my 59 min birth story (very late in coming)

jenerally · May 2009

I keep meaning to do this; so here goes:

I'd been having contrax for 2 weeks. In that time, I had 3 cervical checks. The first, I was closed. The second, two days later, I was 1cm. The third, a week after the second, I was at 2cm and my midwife could feel DS's head. At that appointment, on a Friday, she cautioned me that if my water broke to go right to the hospital since I had polyhydramnos ... we didn't want cord prolapse to occur.

The very next day, I woke up to bloody show. Still, I wasn't overly concerned. I was hoping to make it to Monday, which was my next OB appt. I had contractions all day long and told DH that after our older son went to bed (at 8pm), we should head to the hospital. This was around 4pm. I could talk and breathe through the contractions and they weren't very painful -- uncomfortable, maybe. At 6pm, DH took our son out to wear him down before bed. I was doing some work on the computer and my mom was watching TV.

At 7 pm on the dot, I had a big contraction that was VERY uncomfortable. I stood up and felt a ton of pressure ... and my water broke. Everywhere. It was like the front row of sea world -- water kept gushing out with every subsequent contraction. My mom called DH and he hurried home. I called my midwife and she said she'd meet me at the hospt. At 7:20, we headed over there.

Along the way, my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. I mentioned to DH that if we got there and I was only at, say, 4cm, I was going to throatpunch someone. We arrived at the hospital at 7:38p and I was wheeled into L&D. I was 35w, 6d. They had no paperwork on me, so they were shouting at me to give them my name and social and address ... all that sort of thing.

I sat on the bed and the nurse checked me. I was at 9cm!! I was shocked. Almost immediately I yelled, "I have to push!" There was no time to even get an IV. They didn't even put the monitor on me ... a nurse held it onto my belly as I started pushing. My midwife wasn't there -- the OB who was on call sat in.

My first son was born after 26 hours, pictocin, and an epi. This was a totally different experience. I had no meds and could not believe the pain. I pushed for about 15 minutes and Dashiell Jack was born. He was LGA -- 9lbs, 5oz due to GD -- and had some issues ... he had RDS and hypoglycemia. Later, we would learn he also suffered a brain injury at birth.

After 12 days in the NICU, he came home with us and has been a joy ever since. His injury is healing and we have an excellent prognosis that he will be "normal" ... but we won't know for sure until he makes -- or misses -- his milestones.

Three months later, it's hard to believe it all happened the way it did. I feel very lucky that things were not worse and very blessed to have our second son home, and thriving.