Jackson's Birth Story (LONG! PIP)

eturp · March 2011

Wow! The past 72 hours have been a whirlwind to say the least! My awesome LB and I posted on here that my water broke early sunday morning around 4:30 but that the on call dr at L&D wanted me to wait to come in until I was having "real" signs of labor (because according to her that isn't one Confused ) so I labored at home that day until about 3pm, at that point my contractions had finally reached the 5-1-1 mark.

I got settled into the hospital and by about 7:00 my contractions were getting pretty painful and they checked my cervix for progress. I had only progressed from 4cm(what I was when they admitted me) to 5cm Sad I went ahead and got an epidural shortly after and waited to see if the dr. was going to start pitocin. They finally did around 9:00 or 10:00(to fuzzy to remember the details). I continued to labor on, they checked my cervix once more that night, I cannot for the life of me remember what time that was at but by 5:00 am the next morning I had only progressed to a 6 Sad . However, when the dr was checking me that time she accidentally broke the rest of my water, apparently the other dr who had checked me didn't notice that it wasn't fully ruptured??? Well after that I started progressing quickly and made it to a 9, 9 1/2 by 7:00 (which just happens to be the time the hospital changes shifts) and was more or less neglected by my new nurse because she had a student (who was more important that me?!) until about 8:30. I was so exhausted, hungry, and starting to get worried about going over the 24hr mark of my water breaking that I was an emotional mess and all I wanted to do was push! I kept telling my new nurse that I wanted to push and she kept telling me that it would be easier on myself to wait and let the baby labor down further into the birth canal. She kept telling me that during their first deliveries women push for an average of 3 hours (reassuring huh?) I figured with the rate they were working that day I would be there that long anyways just waiting for them to get everything ready for me to deliver. Luckily I had my mom there to advocate for me and she nicely but firmly convinced the nurse to at least let me try to push. I couldn't push right that second because they had upped my epidural(it was starting to wear off) and it had made my legs completely numb. So the new nurse turned it off completely to let it wear off for 30 mins. That was fun! When she turned it back on I wasn't getting the same relief I originally was even though they kept increasing the dosage. I found out after delivery that was because it had come out while they were moving me on the bed Indifferent

Well when they finally got their act together to let me push it was about 10:00 and I was more determined than ever to meet my little man! I pushed for an hour and 20 minutes (ha! to my nurse) and he came out perfectly weighing 7lbs 13 oz and 20.5" long! The midwife who actually delivered the baby was great and she kept commenting to DH and my mom about how long I could hold my breath and push for. They just kept telling her I had been a swimmer for nearly 20 years and it was second nature to me Stick out tongue . She is pregnant, due in July, and told me afterward that I had inspired her to take up swimming in hopes of having a smooth delivery!

Jackson is doing great! He is nursing really well and despite laboring for 32 hours and increasing his risk of infection all of his labs have come back normal and his pediatrician says he looks like a healthy little boy!

GL to everyone who is still waiting for their LO, I hope you have a speedier labor than I did and that your hospital staff is just a little more "with it" than mine was! Wink