Owen's birth story - almost natural birth

I figured I'd better write this now before I forget and I know it was helpful for me to read the stories on here leading up to my big day.

Our little man Owen decided to show up 3 and a half weeks early - but once he got the party started he made sure my labor was nice and long!

Wednesday Nov 5th : Another normal day being really pregnant. I went to work and had my 36 week Dr.s appt. Nothing out of the ordinary at my appointment - I was measuring good and baby sounded great. I opted out of an internal because I didn't really think it would tell us anything useful. So I went back to work, followed by prenatal water areobics class - then home for dinner & in bed by 10:30. 

Thursday Nov 6th: 12:00 am - our dog wakes me up becuase she is sick, I haul myself out of bed & let her out. 12:30 am - I'm just falling back asleep and GUSH - my water breaks! In my semi-sleepy state I think I've peed myself - I wake up DH, tell him I might have peed my pants but maybe not - maybe my water just broke! He's out of bed faster than I've ever seen - sure enough, I didn't pee - my water has definitely broken and it keeps coming. We were totally not prepared for this - I figured I'd be late and hadn't bothered to pack a bag or get anything ready yet - Oh well, here we go! Luckily we live about 4 blocks from the hospital so we decide to just head over and see what they say - I was still a little nervous since I was almost 4 weeks early so I wanted to be sure baby was ok.

We get to the hospital around 1:00 and I check in - of course they didn't have any of my pre-resgistration stuff so we got all the fun paperwork again. I get checked and sure enough my water is broken. I'm not feeling contractions but the nurse says she can see them on the monitor. I'm only dialated to 1 but almost totally effaced and the baby is nice and low. I ask if I can go home & labor there for a while and get shut down - looks like DH will be heading home to get our things. The nurses leave us be and now I'm just anxiously waiting for things to really get going. I start feeling contractions around 1:30 - 2:00, they are pretty far apart and not so bad so I try to get some rest but am nervous and excited so I can't really rest. Once DH gets back we spend the majority of the night walking the halls trying to get things moving.

We walk and walk and walk and walk

By 6:00 am I'm only dialated to 2 but the contractions are starting to come every 4-5 minutes so we call our families and let them know what's going on. They pack up and head our way - about a 5 hour drive. Basically - things go slowly, I'm on the clock now that my water has broken and I really want a natural birth so I am really trying to get my labor in a good pattern. We walk and walk and walk - I go through so much nipple stimulation that both my hands and nipples are sore. I try a shower - that helps for a while. I walk and walk and walk. I try a bath - bad idea - things slow down. I do this all day - I've become buddies with the nurses. I eat lunch, then dinner - I'm having contractions but they still aren't close enough and they aren't so painful that I have to stop what I'm doing. Our Dr checks on us throughout the day. After her last check of the day - around 5:00 she really encourages us to use pitocin. I had really wanted to avoid this as I wanted a totally natural birth but it's been almost 18 hours since my water broke so I concede - it's time for my little guy to arrive. She assures me that they will start out at the very lowest dose and increase it slowly just until I get into a good labor pattern.

We start pitocin at about 8:00 pm. Wow - pitocin really works. I start out at a dose of 2, they increase it every 30-40 minutes - I make it up to 10 and things are going strong. My contractions are about 2 minutes apart and much more intense. Pitocin contractions suck - they don't rise & fall like natural contractions - it's more like trying to jump over a 6 foot wall all at once instead of taking the stairs to get over it. I get checked around 10 - I'm about 3 and half cm dialated - gosh I was hoping for more! DH was an amazing coach, he really encouraged me to stay relaxed and told me how great I was doing. I relied on counting my breaths - I knew that once a contraction started it would only last 3-5 deep breaths so if I could just get through that I'd be fine. This kept me going. I hated laying down to labor and the birth ball didn't work - I stood up most of the time, leaning into DH with contractions or squatting down and then resting on the edge of the bed in between. Hours pass.

Friday Nov 7th: About 2 am I'm ready to throw in the towel - my contractions are very painful and I'm terrified that I haven't made progress and will have to continue this forever. We are both exhausted, DH falls asleep between my contractions & I wish I could. I decide to get checked to see where I'm at - I'm at a 7! This is a much needed confidence booster - I feel re-energized and try to embrace contractions as just getting me one step closer to meeting my baby. About 3 am I start throwing up - not very fun but it doesn't last too long - I pretty much clear all the red popsicles I've eaten out of my system. My labor is hard and I just try to focus on getting through the next contraction. Time is a blur. 5:15 am - wow - I suddenly feel like I've gotta poop and there's nothing I can do to stop it - I feel like I've gotta push. I tell DH - "I've gotta push - you better call someone!!!!" Then I start throwing up again - lovely DH is trying to hold the garbage can for me to puke into and reach the call button with the other hand - he manages to get the nurses attention and I tell her it's time to go. I get checked out - I'm almost 10 with a bit of a lip. Our wonderful nurse has me give a practice push and tries to push the lip out of the way - this works & they call the Dr. to get here. I start pushing about 5:30. For me this did not feel good - it hurt like hell! I wanted to quit but knew there was only one way to get my baby out so pushed with everything I had. I only pushed for about 20 minutes - our Dr. barely made it in time to catch my son! At 5:49 am on November 7th - almost 30 hours after arriving at the hospital - our little Owen was born! He weighed in at a wonderful 6lbs 4 oz, was 20 inches long & gave out a nice strong cry right away - it was by far the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me!

He was placed on my chest immediately and started feeding within minutes. I had a couple small tears - only one required stiches, at that point I could have cared less. We spent a good hour and a half bonding before he was weighed and bathed and all that good stuff. I had an easy recovery - the stiches were no fun but other than that I felt great by the next day and we went home - it felt so good to be home! Owen was a champ breast feeder and pretty much just showed me what to do.

Our little man is just doing great & getting bigger by the moment. We're loving every day!