it would send me into labor. Well after we got home and ate, the contractions started. So DH decided to start timing them, and they quickly became over 1.5-2 minutes in length, and were coming every 12 minutes to start, and moved to every 3-8 minutes. After a couple hours of timing, DH decided that we were probably on our way to L&D, so he got the hospital bag list that we wrote weeks earlier, and we FINALLY packed the hospital bag. We then called the OB, and let him know about the contractions, and he wanted me to come in immediately for a labor check. Off to the hospital we go. I have to say something told me that they wee just going to send me home, so I wasn't getting my hopes up.

When we got there it was already 10pm, and I got checked pretty quickly, and found out that I was only 1-2 cm dilated, but my contractions were of irregular intensity, but just as frequent as DH and I had been timing. We had the option to stay and walk for an hour, or go home immediately, and we chose to walk. After an hour I was checked again, with no change. The OB sent us home at 1:30am, and told me to go ahead and take my nightly meds of 2 percocet, and an ambien so that I could get some rest. I was told to return if the pain got worse, and boy did it!

All night long, every hour I got up to pee, and each time I was in excruciating pain, but each time I was able to get a bit of sleep. At 6:30am, I woke up and once again did the bathroom run in pain, and came back and laid down. I was in A LOT of pain. I couldn't fall back to sleep, and it was a constant pain that didn't seem time-able. I woke DH up at 7:30 in tears of pain. The pain was significantly worse, and DH threw clothes on both of us and got us in the car and headed back to L&D. I was in SUCH EXTREME pain, they got me into triage very fast, and I was checked almost immediately. I was at 3-4 cm, and I was having very regular strong contractions every 3-4 minutes. I was -1 station, and 80% effaced. The nurse was unsure of Sean's position in the womb, so they do a quick ultrasound to make sure that he was head down, and find that he is, but facing to my right. My IV fluids were started, and the first round of antibiotics were started because I was Group B Strep+. They admitted us and got us in a room by 9:45am. I was dealing with the shakes during every contraction, the nurse said that it was due to the stress and anxiety of labor rather than the temperature in the building. Deep breaths were the only way to control the shakes.

By 10:15am the nurse gave me a dose of Staedol while waiting for the anesthesiologist to get out of a c-section, so that I could get my epidural. Staedol felt wonderful, and allowed me to relax more easily through the pain of the contractions that were coming every 2 minutes or so. Felt like a warm blanket being placed over my whole body. By 10:30am I was checked again right before receiving the epidural, and was a solid 4cm dilated. At 11:00am the anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural. It took him about 15-20 minutes to get it in properly, and then another 15 minutes for the pain to subside. My DH actually got to help hold me in place during the procedure which was a real surprise because he HATES blood and needles. At 11:40am I was checked again, still 4cm dilated, decision was made to break my water. I was told to rest at this point, and that it could be a little while before I was fully dilated. I think it hit me right about this point that I was actually going to have my baby that day, and they weren't going to just send me home like a crazy person. I remember a little sign on the wall saying "10/5 Happy Birthday Sean" it was really very surreal, and I remember asking my nurse if she thought that Sean was really going to come before midnight, she was pretty sure he would be here before the end of her shift at 8pm. Once I got over the realization, I decided to take a nap.

At 12:45pm the nurse came in to monitor my contractions, they seemed to be coming every minute at that point. The nurse told me that if she were on pitocin they would probably have turned it down because of how frequent the contractions are coming. Around 1:15pm the doctor was unsure of the quality of the contractions that I was having, so he decided to insert a pressure monitor catheter to get a better idea of the quality of my contractions. This results in a "geyser" and 2nd water break. By 1:45pm the doctor determined that the quality of the contractions was not as good as he would hope with as many as I was having, so he ordered a "whiff of pit" which was the smallest dose of pitocin that could be administered. I was then monitored very closely by the nurse to make sure that the contractions were doing what they are supposed to be doing. The contractions were doing a lot better, but the pitocin needed to be turned up just one more notch it order to get the contractions to be perfect.

At 3:00pm the doctor came to check me again. I was Fully dilated, +1 station, fully effaced. Sean was still slightly to my right, so doctor told me to lay on my right side, and that we would start pushing in about 30 minutes whether or not he had returned. By 3:30pm the nurse explained to DH and I the procedure for pushing. I took only one practice push. The nurse then told me to just relax, and she would be back really soon to do some real pushing.

At exactly 3:40pm the real pushing starts. I could feel the pressure with each contraction, so I was able to tell everyone when I needed to push which was about every 2 minutes (3 pushes of 10 seconds each per contraction). The nurse quickly called the doctor as well as the rest of the delivery team. I only screamed through the last two pushes when the ring of fire feeling was present, and at exactly 3:57pm, Sean was born.

I didn't get to see his face for about 20 minutes, but I could hear those beautiful lungs. Sean was wisked across the room to be checked out by the NICU team for respiratory distress from all of the narcotic pain meds that I needed to be on for half the pregnancy for the kidney stone. Within about 5 minutes, the NICU team had given Sean 9-9 on his apgar scores, and told us that he was in perfect health. DH told me that the first thing Sean did as the NICU team was checking him out was to pee ALL over the place, it made Bri crack up, and the NICU team frantically look for a diaper. Anyways, Sean measured in at 7lbs 15.4 oz, and 19 inches long (although within a week he had already grown an inch, so we are pretty sure that it wasn't that accurate).

As for me, I received a 2nd degree tear, and it took a while to stitch me back up. I have been healing very well over the last few weeks, and we have all settled in as a family here at home.