the birth story

I'll start by saying I really want this record for me and for his baby book. So I'm not holding many gory details back in the story. Just wanted to say that you were warned. :)

Wednesday, June 9 - DUE DATE by my calculations. The midwives actually had the 10th, so they were right on.
11:00am
I had an appointment with Ray. As previously mentioned, he did a membrane sweep and told me that if it would do anything, it would happen within the next 24 hours. He said I was 2-3cm after he was done. Well, let's just say that Ray's going to be getting a very nice thank you card. :) All day I was really crampy. But I really had no idea what labor was supposed to feel like, so I just chalked it up to the sweep.
7:00pm
William's parents arrived and we had dinner together. I couldn't sit very well at the table, but was still just thinking they were bad cramps. Nothing I couldn't talk or walk through.
9:00pm
I called Becky just to chat. And of course to ask her what her contractions felt like. What she described was nothing like I was feeling, so again, I thought this must still be from the sweep. Note to self: this was dumb because everyone's feel different. We headed to bed about 10. I couldn't really sleep at this point and think maybe I should try to time them. Gotta love the iphone apps! They were inconsistent, but about 7 minutes apart. I started thinking "maybe I AM in labor!"
11:00pm
I got up and called labor and delivery. I just wanted to tell them what was going on and get a second opinion. Kelly told me to drink 32 ounces of cold water and to get in the tub for one hour. If they stayed the same, she said I might want to come in. But if they slowed down, it was probably false labor. They definitely stayed consistent and I was having to breathe through them. After an hour, I called back and told her what was happening. She said I was welcome to come in and they would get a room ready. Since I wanted to go naturally as long as I could, I said I'd stay home for now and I'd call when we were on our way. So I got back in the tub. (William is still asleep at this point).

Thursday, June 10
2:30am
The second time around in the tub, they seemed to slow down so I got a little disappointed. Got out of the tub and made my way back to bed. But when I laid down, they picked back up again. Still inconsistent, but definitely more like every 5-7 minutes.
4:00am
I woke up William and said that I think it was time to go figure out what was going on. He jumped up and asked if he could make coffee. I went to stand up and there was a small gush. Mucus plug was out! We took our time putting the finishing touches on our suitcases and gathering our things. Then it was off the hospital. At this point, I'm realizing that my fear of having no sleep going into labor was coming true. :) Thank goodness for adrenaline. Luckily, there was no traffic, but I will say that riding in a car in labor is no fun. Every small bump feels like a giant pothole!
5:00am
We arrived at the completely dead ER and signed a couple papers and then William rolled me up to labor and delivery. The nurses said that I looked much too cheerful to be in labor. Our nurse Barb wasn't the most friendly of them, but luckily she was done at 7, so we didn't have to deal with her for too long. Vanessa (my fav midwife) was on call when we arrived. She checked me and I was 4 1/2cm! I wasn't going home, so we started making the calls and my mom I'm sure RAN out the door. I was really excited that the work I'd done at home was actually doing something. Vanessa was looking a little tired and told me I had 3 hours to birth the baby with her still on call. I told her I liked deadlines and would try as hard as I could to get him out with her here. :) I labored a little while in bed while they got enough of a print out of my contractions and get a good read on his heartbeat. They said he wasn't minding labor at all. When I got the ok, we headed to the tub! Our new nurse, Amy, came in to meet us. She was super sweet the whole time, minus the fact that you could smell her perfume from a mile away. :)


This is how I spent the next couple hours. Ok, not smiling like this, but leaning over the edge of the tub grabbing William's hand for each contraction. I remember being picky about the way he held his hand. I got out several times to use the bathroom and once to get monitored back in the room.
7:30am
Vanessa was getting ready to go and leave me in Lori's hands. Lori was the ONE midwife I had never met in all my appointments. Funny it would happen that way. Vanessa asked me what I wanted to do next. More tub, bed, birthing ball and how I was doing pain wise. They were hurting pretty bad, but I was definitely able to work through them. I was 6-7cm, so we decided to break my water before any next decisions were made. So back to the room I go. She inserted a long "crochet hook" and then I felt like I peed myself with a gallon of water. Weird. And then I like to say I was transported to hell. I spent the next hour and half leaning over the side of bed, standing on my tiptoes, trying to survive transistion. Laying down wasn't cutting it and the idea of sitting on the birthing ball made me cringe. I was definitely a hands-off kinda girl except for William's hand holding.
9:00am
I started wondering how much more I could take. The contractions were coming one on top of another with no break to catch my breath. I had been pretty quiet through most of the process, but had to do a lot of moaning/yelling to get through these. Although William said I never cussed. :) I started mentioning an epidural. Lori and William did a good job asking me the questions I wanted to be asked like "will I feel bad or less of myself if I get this." Because I felt like I really experienced a good portion of labor drug and IV free (minus pushing), I said YES! The first IV didn't work and I wondered out loud if it was a sign. But I was also thrashing around quite a bit, which could have been the problem. Second one was no problem and within minutes, the anesthesiologist was in the room. When he walked in, he said "now that looks like a women who needs an epidural." He was super fast and good at his job. I will say some of the hardest minutes were having to hold still during one of the worst contractions while he got the needle in. But within 10 minutes, I went from hell to this. . .

I was able to talk and rest a little bit. My dad came in for awhile too. It was the most perfect epidural. I could move my legs and feet and even lift up my bottom when they needed to change to pad under me. I could definitely tell when I was having each contraction. Our nurse Amy had to go to a different floor, so we got our third labor nurse, Krysteen. She was fabulous and so super sweet.

Amy and Krysteen (With me cut out of the middle. Whew, that was rough picture)

12:00pm
I started feeling a little more pressure and when Lori checked me. . .I was 10 and fully effaced! Woohoo!

She asked me to do a practice push and thought we were ready to go. It felt better to push on my side, so that's how we were going to get started. I told them we couldn't start yet, because my sister wasn't there. We called and she was in the parking lot. So I held back my desire to push! At about 12:10, everyone was ready to go and I started pushing. She held up a small mirror, but it wasn't quite in the right spot, so I really couldn't see much. In about 20 minutes, she told me I needed to stop so she could get ready. She wasn't expecting to have to "suit up" so fast. I held back as long as I could and felt his head a little as I pushed. I remember looking around and crying a bit at this point. It didn't seem like this was really happening. When they were ready, Lori let William get in there and help pull him out and onto my stomach at 12:43!

William cut the cord.

He was a little purple and didn't want to cry right away, so they took him to the warmer, but was back in about a minute after letting out some great wails. Let the tears begin!

I delivered the placenta pretty quickly with a little pulling from them and one push from me and they commented on how large it was. William asked if he could touch it. GROSS! :) And my sister asked if I wanted a picture of it - no thank you. After holding him and crying a bit, I realized that Lori and the resident that had sat in on the delivery, were still working down there. When I asked how many stitches were going on, she said I didn't really need to know the number, but it was a 2nd degree tear.

They weighed and measured him. 8 pounds, 10 oz and 21 inches!


So that's the story of Owen's passage down the birth canal. I cannot stop thanking God for an amazing answer to so many of my prayers. It was the most amazing experience of my life. And the "forgetting" has already kicked in. Let's do it again! :)

Things were wrapping up and I was finally able to breastfeed my little man. And then the chaos began. . .