My Birth Story
Now on to the good stuff, or the gross stuff, or the TMI whichever way you look at it. I like to think of it as the good stuff, although I have to say that this time around was probably the hardest delivery I've ever experienced! I thought that they say that the more babies you have the easier it gets, well they lied! LIED I tell you! They also say that the more babies you have the earlier they will come, again with the LIES!
We went in for our weekly Dr's appointment on Tuesday. I was completely ready to schedule this baby's induction because frankly this pregnancy has been really hard on the ol' body! So Tuesday at 3:30 we are sitting in the Dr.'s office and he tells us we should schedule the induction for Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Fine by me! Well the nurse comes back and says sorry but the only opening they had for induction was Wednesday morning, REALLY FINE BY ME!! So on the way home from the appointment Chris and I stop by the store and pick up the last few essentials that we needed for baby CH and feel we are pretty set for the next morning.
Wednesday morning around 5am. Chris decided that he was going into work so he could get a few loose ends taken care of before his vacation so he heads out around 5:30ish to make it back home by our 8:00 appt time. I get out of bed, check my e-mail, finish packing my bag, shower, shave, do my hair, etc. and Chris comes home around 7. We leave the kiddos with Robyn and head to Mc Donald's to get Chris some breakfast, I am too nervous and only eat an English Muffin at home. That was my first mistake! I should have ignored my nervous tummy and stuffed myself to capacity.
We get to the hospital a few minutes late because they are doing some construction and it takes a while to find our way to the labor and delivery floor. They have our room all set up for us and ready to go. I'm GBS positive so I need antibiotics before and during delivery so they start my drip and I have to wait a while before the Dr. will actually come in and break my water. Around noon he comes in and does just that, breaks my water, says the baby is low, my cervix is thin, and I'm dilated to a 4. Should be very quick now. Waiting, waiting, waiting, NOTHING! I walk the halls and move around and nothing. So around 3 he starts Pitocin, slowly, slowly, slowly my contractions start. By 5:30 I'm dilated to an 9 and contracting really hard. Now usually I would have a nice dose of Newbain at this point, relax, finish dilating, and have a baby in 15 minutes. Well the Newbain rules have changed, you can't have it past 5 centimeters. When I was at 5 centimeters I wasn't having any pain and very few contractions so why in the world would I get drugs and have them wear off in 1 hour? That would have been silly. So I figure, I can do this all on my own. I've never had an epidural before so why should I start now I'm at a 9, no biggie we'll be done in an hour...WRONG! 4 hours later and I'm still at a 9, in complete and utter pain and miserable. I'm begging my dr. to give me something, he won't give in, Chris' hand is probably Jello at this point because of my squeezing. The nurse suggests that I get an epidural. I'm dead set against it but my awesome labor coach starts asking questions, good questions, questions that will put my mind at rest, questions that started me thinking that this epidural thing would be a good idea. So I say yes!
My last epidural experience with K was a nightmare. The Dr. could not get it in and after 45 minutes of poking and prodding at me threw up her hands, stormed out of the room, and yelled at me "You have too many bones in your back" and was gone, leaving me with no plan B.
This time was WAY different. The anesthesiologist was a jerk, but I can handle a Dr. being a jerk if he really knows his stuff and gets the job done. This was the case here, no bedside manner what-so-ever but he got that epidural in and working in less than 15 minutes. It didn't cut my pain completely, but my contractions went from being a 10 to about a 5. Much Better! in less than 15 more minutes I was pushing. Now let me tell you about pushing, if you don't like graphic stop reading NOW. I've pushed out 5 babies now, 4 without an epidural. Usually by the time I'm pushing my other medication has warn off and I can feel everything. I can feel the Dr. stretching me, I can feel the injection of the Lidocaine for the episiotomy, I can feel tearing, and burning and everything that is happening to me. Let me just say it's not fun. Now with my epidural I could feel all the pressure, I could feel the baby coming out, but I could feel nothing else... no stretching, no pulling, no burning, it was FABULOUS! I did not panic while I was pushing, that usually happens, the Dr. told me when to push and I did in a very relaxed manner. There was no screaming, or growling, or crying. Epidural where have you been all my life???!!! Up until the point of the epidural this was to-date the worst delivery EVER, after the epidural it was C-A-K-E!
