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Jason Arthur's birth story (+update 2)

kns1988kns1988 member
edited April 2017 in May 2017 Moms
Very long post ahead! If giving birth isn't the time to AW, then when is?  ;)

Jason "Jay" Arthur was born on 4/24/17 at 11:46 PM weighing 4 lbs 13 oz and measuring 18 inches long. He surprised us by coming 5 weeks early and the day after my baby shower! I woke up Saturday morning and had lost some of my mucus plug, but the OB doctor said it was nothing to worry about and didn't necessarily mean early labor. I was feeling a lot of pelvic pressure that day, but I chalked it up to having done some cleaning the night before and all of the activity and excitement of the shower.

On Sunday, I lost some more of my mucus plug and I started having 6 contractions per hour beginning around noon. I called the OB after a few hours and she said I had the option of going in to L&D to get looked at or going to the office the next day. I waited about 8 hours and then went to L&D for peace of mind, but the measurements showed that only some of my contractions were strong enough to be "real" and I was only 1 cm dilated. I went home and got some sleep between the discomfort, and went back to the office Monday morning for a checkup.

Well, at the office, the monitor showed more consistent contractions, and during just one, the baby's heart rate dipped down. That was enough for them to want to check me out again - I was 2 cm dilated and 90% effaced according to the CRNP (later, the OB doctor said it was 75% - I learned that that's pretty subjective). This was enough for me to go to L&D to get monitored again. Within an hour, I was 3 cm and was admitted. So between being admitted around 10 AM and when the doctor checked me again in the late afternoon, I had continued to have contractions (some strong, some not so much) but I only progressed to 3.5 cm. They decided to keep me overnight, but the nurses kept implying that labor could stop on it's own and not to expect to go home with a baby.

The contractions really did seem to taper off by that evening because I was able to sleep for about 2 hours between 9pm and 11pm. I woke up and DH was about to run out to get a snack in the lobby, and I said "We're going home tomorrow. This baby isn't coming for 2 more weeks." As he was about to walk out the door, I felt a big pop and my water started gushing out, and my pain level went from super manageable to extreme in an instant. I was planning to do med free, but I got really scared and started asking for the epidural - the nurse checked to see how dilated I was and said "I can't measure it - that's the baby's head!" I felt the need to push really strongly as all of these people were running into the room telling me not to. I ended up with the attending on call because my doctor couldn't make it there on time. No exaggeration, it took 10 minutes and 1 and a half pushes from the time my water broke to the time the baby was born. It was crazy dramatic because the whole time, there was a woman in labor next door who was screaming her head off (which is part of the reason I got so scared) and the attending couldn't be in 2 places at once, and it was so fast that I was getting my med free birth whether I wanted to or not! 

Jay is doing great for an early baby, though! He's finally getting the hang of feeding, except we have to use the nipple shield because his mouth is so small. We've done a ton of skin to skin and he's been regulating his body temp well enough - he was on the cusp a few times but things seem to be getting better. His blood sugar was only down for 1 test today out of the many times he's been poked and prodded, but it was back up after our last feeding. The only thing he's failed, really, is the hearing test, which they'll do again tomorrow (I'm confident that he can hear me). We should be avoiding the NICU and going home together on Thursday if he continues to pass his tests and doesn't lose too much weight. 

I feel so blessed that they admitted me yesterday because I would have been having a baby in my living room if I had been home waiting for things to progress on their own! I also feel really lucky that DH didn't go down for that snack because he would have missed the whole thing, and I couldn't have done it without him. He was an amazing coach through everything. He's finally taking his first nap in the past 32 hours while I hold our little guy. 

Thanks for thinking of us! Here's a pic of Jay being held by his great grandma :)


Me: 29, DH: 31
Married: October 2014
Began TTC: April 2015
BFP #1: 9/18/15. EDD 5/18/16. MC 10/26/15. (9w)
BFP #2: 2/27/16. EDD 11/7/16. MC/D&E 4/20/16 (11w)
BFP #3: 9/22/16. EDD 5/29/17. DS born 4/24/17 <3
BFP #4: 5/20/18. EDD 1/23/19. 


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