Henry's birth story

ENev · October 2009

Hey ladies! I haven't been on third tri since I gave birth, but wanted to share my birth story in case anyone wanted to read it!

On Monday evening around 7:30 p.m., I saw a bit of blood on the tp and came out to the living room to excitedly tell Dave that this meant that labor would probably start within 24-48 hours. Maybe I wouldn't have to be induced after all! The induction was scheduled for Thursday morning.

I started to feel a bit crampy, so I laid down in bed. Dave laid next to me and was talking to his mom on the phone when I had my first contraction at 9 p.m. It made me feel like I had to go to the bathroom NOW, and for the next two hours, I had sporadic contractions that sent me into the bathroom quite a bit.

Around 11 p.m. Dave started to make coffee, knowing that we'd be going in tonight. He had his shoes on and was ready to go. I told him to chill out a bit, that it might be hours and hours til the contractions were regular and it was time to go in. Then around 11:30, WHOOSH ? my water broke all over the bed in a huge warm gush. I squealed and Dave came in to see what was happening.

We scrambled to get ready to leave, and we were on our way to the hospital by midnight. I was in a lot of pain, with the contractions coming right on top of one another now.

We got checked into our room, and they put me on the fetal monitor for 20 minutes. I breathed through the contractions as best I could. After that, I got into the whirlpool tub to labor. I spent about 30 minutes in there, having contraction after contraction that were SO painful.

I had gone in hoping I wouldn't get an epidural, but I never could have anticipated the pain. I got out and told Dave I wanted one. Like a good husband, he asked me just once if I was sure, and I said yes. They got me an IV which was supposed to take the edge off but didn't, and then I had my epidural around 2:30 a.m.

It was a light epidural, as I could feel and move my legs the whole time, and I still had to breathe and focus to get through the contractions. My mom showed up around 5 a.m. to be with us during the labor part. I started to feel sick and was pretty nauseous for a few hours.

At 7:45 a.m. or so, I threw up, and the nurses told me this was a sign I was probably just about ready to push. The doctor came in to check me and I was indeed fully dilated and the baby was at +2 station. My mom left the room and it was time to push. I was relieved that my body had progressed well despite the epidural and I didn't need any Pitocin to move things along.

The epidural had completely worn off by now, which was both good and bad, as I could push really well with each contraction, but holy heck, did it hurt. The worst part was waiting in between contractions to be able to push again. I pushed for three good 10-counts with each contraction, and I remember making a lot of noise as I let my breath out after each one. It was hard work!

They let me look at him crowing in a mirror, and when his head was out a bit, I got to reach down and touch his little head full of hair. It was crazy!

I had to have an episiotomy, as that baby boy was big. Again Dave asked, are you sure? as he knew I really didn't want one. But I didn't have much choice ? that boy needed to come out!

After 45 minutes of pushing, Henry was born at 8:47 a.m. on October 13. They laid him right on my chest and he cried right away. It was so incredible. And the relief I felt at having him out was insane! Dave had helped hold my one leg the whole time and he watched the whole thing. When Henry came out, he cried, it was so sweet.

Henry weighed 8 lbs 11 ounces and was 21 ? inches long. Wow!

The whole labor and delivery was a fairly good experience, but then things took an icky turn. The placenta wouldn't detach, so the anesthesiologist had to return to drug me up so that the doctor could get in there and detach it himself. The amount of drugs they gave me made me feel SO sick, and soon, my legs were complete dead weight ? it was an awful feeling.

The doctor had to go in there and remove it himself, and Dave told me it was a really gory sight. It finally came out, thank God, but then I was really sick and nauseous for several hours afterward.

Despite that, though, it was a completely amazing experience to give birth to our boy!

I didn't anticipate how hard the recovery would be in the days following the birth ? pain from the episiotomy, nausea from the drugs, loss of appetite, engorged breasts, no sleep, etc. ? but it gets better every day. And I never could have imagined how refreshing a measly two hour stretch of sleep could feel!

We are in constant awe of how adorable and precious Henry is. He's a pretty content baby. He definitely sleeps more during the day than at night right now, but hopefully he'll switch that around soon! He nurses very well sometimes, but other times he gets all worked up and refuses to latch on. The first few days I used a hand pump so that Dave could feed him a bottle, which was quite tedious. Dave went to BRU the other day to get a double electric and that makes things much easier. So right now he's nursing half the time and taking a bottle half the time. Hoping he'll nurse more and more as time goes by!

Dave's so in love with him, it's the sweetest thing ever. He goes back to work on Wednesday this week, and I am dreading it!! But we'll be ok.

That's the story ? It's surreal to be on this side of things after nine months of waiting for him!

A pic I love from when he was first out: