The Story

Well. Adjusting to life with the cutest little man ever.... but I wanted to share our birth story before I got to far away from it.

Thursday night, Aaron dropped me off at the hospital to spend the night with the cervidal inserted. I was nervous for everything to begin, but hopeful that maybe the cervidal would be all that was needed to get things going. I slept pretty decently, but they did give me a sleeping pill to help with that. In the morning, I woke up around 6, took a shower, Aaron arrived, and we started the pitocen. I thought it was going to just start contractions right away.... but that wasn't the case at all. I had little contractions that I didn't really feel on and off all morning. The doc came in around noon and we decided to break my water to get things going. And things did get going... but not super strong until about 2. I was walking the halls and bouncing on my ball (they had some in the L&D unit - but I swear they were for munchkins! A neighbor brought mine from home). I was pretty tired at this point, so some advice that my doula gave me was to rest when I could. I climbed into bed - and then I started having this awesome combination of 'pit' pains with 'real' contractions. I couldn't get on top of it - and was definitely questioning the whole 'no medicine' decision. Aaron suggested the tub - which was an awesome suggestion.

I totally relaxed in the tub - and stayed there for about an hour. It was a great tool - but I then wanted to get checked and see how far along I was (I hadn't been checked yet - I started the morning at 1cm). We did the check - 3 cm. I was really tired and upset at this point - I'd been laboring for about 9 hours. I thought I would lay down and rest - and then the contraction started up about 3 minutes apart, and pretty hard (I was on a pretty high dose of pit also). I admit that I started to panic at that point. I told Aaron our 'code word' that I MEANT it - I wanted drugs. He talked me off the epidural cliff, and they gave me a type of morphine, and called in my doula to help. She arrived just after they gave me the shot, and really helped me though the next 3 hours of labor. The worst bit was that I was starting on back labor - but it was more on my left hip than my back. That was convincing me to ask for an epidural.

At this point it was about 10 pm, and my doula and I decided that if I hadn't progressed past 5 cm, we would do the epidural. The pain from the back labor was really intense, but I was moaning through the contractions, and it was working pretty well. Aaron and my doula were rubbing my back - Aaron was working out what we thought was a cramp in my hip. The doc came, and after 3 full hours, I now was to 4 cms. I started crying, and we all decided it was time for the epi. I was on my side, and we were talking about how that was the right decision, and hopefully now I could relax and dilate some more, when I just started throwing up. I think it was a combination of the pain and the mophine. I actually felt better after that!

The came to put in the epi, and that worked pretty quickly! I was nervous that after making this big decision, that it wouldn't 'take' for me like I had heard others say.... but that certainly wasn't the issue. I was telling everyone that I loved them, and we all decided to lay down and take naps to get ready for the big show. Unfortunately, things weren't going to progress that way. The little guys heart rate would decelerate with each contraction. The doc turned off the pit for a while - and his heart rate went right back to normal. He said we would turn the pit back on at a lower dose, and watch it. He gave us about 45 minutes, and unfortunately, things didn't get better. The doc came in - and told me we needed to change plans... I was going in for a c-section. Considering that this was pretty much the only thing I DIDN'T want to occur - I handled the developments pretty well. I knew that something just wasn't going right.

At this point I don't really remember much. They prepped me and whisked me away. The actual c-section wasn't scary at all. Both Aaron and my doula were allowed in the room, and it was great to have them there - but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I really wanted to see what was going on - but I was completely out of it. I did wake up to learn he was a boy, and gave him a kiss as Aaron took him to the nursery. The doc then explained to me what the issue was - he was sunny side up, and the cord was short and wrapped around his neck - the sunny side up part was why I was dilating so slowly and the back labor, and the cord issue was why his heart rate was slowing down. Once I got into active labor, my uterus was pushing him down, but he couldn't make it because of the short cord. So - the c-section was obviously the right decision - even though it wasn't in the plan!

Aaron was with the baby in the nursery, they finished sewing me up and brought me back to the room - and it all hit me! I had a baby! And he was perfect. Sure, not the birth I had envisioned, but wonderful all the same.