Birth Story

Whoa - I'm way behind! A lot has happened in the last 2 months, but the most exciting thing is that our precious baby boy was finally born! So, here's the whole story...

Tuesday, August 21st - I was 41 weeks, 4 days pregnant and went to Ft. Belvoir Community Hospital to finally be induced. I wasn't even dilated to a full 1 cm so we knew it was going to be a long process. They (the doctors/nurses - we went through a ton of them, so I'll just refer to all hospital staff as "they/them") started me off with a dose a Cervadil - a gel they put on my cervix to soften and dilate. The first dose didn't do a whole lot, so they gave me a second dose after which I was finally 1 cm! Next, they put in a foley bulb (basically, a balloon they stick in my cervix to manually dilate it - definitely not comfortable!) which after 4 hours, finally got me dilated to a 4. As soon as they took it out, my water broke. Soon after, they started my pitocin. The contractions started to get really bad so I caved and got an epidural.

My original birth plan was completely thrown out the window. I didn't want to be induced, no epidural, no pitocin, no c-section. HA. What a joke.

The epi was wonderful, except at first it didn't take on my right side. They turned me so I was laying on that side and the medicine started working all over so things were great for a while. I was dozing off, just waiting to dilate more, when all of a sudden, several nurses & doctors rushed in, put an oxygen mask on me, and flipped me on my left side. Aaron's heart rate had dropped really low due to the pitocin, so they had to stop that (restarted it a while after). After a few minutes, they got us both stabilized and things were good again, except the epi was no longer working on my right side but they wouldn't let me roll over again for fear he would go into distress. The anesthesiologist came back and gave me several more doses of multiple drugs in an attempt to numb the right side, but nothing worked. They let me roll back over, thank goodness, and then my entire body from boobs to toes when completely numb! I couldn't feel ANYTHING - which was not what I wanted! At least it was better than the awful back contractions I had been having.

Around 1:00am on Thursday, August 23rd (remember, I was admitted on Tuesday...), I was finally dilated to a 10 and ready to push. We started the process with Jonathon on my left, Bunny (my favorite nurse - she was incredible - I couldn't have picked a better nurse to deliver me) on my right, a midwife coaching me, and my doctor checking on me every now and then. After 2 hours of pushing, we ended up with Jonathon, Bunny, 2 midwives, 2 doctors, a pediatrician, and at least 4 or 5 various other doctors/nurses/medical people (most of whom I "met" mid push. Talk about awkward first impressions!). The room was packed, I was delusional (at this point, I was running a high fever plus was all drugged up on who knows what) and completely exhausted. Around 3:00am, my doctor told me they were going to try the vacuum. He said I got one chance, and if that didn't work, then we were headed straight to the OR for an emergency C-section. I was terrified. Of all the things I didn't want, a c-section was at the top of the list. One doctor secured the vacuum on Aaron's head while another doctor tried to manually pull him out during the most intense pushes ever. At the very end (they ended up giving me 3 pushing sessions, not just one like he threatened), they cut me (a level 3 episiotomy), used the vacuum, pulled, and I pushed, and he was finally out!

While he was still inside, he had pooped and there was meconium inside me which meant that they would have to immediately attend to him. Thank goodness they explained it to me before I had him otherwise I would have lost my mind. They wouldn't let him breathe until they had cleared his passageways so he wouldn't breathe in the mec...which meant they wouldn't let him cry - the sound you always want to hear right after birth. The second he came out, they showed him to me, quickly cut the cord and took him straight to be taken care of. It seemed like forever, but he finally cried, let Jonathon cut the rest of the cord (they had cut it long so that he could cut it later - they wouldn't let him do the first cut cause of the meconium), the doc birthed the placenta, and brought my baby back to me. I got a whole hour with him and nursed him for the first time. He had a cute butt chin (a dimple!), a scrunched up face, long fingers and toes, and a cute little tush! While we were bonding (oh yea, Jonathon too!), the doctor was busy sewing me up - took him a full 45 minutes. I asked the nurse how many stitches, thinking she'd say something normal like 5 or 6. No.....she kinda giggled and said she lost count, but it was between 30 and 40! NOT what I was expecting to hear.

I mentioned before that I had a fever. Well, apparently I had an infection that caused the fever and Aaron had a fever too. This meant that we were both to have 48 hrs of antibiotics. After my hour of bonding, I went straight to sleep while they took him to the nursery to get fully checked out and start his antibiotics. When they brought him back, his little arm had a brace holding his IV in - it looked so awful and so painful on my tiny little man! Heck, my IV hurt like crazy, I can only imagine how painful his was. They got his fever down pretty quickly, but mine stayed high for several hours. I was pretty out of it for a while - I just remember a lot of nurses coming in and out, lots of sleep, my family coming in for a bit, and having to nurse frequently. I was in so much pain, Jonathon had to take care of me 100% for the next 24 hours. Every bathroom trip (talk about a good hubby - he did everything for me and didn't get grossed out or complain or anything), any food/water, anything I needed, he was there. I couldn't even pick Aaron up or roll over without him.

Saturday afternoon, we finally got discharged!

And those are the highlights! Perhaps I'll come back and add more details, but this is all the important stuff.