XP: Quinn's Birth!

At 2:30AM I was sitting on the couch in the living room and had a really strong contraction that lasted over a minute. I had 3 more, about 4 minutes apart and I knew that it was time!!! The contractions were much stronger than I had previously experienced.  I woke up Alex and we spent about two and a half hours picking up the apartment, double  checking our hospital bags,  all while I worked through my contractions. I had hoped that I would find something to make the contractions less miserable but sitting on the exercise ball, laying down, sitting on the couch, on the toilet, etc felt worse!!

Around 5 AM Alex and I left for the hospital. When we got to triage they checked me and I was 4 cm dilated. the day before at my regular appointment I was about 3cm dilated and 100% effaced.  My doctor told me that they wanted me to walk a bit to make sure that my contractions were productive. I walked and did squats for about 30 minutes and sure enough when I went back and they checked me I was 5cm dilated! They admitted me around 7am. The nurses had trouble finding a vein in my hand, they had like 5 nurses try to find a good vein but all failed. Finally when I got up to my room my amazing Nurse Sue found a vein and got my IV in quickly and easily.

I had planned on going naturally but at that point the contractions were getting so strong and I was having trouble even breathing through them that I was pretty sure I was going to get an epidural. I finished my IV bag and the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. The getting of the epidural was kinda uncomfy, but honestly was nothing that would even make me cry. It was kinda hard to sit still when you feel the epidural going in because it is not a feeling you are used to or have had before.

My doc came in again around 9 AM and I was 7cm dilated. He also broke my water in hopes that it would keep my labor moving along quickly! I had told my doc and nurse that I thought I needed another dose of the epidural medicine because I could feel everything that the doc was doing and it was more like pain than pressure. My nurse called the anesthesiologist who confirmed that my epidural was not quite in the right place and thus was not numbing me. The anesthesiologist redid my epidural (ugh) and I quickly was totally numb. Before I was able to move my legs and now I could barley wiggle my toes!!!

Before the anesthesiologist even left my room the babies heart rate dropped and was not being picked up by the monitors on my belly. The nurse made a call saying ? i need an internal?. Well let me tell you that this is totally scary. All of the sudden several nurses and doctors rushed my room, put an oxygen mask over my face, and put an internal monitor into the babies scalp. No one was really talking to me, and I was crying because I had no clue what was really going on. The nurse said that we lost the babies heart rate because I had moved positions for the epidurals a few times.

Rest: ahh, finally I had my epidural, the baby was doing fine, and we rested. My mom and I chatted while Alex napped. The doc came back a little later and I was 9cm dilated, and again 30 minutes later I was 10cm dilated. The doctor wanted me to wait to push because Quinn wasn?t low enough.

Around noon the doctor wanted me to start pushing, even though baby was still a bit high. I did a few pushes and the doctor was worried that Quinn was sunny side up. He checked the baby and felt for his ears and baby was in the correct position. butttttt his heart rate plummeted again. This time was even worse than before. About 15 nurses, doc?s, and surgeon?s rushed my room, and again the put the oxygen mask on my face. They were concerned about the baby and since I had previously been laying on my side for a while they started flipping my totally numb body from side to side. The doctor said that they were thinking they may need to perform a C-section because they needed to get the baby out very quickly.the doctor turned to me and said that they were either going to need to do a C-section or use the forceps to pull them out.  I suddenly felt a lot of pressure and told the doctor I  needed to push. My husband and the nurse pulled my legs into the stirrups quickly and everyone (all of the surgeon?s and doc?s and nurses were like cheering for me.. ) exclaimed that they could see the babies hair! My mom was by my head holding my right hand and counting for me. She was soo encouraging and amazing! My husband and my nurse were each holding one of my legs. A few pushes later, with the help of the forceps(they used the forceps to get baby out quickly) Quinn Came out!

Quinn was and is perfect!!! He weighed 7lbs and 13oz at birth and was 21 inches long. Today at his 2 week 3day checkup he weighed 8lbs 15.6oz WOW! His head was perfectly round and he had no mark?s from the forceps.

It was a totally surreal and amazing experience. I am so in love with Quinn. He is a great eater and a happy baby.