Another wonderful thing happened after I had CH, because I did not have the Newbain, or Fentanyl I was able to hold CH for as long as I wanted. Before they were always worried that I was still "too drugged up" to hold the baby for very long. This time they told me to let them know when I wanted him away and cleaned and weighed. I got to hold him for a good long time, it was awesome. He was also a little cold afterward and I was able to hold him skin to skin and warm him back up. It was by far the biggest thrill for me, holding my new baby all wet and wiggly and cheesy right against my own skin. THE BEST FEELING EVER!
Meanwhile my doctor had a funny look on his face. I asked what the problem was and he was a little concerned that my placenta hadn't moved out yet. He said not to worry that it could take 30 minutes. After a few more minutes it did come out and he was even shocked at how big it was. I asked to see it and man it was really big. Good news for me, I lost more weight!
Another concern came from the nurses they lost a piece of gauze some time during delivery. Ok, that's scary, where is it? They checked under me, in the garbage can, on the floor, on the bottoms of their shoes, nothing. Next came the big questions, could it be in me? So they had to check. The nurse checked inside and couldn't find anything (again glad I had that epidrual and was still numb). After the 'cavity check' the x-ray techs came and x-rayed me to make double sure I was clean. All is well by-the-way.
The doctor hung around to see how much this guy weighed. When he came out we all decided that he was smaller than L and couldn't weigh much more than 9lbs. Boy were we wrong. I think the doctor's exact words when the scale read 10lbs 1oz was "NO WAY"! Everyone was shocked. I am so glad that I was induced when I was because another week would have meant another pound or so and I don't want to even think about that. In California the insurance we had would not even consider induction until 41 1/2 weeks unless there were extenuating circumstances, so I would probably have had another 11+ lb baby. No thank you very much.
While I held my squirmy, snuggly baby Chris went and got some food for the both of us. It was almost midnight and the only thing open was Steak n' Shake, which I happen to love so lucky me! He came back with tons of goodies to eat and we both enjoyed scarfing down the food while CH had his first bath.
This was definitely not the quick, easy delivery that I had planned for the day, but I have to say that in the end it really opened my eyes to a lot of things. I have a great labor coach at my side. I really like my doctor who will totally understand and accept my decisions but not be afraid to gently suggest alternatives when he clearly sees that my plans are not working out. I have great friends that followed the whole day on Facebook and encouraged me through it all. I have wonderful family that worried and messaged me every few hours to see my progress, or lack thereof.
Now we have a sweet, cute, cuddly baby at our house that everyone seems to want to fight over. I know that he will be spoiled rotten.
We went in for our weekly Dr's appointment on Tuesday. I was completely ready to schedule this baby's induction because frankly this pregnancy has been really hard on the ol' body! So Tuesday at 3:30 we are sitting in the Dr.'s office and he tells us we should schedule the induction for Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Fine by me! Well the nurse comes back and says sorry but the only opening they had for induction was Wednesday morning, REALLY FINE BY ME!! So on the way home from the appointment Chris and I stop by the store and pick up the last few essentials that we needed for baby CH and feel we are pretty set for the next morning.
Wednesday morning around 5am. Chris decided that he was going into work so he could get a few loose ends taken care of before his vacation so he heads out around 5:30ish to make it back home by our 8:00 appt time. I get out of bed, check my e-mail, finish packing my bag, shower, shave, do my hair, etc. and Chris comes home around 7. We leave the kiddos with Robyn and head to Mc Donald's to get Chris some breakfast, I am too nervous and only eat an English Muffin at home. That was my first mistake! I should have ignored my nervous tummy and stuffed myself to capacity.
We get to the hospital a few minutes late because they are doing some construction and it takes a while to find our way to the labor and delivery floor. They have our room all set up for us and ready to go. I'm GBS positive so I need antibiotics before and during delivery so they start my drip and I have to wait a while before the Dr. will actually come in and break my water. Around noon he comes in and does just that, breaks my water, says the baby is low, my cervix is thin, and I'm dilated to a 4. Should be very quick now. Waiting, waiting, waiting, NOTHING! I walk the halls and move around and nothing. So around 3 he starts Pitocin, slowly, slowly, slowly my contractions start. By 5:30 I'm dilated to an 9 and contracting really hard. Now usually I would have a nice dose of Newbain at this point, relax, finish dilating, and have a baby in 15 minutes. Well the Newbain rules have changed, you can't have it past 5 centimeters. When I was at 5 centimeters I wasn't having any pain and very few contractions so why in the world would I get drugs and have them wear off in 1 hour? That would have been silly. So I figure, I can do this all on my own. I've never had an epidural before so why should I start now I'm at a 9, no biggie we'll be done in an hour...WRONG! 4 hours later and I'm still at a 9, in complete and utter pain and miserable. I'm begging my dr. to give me something, he won't give in, Chris' hand is probably Jello at this point because of my squeezing. The nurse suggests that I get an epidural. I'm dead set against it but my awesome labor coach starts asking questions, good questions, questions that will put my mind at rest, questions that started me thinking that this epidural thing would be a good idea. So I say yes!
