ryan's birth

kmills123

Hello Im new here. My name is Kirsten and this is my son's birth story. My due date was September 17th. The pregnancy went by fairly easy for the first 40 weeks. I was feeling great and going on 3 hours hikes until the day I gave birth. Then the day before I gave birth I found out i had cholestasis. I heard of itchy belly but this was extreme. This meant that as my water broke I had to go to the hospital which was 1am on September 24. At that point I was only 1cm and having very weak contractions. Since there was a risk of stillbirth they decided to induce me at 11am. I had a great doula and we tried all sorts of stuff to get labour started including 15 flights of stairs! She was great at keeping me entertained we played cards around 4pm and I remember winning every game even through moderate contractions that were coming every 4 minutes. At about 5pm I was checked and I was only 2-3cm which was the same as 11am. Then soon after the contractions got much stronger. Even though I had originally I wanted a natural birth by 730pm I was so exhausted I determined I needed an epidural or I would have no energy. An hour later the baby's heart rate kept dropping and I hadn't made progress so after talking my doula, midwife and parents it was decided that he would have problems making it through several more hours of labour. Thankfully I had a great midwife who was the only person allowed in the surgery room other than the doctors so she ended up being my birth support also. It was discovered that cord was tightly around his neck when they delivered him at 944pm and that was why he was doing not so well. Then I got to here the best sound his cry. He was born 8lbs 8oz and 21 in with a 15.25in head. He was bigger than everyone thought since I was measuring at 38 weeks. It took 15 agonizing minutes to finally meet my boy. My midwife held him as I got to touch and stare at him until they were done stitching me up. I had some issues breastfeeding him until my milk came in day 6 and he didn't latch at all for 3 days. My doula was what gave me the ability to finally breast feed. I spent 5 nights in hospital due to breastfeeding issues, high blood pressure, allergic reaction to one of the meds, and also Ryan losing over 10% of his weight since he wasn't feeding. All that doesn't matter although since I have a beautiful happy healthy baby now who has stole my heart. He's hitting all the milestones early and growing like a weed. He's now 13+lbs and 25in. He spends his days smiling and cooing most of the time and loves everyone except his uncle oddly enough.