Asher's Birth Story (LONG!)

ellephunt · January 2013

Tuesday night I woke up with contractions and couldn't sleep. Finally was able to get some rest and woke up Wednesday feeling pretty groggy and tired. Around 3p Wednesday I went to the bathroom and when I was washing my hands I felt a gush of fluid. I looked and it was clear and about half dollar sized. Most of my leaking was mucous plug so this was different. It was so small though that I just went about my business and 20 min later it happened again. So I told DH "I don't know if my water just broke, something's up though." We decided to put in a call to my OB. He called me back and said to get it checked out and could be a leak in my water. So we showered and packed just in case and left. On the way to the hospital DH was like "I hope this is it!" and I was thinking we'd be back home after getting the fluid tested.

Well we arrive at the hospital and they set me up at Triage. I was put on the monitors and was having small contractions about every 4-5 minutes. The nurse tested my fluid and as she was doing the test said "If it's your water it'd be gushing out and it's not doing that." We were both sure we'd be sent home. Then she came back 10 min later and said "Well guys, you're having a baby!" DH and I both burst into tears and started making calls.

I went to a different room and was checked. I was dilated to 3cm and 80% effaced. We decided to start me on pitocin to get things going. Unfortunately I went the entire night at 3cm but my cervix was making progress. I was on the ball and walking a lot to try and get things going so I was exhausted and finally at 5a I asked for an epidural. I slept for a little bit and then my OB came in. He knew right away something wasn't right. The monitor was showing me having these massive contractions. They were going off the charts! But I wasn't feeling that and wasn't making progress for that. So they took me off the belly monitor and did an internal monitor. Right away we saw the problem. My belly was is so small that every movement was showing too huge. They were able to up the pitocin and from there things progressed really fast!

I went from 4cm to 6cm quickly and started feeling more and more pain. The nurse couldn't believe how fast I was going. DH went to check on our visitors and when he came back I was fully dilated and ready to push. He had tears in his eyes and kept pacing saying "what do I need to do!" He held one leg and the nurse was on the other leg and I started pushing. I was able to pull him out and they announced "It's a boy!" DH and I were both in tears and I can't even describe that moment. All in all my actual labor was 4 hours long and I pushed for 20 minutes. Asher is a champ and is nursing really well. I am very very swollen but otherwise doing well.