Birth Story (Part 1)

Thursday night October 6th I started having contractions and they seemed to be about every half an hour but they weren't to regular and then ended up being even less frequent after a while. When we went to bed I was still convinced I was going to end up having to be induced Monday. Friday morning I woke up at 5:30 with contractions every fifteen minutes. I wasn't sure if it was the real deal or not and was paranoid I would end up going to the hospital and it wouldn't really be time and we would be sent home. I also wasn't sure if I should call into work or not but after the contractions started getting a little bit closer together I decided I should probably call and let someone know I wouldn't be able to make it in.

When I call my manager told me good luck and it sounded like I was going to have a baby. I still wasn't sure it was the real deal and was thinking I was going to look really dumb if it really wasn't labor. I had been told a few times that most first time mothers often have false alarms and Chris seemed pretty sure I would have at least one false alarm.

We waited for a while and my contractions were getting worse we decided to get ready and then head to the hospital. By the time we left for the hospital my contractions were between three and five minutes apart. They were pretty painful. We got in the car and headed to the hospital. On the way to the hospital at one point I had gone about eight minutes without a contraction and both Chris and I were thinking it was just a false alarm and we would be sent home. Right before we got to the hospital I had another horrible contraction I think we were both relieved that the contractions hadn't stopped. We got to labor and delivery around 8am and I told the nurse I thought I was in labor they had me go into a room and get into a hospital gown and said they would be in shortly to check me.

On our way out the door for the hospital.

When the nurse came in and checked me I was at 6cm and 90% and I think a 0 station. I was so surprised and proud of myself that I made it to a 6 before we got to the hospital. They told me that the anesthesiologist was in with a c-section and they would get him in to give me an epidural as soon as he was done. The doctor came in and broke my water. That was an interesting feeling when he broke my water and I was very glad my water didn't break somewhere that someone would have had to clean it up... that would have been a mess. I ended up only having to wait about an hour before the anesthesiologist came in. I was so glad I didn't have to wait any longer I was in so much pain when I had the contractions that I was shaking from the pain. I was so amazed that the epidural hardly even hurt at all; getting the IV hurt worse then the epidural. Once the epidural was working I was a happy camper. Seriously the epidural was the greatest thing ever.

Ready to have a baby :)

After the epidural was in place I was able to focus on other things then the pain. The baby wasn't responding well to the contractions they had put me on some pitocin to get my contractions a little more regular and the baby didn't like that at all. The nurse figured out that the baby responded better to the contractions better when I was on my right side so I pretty much stayed on my right side the whole time. After a while I was starting to feel pain in my left side and when I mentioned this to the doctor and the nurse they told me the epidural is effected by gravity and that's why my right side was more numb then my left.

Chris's scared face.

On Oxygen to try to help the baby.

They had to put monitors on the inside because the monitors on the outside weren't reading my contractions or the baby's heart rate. We watched the baby's heart rate on the monitor and at one point the baby's heart rate went down to 60 which was really low and I called the nurse to come in. She talked to the doctor and he wanted her to have me push and see if they could get him to come out.At this point we kicked everyone out of the room.  She had me push once and by this time the epidural was really starting to not work anymore. Dr Watabe finally came in and had me push again. He wasn't sure if the baby was facing the right way and so he stuck his hand in and was trying to turn the baby around, that was so painful. He decided to try using the forceps to get the baby out and they actually slipped off the baby's head. The baby's heart rate wasn't coming up and Dr Watabe decided he needed to hurry and get the baby out.

By this point I was in so much pain I really didn't know much of what was going on. I remember them quickly wheeling me down the hall but I could have been naked and I wouldn't have even known because of all the pain. They gave Chris an outfit to put on so he could be in the room for the c-section. I didn't see him for a while and I was worried he was going to miss it. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me some more medicine for the c-section. I heard them counting and as soon as they were done the doctor started cutting. Generally with the medicine for a c-section they have to wait for 10 minutes for it to work but they only waited for 5 minutes. I felt them cut and I remember the anesthesiologist telling me I might feel a little pressure and I told him I was feeling a lot more than pressure. The baby's head was a little big and one of the nurses had to get on top of me and help push him out. She mentioned later that her feet weren't even on the ground cause she was using all her weight to push. After they got him out I heard him cry and I felt so grateful he had made it.

After I heard the baby cry it still felt like they were trying to get the baby out of my stomach there was lots of pushing and pulling and who knows what going on down there. Chris mentioned that he saw my insides on my chest... lucky him haha.

The medicine finally kicked in and I was very out of it. I remember Chris bringing the baby to me putting him by my head but after they left I had no idea what he looked like. Chris then left and went down to the nursery with the baby while the doctors finished sewing me up. I remember laying there listening to the doctors talking about how their patients get mad when they have an appointment but have to wait because they're over delivering a baby at the hospital. I started to think about how I didn't know how big the baby was or how long or even what time it was. I finally interrupted and asked how much the baby weighed. They told me he was 8lbs 1oz. I was so surprised he wasn't bigger (the ultrasound tech had scared me at my last ultrasound). The doctors then talked to me and I told them how they should just make sure not to deliver those patients babies if they are in an appointment with another patient.

After the doctors finished up with me the nurses were moving me back to the other bed and I didn't realize just how paralyzed I was by this point until I saw that my leg was bent and couldn't feel it. They told me that this was the crappy part about c-sections that I had to stay up in labor and delivery for a few hours to recover and wouldn't get to see the baby for a while.

Being in recovery crazy and after being super hot for the previous nine months it was strange being super cold. I just remember being so cold and shaking uncontrollably. My family stayed in the room with me while I recovered and I received occasional update texts from Chris who was downstairs with the baby.