So
Wednesday March 5 was my due date. I had
an appointment with my OB that day and found out that I was still at 4 cm and
70% effaced, which is where I had been for the past two weeks. I think my doctor said that Seth was at -1
station as well. She went ahead and
stripped my membranes to see if that would help things along and scheduled an
induction for the following Monday. I
was disappointed because I really did not want to be induced like I had to be
with Kylie.
That
night I had a little bit of cramping, but no contractions or discharge. I spent a good amount of time googling
membrane sweeping and how effective it was with inducing labor. Most sites said it’s about 50% effective, but
really it will only help start labor if your body was ready. Enter more disappointment.
Thursday
morning I woke up and went to work as usual at the daycare. I was having on and off contractions, but
nothing regular or able to time. They
died off around lunchtime. I remember
Rex and me eating Subway for lunch. I
was ravenous. I had a six inch sub,
jalapeno chips, and three double chocolate chip cookies. Nothing really happened that afternoon at
work.
Kylie
and I headed home at 4 pm and I remember rushing Kylie into the house because
my stomach was upset and I had to GO.
That night I probably went at least ten times. Not fun.
Contractions started back up again after we got home, but at first I
attributed it to my stomach being upset.
I took it easy and just relaxed on the couch, messing around on my
iPad. I made Kylie some spaghetti, gave
her a bath, and put her to bed. My
contractions were about every ten to fifteen minutes at that point and were
about 30-40 seconds long. Something told
me I should take a shower, which is something I almost never do at night,
always in the morning. I went ahead and
shaved too, just in case.
I went
to bed about ten, but was having a hard time falling asleep so I watched some Netflix. My contractions were every ten minutes apart
and were getting longer. I didn’t say
anything to Rex (he was at work) because they were staying at every ten minutes
and I didn’t want him to worry. I
finally dozed off but kept getting woken up by contractions. At midnight they were probably every seven
minutes apart. Then at one they jumped
to every five minutes. I still didn’t
call Rex, but that was because I knew he was already on his way home.
When he
got home he sat down to play some Call of Duty like he always does to relax
before he goes to bed, but I told him he should probably take a shower. He didn’t take me seriously at first and just
looked at me like I was crazy. I think
we both never expected me to go into labor on my own. So I was going around the house getting
things together and took out the dogs.
Now the contractions were getting hard to talk through and I finally
convinced Rex to jump in the shower. I
was having a lot of bloody, mucousy discharge and I went ahead and talked to
the on call doctor at my OB’s practice.
She told me to go ahead and come in.
We
still had Kylie, and so Rex called both of his sisters and was freaking out because
he couldn’t get a hold of either one of them.
After about 20 phone calls later, he finally got a hold of his younger
sister and she said she would come right over to stay with Kylie. By now Rex realized this was the real deal as
my contractions were getting closer together and much stronger. He almost loaded Kylie in the truck with us
to go to the hospital but then his sister got to our house and we were on our
way.
The car
ride to the hospital was uncomfortable to say the least. My contractions were every 2-3 minutes apart
and were lasting at least a minute. I couldn’t
talk through them. I remember always
thinking that during contractions I would want to curl up into a ball, but it
ended up being the opposite, I felt better if I stretched out straight.
The
hospital is usually about 45 to an hour away, but thankfully it was a little
after three in the morning so there was absolutely no traffic and we made good
time. There were tons of skunks out that
morning, and I was nauseous from smelling all of those darn critters.
We got
to the hospital and parked and walked up to the doors only to find them
locked. The entrance we usually used was
closed from 9 pm to 5 am. We walked a little
way around the building to another entrance we knew about, but no, that one was
closed too. My contractions were fast
and strong now and Rex was freaking out, he ran back to the truck, picked me
up, and then we had to drive all the way around to the other side of the
facility to the night emergency entrance.
We went in as fast as I could walk which wasn’t very fast at that point
and checked in. They got me a wheelchair
and wheeled me up to L&D. I had to
fill at another form, even though I had already preregistered. That was not easy, seeing how strong my
contractions were. They took me to triage
and had me get changed into a hospital gown and to get a urine sample. I remember not being able to pee at all and
barely being able to get undressed. Then
I pick up the hospital gown and almost cry because it is all unsnapped and
there is no way I can figure this out.
So I called Rex into the bathroom and have him get me into the gown.
Our
nurse, Ashley, gets me onto the bed and hooked up to the monitors to check my
contractions and the baby’s heartbeat.
