The Birth Story

OK...this is for my own journal purpose, read on if you would like.

Tuesday night October 6th I was having some pretty consistent contractions so I figured if this was the real thing I'd better get to bed. I woke up Wednesday morning and nothing was going on. I checked my phone and realized I had received a text from a friend who wanted to go walking, I told her I was going to go to the high school and walk up and down the bleachers to see if that got things going and asked her if she wanted to come along. She agreed and by 7am we were off. I walked a couple of times around the track and then started climbing the bleacher up and down. After about 15 minutes I knew something was going on cause I thought I was peeing my pants. (About 7:45am) I soon realized it wasn't pee but that my water had broke. I told my friend and she's said "well let's keep walking and see if things keep going." We walked a couple more times around the track and by this time my pants were soaked. Not to mention there were several high school kids there using the track. I hope they didn't see anything. I wanted to get home and do some laundry and pick up a little bit before the contractions got too painful so we headed home.

By the time we got home I was soaked...I've never experienced my water breaking like this before and I had no idea how much water was in me. I soaked through every hand towel we had as I was doing the chores around the house and then was soaking through the big bath towels. I had to get the boys laundry done because they had absolutely no clean clothes and my bathroom needed to be cleaned so I had to finish that. I packed the bag for the hospital, called my sister and my mom to come take the boys and Brandon finished up a few last minute work things that needed to be taken care of. My brother ended up coming and picking up the boys and by noon Brandon and I were headed to the hospital.

I checked in at the triage place and was only dilated to a three. I was kind of bummed but wasn't expecting much more considering my contractions were consistent but not super painful. Once I was checked they moved me into the labor and delivery room and I was assigned the nicest nurse ever. Her name was Emilee and she was great. I told her I wasn't expecting to have an epidural and she never pressured me any other way. Once I was all checked out by her and she found the baby's heart rate to be good we were off and walking the halls. I didn't know my way around this hospital at all but now I do. We walked and walked and walked and walked. Brandon thinks we walked about two miles total. I would have to come back every so often and she would check me and the baby and then we would be off again.

By 5:30pm I could feel things were starting to progress and contractions were getting more intense. My doctor stopped by on his was home and checked me. By this time I was at a 5 almost 6. He suggested they start me on pitocin to get things moving a little faster. I knew I wanted to hold off on that for a little while...I do not like that stuff. I had it with Boston and it was not pleasant. I told him I wanted to get in the shower, try to relax and see if that did anything. He said that wouldn't be a problem then he told me he wasn't on call that night but the other doctor would be here and take care of everything. So off he went and into the shower I went.

I stayed in the shower from 6pm-7pm got back on the bed so the nurse could check me and I was at a 7. The doctor on call also came in about 7pm and said he figured I had a few more hours so he was headed home for dinner and would be back later that night. Yes, progress was being made...it was also starting to get very intense. I told the nurse I needed to go to the bathroom, got off the bed, took care of business then once I climbed back on the bed I couldn't even roll over to my back the contractions were right on top of each other with no break. I knew transition had hit and this is when I thought to myself "I can't handle this" then my next thought was "you've done it twice before...it's almost over" I told Brandon to call for the nurse and as soon as she came in and saw me I heard her tell Brandon "press that red button." The next thing I knew there was like five people in the room putting on their gear and one said "get everything ready I think this is gonna go fast." I told them I needed to push they were telling me to hold off the doctor wasn't their yet. (By the way it's virtually impossible to hold that feeling off) I kept saying I got to push and I heard the nurses saying the baby's heart rate was way to low. Three women quickly walked in and I asked where the doctor was and one of them said "you've got three doctor's here start pushing" so I pushed. They kept saying push and I kept pushing. Next thing I knew they were saying one more he's right there. I pushed again and out popped a gray lifeless, limp little boy. I saw Brandon's face...I don't ever want to see that face again. I looked over and saw three nurses rubbing his little body and sucking everything out of him. Still no cry. After what seemed like an eternity (although it was only three minutes) I heard this faint little cry that kept getting stronger and stronger. Finally after 10-15 minutes, they weighed him, a whopping 9.8lbs is what the scale said, covered him up and passed him over to me. He was SO sweet. I knew he was supposed to be here and I was so glad it was over. Just about this time is when the doctor on call walked in. He checked me over, took care of the small tear this little guy made and said everything looked good. The little man latched on right away and then was off in dream land. Pops held him and we took lots of pictures. After awhile the nurses cleaned me all up gave me some Motrin for the after birth pains...ouch, the worst yet. And by 1opm I was wheeled down to postpartum for the rest of the night and following day. Baby #3 was given a bath about midnight and looked so peaceful all cleaned up.

My night nurse was great. 7am brought a shift change and the day nurse was good. My doctor came in about 9am and spent a good hour with us. He explained how the baby's body changes right before birth and what happens inside the body for the baby to start breathing air. It is pretty amazing all that takes place. He reassured us that the lifeless body we saw right after birth would be OK. This little guy is two weeks old today and is as happy as can be. He eats great and sleeps like a baby...waking up every few hours. This is the part I'm trying to get used to. It's been along time since I've had a sleepless night. I've forgotten what it's like.

He's here and doing great. He's really only had two major outings. The first was on Monday October 12th to the doctor for his 5 day check up. He was 9lbs 7oz and 21.5 inches long. Then on Wednesday we went back to have his manhood redesigned and he was already 9lbs 14oz. Already growing like a weed.

My body is adjusting to the natural chest augmentation that took place during the night of October 10th. (a.k.a. my milk came in) holy Hanna...pain again. But so worth it. And, it's amazing how much blood one can dispel and still be alive. It's like a never ending period. But I know that it really will end one of these days. I'm looking forward to getting back to exercising and taking this baby and showing him off. However spouse is making me wait longer than usual to take this baby out of the house due to all the flu stuff that is going around.

Again he's so sweet and I'm SOOO glad he's here. Defiantly worth the wait!

Thanks for reading this REALLY LONG post.