Birth Story (long)

I always enjoyed reading others birth stories...so here's mine.

I was due Oct. 16. The whole process started Monday, Oct 13. I woke up around 2am with a menstrual like cramp. This continued about every hour so I was unable to get any sleep. Around 6am, I called my boss and told her what happened and that I was going to try and rest some more before coming in. I got up to go the bathroom and after flushing and washing my hands, I had a trickle down the side of my leg. I immediately called the doctors office who told me to go into L&D to make sure my water wasn?t breaking. Since I worked at the hospital, it was no big deal and I got ready for work. I went into L&D and everything turned out fine. I had no progress and my water hadn?t broken. Needless to say I was a little disappointed as I was ready for this baby to come. The contractions went away and I went about my day.

Tuesday morning at 2am, the menstrual cramping came back about every hour again. I slept in a little before heading to work. At work, I noticed it was a full moon this day and told everyone that I would be going into labor?no one believed me!

I went home around 4pm and had contractions the whole way home (I live about 30 mins from work). I got home and tried to rest but they didn?t go away. I told my husband that something was happening so we started to time them. They were all over the place?anywhere from 2-8 mins apart but each lasting around 45-60 secs. The OB said to wait until they were more consistent before coming in. I ended up timing them until about 10pm when finally I couldn?t take it anymore. I told my husband that we needed to go in as they were getting very painful.

We got to L&D and they checked me?I was barely 1cm and just starting to efface. WHAT!!! The contractions were now coming every 2mins so they decided to keep me there and see if I progressed. Around 1am I was 3 cm and completely effaced so they admitted me.

**Side note** ? my mom lives out of town and really wanted to be there for the birth. She was at home with my Great Aunt who had had a stroke and was unresponsive. My aunt was very excited about my baby and could not wait to meet him?it was heartbreaking to know that she would not be here when he was born. She did not want to live as a vegetable so they took her off the feeding tube 2 weeks before I went into labor, however, she passed away right after I was admitted. My mom was on the next flight out.

I was in so much pain that I got the epidural right away. I had planned to go as far as I could but the contractions were on top of one another and I could just not take the pain anymore. (A nurse later told me that she had never felt a uterus so hard!) The epidural was not bad at all and after that I was able to sleep and get some rest.

Throughout the night the nurses kept coming in to switch my position as my son was face up and we were trying to get him to turn. His heart rate would drop with every change so we ended up having to just stay on my left side and we hoped he would turn on his own. Around 7am, the doctor on call said I was 10cm and ready to push! (My mom?s flight was to come in around 9am and she was so upset that she might miss the birth) I started to push with each contraction as the doctors had a shift change. The new doctor on call came in a half hour later and checked me?only to tell me that I still had a lip left and would need to wait for it to thin out! I was so mad because at this point the epidural was wearing off and I had to feel each contraction again.

By the time my mom arrived around 9am, I was able to start pushing again. I pushed in every possible position only for the doctor to come in and tell me that I was making no progress. I was getting very tired and defeated at this point but did not want to have a c-section. Since his heart rate was doing good, they let me push for a couple more hours but around 11am we knew he wasn?t going anywhere.

We ended up deciding on a c-section because I just wanted my baby out of there. My epidural had completely worn off at this point and it was so painful to have to wait for them to get the OR ready and wheel me in. I ended up having to get spinal block in the OR but that took away all the pain so I didn?t care. Anthony was born at 12:51 and was a whopping 8lbs, 8oz (I am only 5?1 and my husband is 5?7). They said he had the biggest grin on his face when he came out and it was amazing to finally see him.

We found out at that point that he was face up and turned to the side (he had a bulge sticking out from the side of his head) so that is why he was not budging with every push. He also had rolls all over as he was so cramped in my belly. I never expected to have that big of a baby!

The recovery was a lot harder than I thought. Along with the pain of a c-section, I also had lots of swelling and pain from pushing for so long and so hard. I felt better after about 2 weeks and haven?t had any problems since.

Sorry it was so long but I hope you enjoyed.