She goes to check how much I am dilated, but can only feel my bag of
water bulging. She calls for another
nurse, and the head nurse comes to check me.
Now, my biggest fear at this point is for them to tell me that I am
still at 4 cm and I have a way to go. That
didn’t happen though. The new nurse
waited for my latest contraction to end, and I think she asked me if I wanted
an epidural because now was the time to get one. I said no I didn’t want one, which is a good
thing because then she checked me and said I was at a ten, fully effaced, and
the baby was at zero station. We were
going to have a baby very soon.
As they
were wheeling me in the triage bed to a delivery room, I started to feel tons
of pressure and I needed to push. The
nurses were telling me to wait and just breathe through the contractions. Ha, WAY easier said than done. They get me into the delivery bed and are
calling the doctor. She gets in, I think
her name was McLaren; she was the one I talked to on the phone. She checks me again, and I don’t know why
because they just did and I NEED TO GET THIS BABY OUT NOW. More telling me just to breathe and more of
me not being able to stop pushing. My
water still hasn’t broken yet so the doctor goes ahead and breaks my water,
which felt like a huge relief, as a nurse is putting in my IV and everyone else
is bustling around getting stuff ready.
I am holding on to Rex’s hand for dear life and finally they tell me I
can push. They had me put my feet up and
wanted me to hold behind my knees, which I did relucently because I didn’t want
to let go of Rex’s hand. After about
three pushes, his head was out. One of
the nurses asked Rex if he wanted to look and he said, no, he was good, last time
one look was good enough for him. I know
another nurse commented on how much hair Seth had. Then one more push and the rest of Seth was
out and they put him on my stomach as they cut the cord. He was just like his sister and didn’t cry
right away. They took him over to weigh
him and such and he starts peeing as he is laying in the warmer. I saw a huge arc of pee go up into the air
and then the nurses laughing as they covered him up so he wouldn’t pee on
himself.
Seth
was born at 4:15 am, weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 20 inches long.
And the
unbelievable thing is that although this sounds like a lot of stuff, I
delivered him only 25 minutes after checking in at the front desk and only 7
minutes after the doctor broke my water.
Crazy, isn’t it?
I
delivered the placenta and breathing a huge sigh of relief when the doctor told
me that I didn’t tear at all. All the
nurses were talking about how perfectly everything went. I didn’t have any problems and Seth was
perfect, no cone head or bruising or anything which they said is rare,
especially for how fast everything progressed.
And I
was happy because I got my wish for an all-natural birth. No pain killers, no epidural, nothing. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be
either. Oh, it definitely hurt, don’t get
me wrong, but it was worth it. I think
how fast it went played a huge part in it too.
I didn’t even have a chance to really think about the pain. I would do it again if I can convince Rex to
have another kid. And I have to say, my
recovery was a hundred times better this time around. I don’t know if that’s because of the lack of
epidural or interventions, or because it was my second time doing this, but I’ll
take it.
I was
able to breastfeed about 30 minutes after Seth was born and he latched right
on. After he ate he was taken to the
nursery for an hour or so. After he came
back, he was being a little stinker and didn’t want to latch on again. I met with a lactation consultant and she got
us back on track and he has been nursing like a champ ever since. This was a huge weight off of my shoulders
especially since I had such a hard time nursing Kylie in the beginning.
I had a
little scare when Rex was with Seth in the nursery and they moved me into my
postpartum room. I stood up and then
there was blood everywhere. I think I
said something along the lines of “I think I’m bleeding.” They got me into bed and to see if they could
find out what was causing the bleeding.
That part was not fun. They were pressing
on my stomach really hard and then had to check me internally to see if
anything was left inside my cervix. Owwwwww. They ended up taking me back to L&D,
giving me another bag of Pitocin, and Cervidil, or something like that to help
stop the bleeding. It turns out that it
was caused my very full bladder since I now had been pumped full of 2 liters of
fluid since giving birth and it was putting a lot of pressure on my
uterus. I was a little weak and dizzy
because of the blood loss and the fact that they wouldn’t let me eat until they
were sure the bleeding was under control, and just in case I had to have
exploratory surgery. I was given the all
clear and was finally able to eat, and let me tell you, I was FAMISHED. The last real meal I had was Subway the day
before. I had some plain noodles for
dinner since my stomach was bothering me, but it definitely wasn’t very
filling.
So this
is Seth’s birth story. I feel extremely
blessed to have gotten the delivery I wanted with a perfect little baby boy and
a wonderful husband who got me through this crazy fast time!
