Birth Story

lisamm1 · October 2008

Okay, so I'm only about a week late posting this! I have been meaning to post, but it's so hard to find the time!

So, Mason Louise (Macy) was born on October 19, at 11:49 pm, she was 7lbs 11oz and 19.75 inches.

I woke up at 9:30 that Sunday morning and my water broke as I was going to the bathroom. All I could think was, am I just peeing or is my water really breaking. I hear all those horror stories where people think their water broke and then they come to find out they really peed themselves. But, when more kept coming, I knew it was indeed my water breaking. Hahha. After yelling for my husband, I called the doctor who said don't rush, but get to hospital. So, we arrived at hospital around 11ish and I still had not had any real contractions, just some slight cramping and Braxton Hicks.

The nurse in L&D and the doctor came in and said don't expect to have this baby today and that there is a high likelihood for needing a c-section. I guess normally your water doesn't break first and when that happens it usually means slow labor. They checked me when I came in and I was 2cm dilated, 75% effaced, and -1 station. So, we were told to just walk around L&D and our labor room to try to induce contractions. We did this while watching the Bengals lose horribly to the Steelers At 3:00 the nurse came in and said they aren't even going to check me again until I started contracting and that again, we are probably not having the baby any time today. I started getting depressed and bored.

Then, finally at 3:30, the REAL contractions started. WOAH, people aren't kidding when they say that it's easy to distinguish the real from fake contractions. The contractions were about 5-10 minutes apart and I waited until 4:00 to call the nurse to let her know. She came in and checked me and I was up to 3 1/2 cm, 100% effaced and still -1 station. From that point on, I started dilating about 1 cm every hour and totally surprised the doctor and nurse at how quick the labor was progressing. I made it to 5cm before needing epidural. Around 10pm when I was 7 cm dilated, I had a strange reaction to the epidural called Horner's Syndrome, where my whole left side went numb, including my face. I started having trouble breathing and my blood pressure dropped to 70/30. The anesthetist had to give me epinephrine to raise my blood pressure and also had to turn off the epidural. They were going to replace the epidural, but when the nurse checked me I was almost fully dilated and ready to push. So, they hoped my epidural would just last through pushing. Unfortunately it wore off right about the time that she was crowning and I got to have the fun of pushing her out with no epidural Really, the adrenaline made it okay and I survived. She came out at 11:49 pm, proving the doctor and nurse wrong who said she would never arrive on Sunday I had to push for about 1 hour and 15 minutes and ended up with a second degree tear, but all in all the labor wasn't too bad.

She was absolutely beautiful from the beginning and a great baby. Breastfeeding is going well and now we just have to work on getting her to sleep more than 3 hours at a time Once I learn how to PIP I will post a picture. For now, here's a link to her hospital picture.

https://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=3f9b8741-d3c6-4274-a737-0e39cd270c48

Ignore the incorrect length and comment about castor oil (it was a joke and I did not drink it! hahah)