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Wyatt's Birth Story (FrodaBaggins) Long version is LONG.

FrodaBagginsFrodaBaggins member
edited August 2014 in August 2014 Moms
Short version: Wyatt was born at 1:15 pm on 8/14/14 after 25 hours of labor total, and 1 hour of pushing. He has a very full head of dark hair - I came out that way and turned blonde about three months in, while my husband was the opposite! We're interested to see if all this hair stays dark! He's absolutely a lovely baby - a bit gassy, but doing great as a breastfeeder despite my inability to get a good latch, and sleeping pretty well. Our stay at the hospital was wonderful and I can't believe how great the team of my husband, mom, nurses and doctor were for me. 

Long version: His due date was Monday the 11th, but I wasn't feeling *anything*. I never did notice losing a mucous plug, or any bloody show just incidentally. On the 12th I decided to take an epic walk on my lunch break. I think this might have been one of the things that pushed me over the edge because I started experiencing all kinds of weird sensations during that walk that went beyond the basic mild menstrual cramping I'd been feeling. The 13th rolled around, my birthday! I woke in the wee hours of that morning with intense cramping that went away, so I lay down, forgot about it and went back to sleep. I headed in to a very uneventful morning at work although I did feel a tad "off" and very distracted. My colleagues took me out to birthday lunch and it was during that lunch, around 12:30, that I started feeling contractions. I didn't realize at first that they even were contractions! I just kept feeling really weird, and soon realized that the weird feelings were coming at regular intervals about 10 minutes apart, and then they were lasting 10-15 seconds long, and then I was able to sense a pattern where it started with pain at the top of my stomach, which went down and radiated out to my back. I started shutting my eyes and concentrating on them, and pretty soon my colleagues were saying "All right, it's time to get back to the office and get you ready to go home!" Since I really wanted a natural birth, the plan was to head home and labor there as long as possible. But it was still my birthday and my boss had made me my favorite pie, and I really wanted a piece, I still wasn't even sure if this was for real or if it would all end up being a false alarm. So I insisted on staying and eating the pie. Finally my husband texted me and said, "FORGET ABOUT THE PIE! Get home!" and I realized that even if it was a false alarm, better safe than sorry. I was so distracted while leaving that I forgot my cell phone at the office and forgot to put my away message on my email!

Got home, got set up and labored from 2:30-9:30 while walking around and watching Robin Williams movies. My husband was timing my contractions the whole time, waiting for us to get to the 5-1-1 mark. He noticed that when people stopped by, my contractions slowed, and I was doing much better staying up and walking. Eventually we went for a walk up and down the block and this is when things really started getting intense. The contractions started coming closer to 2-3 minutes apart and I had to stop, lean on my husband, sway and vocalize to get through them. We turned around and went back to the house, my husband started loading the car up while I just swayed in the kitchen leaning over the counter trying to get through the contractions calmly. The car ride over wasn't too bad as we're only five minutes away, but it took us 10 minutes to get from the car to the ER doors! I was whisked up in a wheelchair to the nicest L&D room in the hospital - the one from the brochures. Our first nurse was just ending her shift and completely, obviously really excited to get out of there. Her tone of voice upon learning of our birth preference sheet cracked me up even in my state of being out of it and just trying to get through each contraction. I got changed and was checked - 4 cm and 80% effaced! I felt so freakin' proud of myself. I got monitored for a while, got the hep lock placed and then was able to unstrap from all those machines and labor with my husband for about two hours. It got even more intense - I completely threw up the birthday pie, and started shaking uncontrollably. They wanted to monitor me again and then I wasn't able to do the intermittent anymore because they wanted to keep an eye on the baby's heart rate. My husband and I both agree in retrospect that if I had been able to try some other positions at this point, I might have been able to keep going med-free - I was checked around this point and had gotten to 6 cm. But I was strapped to the monitors and had been standing for so long. The pain was overwhelming me, my legs were getting really weak, and I was not getting much of a break between contractions. They were doubling up and I was kind of starting to panic thinking that I could potentially have another four hours of that level of pain. I started to ask what my options were for pain medication. My husband was great - he reminded me all of the reasons I had not wanted to do them, we talked about the pros and cons. When I uttered our "safe word" he knew I was completely serious and we got a shot of Fentanyl in me right away. 

It took the edge off, but still wasn't doing enough. I heard that the anesthesiologist was on the floor doing a few other epidurals and would be leaving by 3 am. At this point it was 2 am and I'd been laboring since 12:30 pm. As the first shot of Fentanyl wore off I finally decided that I didn't want to miss the window of being able to benefit from the epidural, so I got another shot of Fentanyl anticipating that we'd be waiting an hour for the anesthesiologist to show up, as they told us. The IV and catheter were placed. Then all of sudden, he was there *way* earlier than they thought! The hardest part of it was being told to stay absolutely perfectly still while having a contraction that I could pretty much still feel all of, and shaking, and having the stupid blood pressure cuff on. (Seriously, nevermind the pain. THE STUPID BLOOD PRESSURE CUFF. I hated that thing. It was basically on from 2 am to 3 pm the following day, going on and off, squeezing the heck out of my arm.) The epidural felt good - I was really happy that I could still move my toes. I was terrified of the "dead leg" feeling. I immediately got some rest and when I was next checked a few hours later, had only gone to 7 cm. Contractions slowed waaay down, my whole labor seemed to stall out a bit. That was when my OB came in for the first time, and the nurses changed shifts. The nurse who walked in next should have been accompanied by the sounds of angels. She was my age, so laid back, cool, funny, and was with me through the rest of the labor. I still keep thinking about her sense of humor, calm way of explaining things and surfer girl voice. OB came in and said we were going to break my water and see how I did for a few hours. Still no progression after that, so they started me on pitocin that they gradually upped until my contractions were doing better again. At this point I was feeling pretty bad about how far away from my natural birth plan I was, but then interestingly enough, the epidural started wearing off on one side. After 2 hours I was feeling the rectal pressure they told me was the next phase, and along with it a decent amount of pain on my right side. I didn't know how I was going to push while dealing with that pain, but she explained that pushing would actually be the thing that would help, and she was right - it actually ended up being just fine. Once being told "It's time to push!" and getting all set up in position (husband holding one leg, Mom holding the other) I went back to the pain management techniques I'd used at the beginning of labor. I actually liked how I could feel my legs and work with the pain of the contraction to know when to push, but that I was still numb enough to not really feel her fingers or the "ring of fire" when it came. I think it made my pushes more effective. After about an hour, things got pretty intense and I knew his birth was just moments away so I gave it all I had and suddenly he was out and on my chest! He was incredibly alert with huge eyes and tons of dark, spiky hair. Those moments of looking at him and my husband and feeling that incredible euphoric rush was so incredibly satisfying! 

I had a small first degree tear so after delivering the placenta I got all stitched up. Wyatt needed a bit of assistance getting some of the gunk cleaned out of his mouth and nose, so they worked on him for a bit and eventually we heard those big lusty newborn cries. Our time in the hospital was wonderful. Even the food was good. There were a few nurses that really stand out to me with how much they helped me - not just with Wyatt and struggling through that early breastfeeding, but taking care of me also and making me feel a bit babied! Looking back on it I don't regret anything about how the birth went, even though I didn't do it "naturally." It all worked out and we are so in love with this gorgeous babe. :)

Pic!:
Southern California
Together for six years, married for five
BFP 12/06/13 - EDD 8/11/14 
BABY BOY born 8/14/14!

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