Colin Jackson Birth Story, very long

eeyoreem · April 2011

Colin?s Birth Story

3/28 I decided to take a bath before bed around 1130pm. While I was in the tub I started to get an ache in my lower back. I took some Tylenol and headed to bed to see if it would go away or work itself into something more. I woke up the next morning around 7am when Derrick was heading to work with back pain that would not go away. I got up and tried to wander around seeing if this was the beginning of contractions. I did notice that along with the constant ache there were waves of sharper pain and though I couldn?t feel them in the front my belly would get harder. I decided to time these waves and sure enough they were about 7 mins apart.

I called Derrick to let him know that I was pretty sure something was happening and also my BFF Jess who was also going to be a birth coach for me. I then went to the bathroom and noticed the beginning of the loss of my MP. I tried to start working on some laboring positions to move things along and also to take away the pain in my back.

About an hour later I was having a harder time working through the waves and decided it was time for Derrick to come home from work. I called him to let him know and he got ready to head out then I called Jess and let her know that he was coming home but I was unable to time the contractions because of the way they were.

I then called Derrick?s mom to let her know we were on baby watch and she suggested I call the dr to let them know about my contractions, even though I figured they would just tell me to wait until they were closer together and more regular. I did call the dr and they suggested I come in for a check. When Derrick got home we headed out and I picked up the last meal I would eat for the next 48hrs.

We got to the Drs office and they brought me back for a check and when the dr checked me it was hurting so much because my cervix was still back behind Colin?s head. She had to really push and dig to get up there to find out that I was 2cm and 70%. Since I was in so much pain and already 5 days past due they decided to send me over to the hospital. I went over and they decided I wasn?t leaving again without a baby.

The Dr that was on call at the hospital decided to let me labor on my own and see what happened. We got over to the hospital about 230pm and I labored for a while in various positions and we went on several walks through the halls. Jess showed up to the room about 630pm and then I continued to labor till 1130 when they changed shifts and I decided to let them give me a shot of morphine to help me sleep. I had thinned out more but I hadn?t dilated. The better news was my cervix had come around and was now in front of Colin so the exams weren?t nearly as painful. After the shot of morphine my contractions basically stopped and I fell asleep.

The next Dr came in around 930 the following morning and checked me and said I was very thin and I had dilated to about 3cm. She broke my water and decided to get me started on pit. I knew if I had back contractions again there was no way I would be able to do it naturally. I literally broke down in tears when I found out that the 19 hours I had spent the day before in such incredible pain had done nearly nothing to bring about the end of the process.

They got me set up with the epidural and started the pit. I was then able to rest some more since I was now confined to the bed. They continued to check me throughout the morning and I had finally started to make some progress. By 2pm I was close to 7cm. The nurse kept coming in to rotate me from side to side and after a while I started to feel the contractions again. At about 530 after trying several ballasts and an anesthesiologist came in to give me some direct meds through the epidural which didn?t work and I was stalled at 9cm. I had to get the epi redone as it had come out in the process of them moving me about. After that I was left alone again till 630 and the nurse came in again and decided that I was just about complete and had me do some practice pushes. They then broke the bed down and I started pushing in earnest at 640pm. The dr didn?t arrive until the last min and after an hour of pushing, which probably would have been shorter if I had cooperated, Colin Jackson was born at 748pm. He was 10lbs 18 oz and 22 inches long. I?m pretty sure that the epidural wore off again during pushing because I could then feel the delivery of the placenta and the beginning of the Dr stitching me up from my partial 4^th degree tear. They had to give me a local to finish the stitching. All total the labor was just under 37 hours including pushing.