My last epidural experience with K was a nightmare. The Dr. could not get it in and after 45 minutes of poking and prodding at me threw up her hands, stormed out of the room, and yelled at me "You have too many bones in your back" and was gone, leaving me with no plan B.
This time was WAY different. The anesthesiologist was a jerk, but I can handle a Dr. being a jerk if he really knows his stuff and gets the job done. This was the case here, no bedside manner what-so-ever but he got that epidural in and working in less than 15 minutes. It didn't cut my pain completely, but my contractions went from being a 10 to about a 5. Much Better! in less than 15 more minutes I was pushing. Now let me tell you about pushing, if you don't like graphic stop reading NOW. I've pushed out 5 babies now, 4 without an epidural. Usually by the time I'm pushing my other medication has warn off and I can feel everything. I can feel the Dr. stretching me, I can feel the injection of the Lidocaine for the episiotomy, I can feel tearing, and burning and everything that is happening to me. Let me just say it's not fun. Now with my epidural I could feel all the pressure, I could feel the baby coming out, but I could feel nothing else... no stretching, no pulling, no burning, it was FABULOUS! I did not panic while I was pushing, that usually happens, the Dr. told me when to push and I did in a very relaxed manner. There was no screaming, or growling, or crying. Epidural where have you been all my life???!!! Up until the point of the epidural this was to-date the worst delivery EVER, after the epidural it was C-A-K-E!
Another wonderful thing happened after I had CH, because I did not have the Newbain, or Fentanyl I was able to hold CH for as long as I wanted. Before they were always worried that I was still "too drugged up" to hold the baby for very long. This time they told me to let them know when I wanted him away and cleaned and weighed. I got to hold him for a good long time, it was awesome. He was also a little cold afterward and I was able to hold him skin to skin and warm him back up. It was by far the biggest thrill for me, holding my new baby all wet and wiggly and cheesy right against my own skin. THE BEST FEELING EVER!
Meanwhile my doctor had a funny look on his face. I asked what the problem was and he was a little concerned that my placenta hadn't moved out yet. He said not to worry that it could take 30 minutes. After a few more minutes it did come out and he was even shocked at how big it was. I asked to see it and man it was really big. Good news for me, I lost more weight!
Another concern came from the nurses they lost a piece of gauze some time during delivery. Ok, that's scary, where is it? They checked under me, in the garbage can, on the floor, on the bottoms of their shoes, nothing. Next came the big questions, could it be in me? So they had to check. The nurse checked inside and couldn't find anything (again glad I had that epidrual and was still numb). After the 'cavity check' the x-ray techs came and x-rayed me to make double sure I was clean. All is well by-the-way.
The doctor hung around to see how much this guy weighed. When he came out we all decided that he was smaller than L and couldn't weigh much more than 9lbs. Boy were we wrong. I think the doctor's exact words when the scale read 10lbs 1oz was "NO WAY"! Everyone was shocked. I am so glad that I was induced when I was because another week would have meant another pound or so and I don't want to even think about that. In California the insurance we had would not even consider induction until 41 1/2 weeks unless there were extenuating circumstances, so I would probably have had another 11+ lb baby. No thank you very much.
While I held my squirmy, snuggly baby Chris went and got some food for the both of us. It was almost midnight and the only thing open was Steak n' Shake, which I happen to love so lucky me! He came back with tons of goodies to eat and we both enjoyed scarfing down the food while CH had his first bath.
This was definitely not the quick, easy delivery that I had planned for the day, but I have to say that in the end it really opened my eyes to a lot of things. I have a great labor coach at my side. I really like my doctor who will totally understand and accept my decisions but not be afraid to gently suggest alternatives when he clearly sees that my plans are not working out. I have great friends that followed the whole day on Facebook and encouraged me through it all. I have wonderful family that worried and messaged me every few hours to see my progress, or lack thereof.
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