A Birth Story

Gosh I can't believe that two weeks ago tomorrow my little prince arrived!

Baby S was delivered naturally by induction on July 26th, 2009 at 11:18 pm making his way into the world at 7 lbs 7 oz 20.5 inches long.

My doctor had instructed me to go onto church that morning if I felt up to it and then call the hospital around 12:30 pm to see if there was a delivery room available. Well I did not make it to church, I had been in an uncomfortable state since Friday evening and by Sunday morning it was worse. My mom came to the house to pick me up so that I could go sit with her and my dad until it was time to call the hospital. Poor hubby had to work half a day so I would not end up seeing him until after I was at the hospital.

I called the hospital at 12:30 pm and they told me to come on in there was room for me. After eating a very light lunch, my mom and I left and headed over. I called hubby to let him know just to meet us there at the hospital that way, he wouldn't have to worry about coming and getting me.

I checked in at 2:00 pm and by 2:09 pm I was all hooked up to the monitors. We had a slight scare with the fetal monitoring because Baby's heart rate was "acting up". My doctor broke my water in order to check the amniotic fluid to see if perhaps Baby was in distress. It was clear, however, we called my husband to see how much longer he would be before arriving at the hospital just in case a c-section was inevitable.

My husband arrived shortly before 3:00 pm and was relieved to find out that everything was OK after my mom called him. About 5:00 pm is when the drama began, I had been on pitocin for about 2.5 hours at this point and was doing well with my Lamaze but it wasn't working as well as I had hoped. I requested my epidural but the nurses told me it was too early that they could give me some other pain medicine until I had dilated further. I couldn't begin to tell you what happened after that. I was loopy from the medication for the next two hours; I did know that something was definitely wrong. Baby's heart rate kept disappearing and we had to keep changing my position in order to bring it back up to normal. My poor husband was beside himself trying to keep me calm in my drugged up state and worrying about both me and the baby.

My doctor was called in at that point and was very agitated at the nurses as to giving me the pain medicine instead of having my epidural placed. They had discovered after I received my epidural (by this time it was 7:00 pm), the Baby did not like having the pitocin drip upped to above 10 mg at a time. We had to restart the pitocin three different times once it reached above 10 mg.

By 11:00 pm I had fully dilated and we were still having problems with Baby's heart rate. They got me into position to start pushing. My husband was at my side the entire time (holding one leg in the stirrups while the nurse held the other) coaching and encouraging me with every push. Once I started pushing, I was not allowed to stop to rest. I had just seconds between contractions to get a breath to begin pushing again. At 11:18 pm I heard, the most precious sound, my son crying. He was placed upon my chest and my husband cut his cord.

We found out after his birth that our baby had had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. After being assured by the doctor that this is not uncommon, it was the reason behind his heart rate dropping and why I had to keep pushing once I started. My husband looked at me as I held our son in my arms while we were still recovering and said that witnessing his son's birth had to be the coolest experience he ever had.

The picture below is of Baby S only a few of hours old. My husband is also included in the background trying to get some rest.

Here is my husband and Baby S at one day old: