Judah's Birth Story (and what came after)

Judah'sMommy · October 2008

Hi ladies! Hope you all are doing well! I have a few moments so I figured I'd write Judah's birth story, but more importantly about what came after.

On Thursday, October 9 I started having contractions at about 7pm. They were 4-6 minutes apart and moderately painful. I was also leaking something and thought my water had broken. I waited until 10 and we headed to the hospital - only to be informed that I was only in very early labor and my water had not broken. By midnight I was back home. Pretty much as soon as we got home the contractions became really painful. I could not lie down, stand up, or do anything during them. I tried to get some sleep, and I felt a gush. Of course at this point I was paranoid about going in too early and I waited around until about 3am when I just couldn't take it anymore. During every contraction there would be more leakage. I roused DH and we headed back to the hospital. Luckily my water had broken this time so I was a keeper! I got the FIRST epi at 5:30am. She poked me at least twice before getting it in. After an hour I was still feeling every contraction and I told them it wasn't working. At 7am I got the SECOND epi. This one took and I was in bliss until about 2:30 pm. I had not dilated past 3cm at this point so I was looking at a loooong labor. I also started to feel the contractions again. I told the nurse and she checked the epi, only to find that it had come out!!! So I got the THIRD epi at about 3. Again, I was poked twice before it was in the right place. This time she had hit a blood vessel. I was in tears and not a happy camper. After they finally got the third epi in I was able to relax. At 6 I was finally at 6cm. I slept until 7, when I started to feel bad contractions again. I was sure by this point that they had screwed up the epi again. But when they checked they just said that the baby must be coming, because there was nothing wrong with it this time. I was only at 8cm, 9 during a contraction, but the baby was super low. At about 7:45 they told us that they thought after another couple contractions I would be able to start practice pushing. 3 contractions later I had the overwhelming urge to push. I fought it for 2 more contractions while the doctors got ready. I pushed for 20 minutes, and at 8:23 Judah was born! He was 8lbs 5oz, 19.5 inches long, and just perfect. The worst part was transition, and also after birth when my placenta would not come out. They had to manually remove it and that hurt like the dickens. I also had 3rd degree tears so it was awhile before I was able to hold him. DH held him while they got me fixed up.

We went home that Sunday, but by Monday he was looking jaundiced, not feeding well, and had developed a fever. We took him to the emergency room Monday night and they admitted him due to the fever. He had to have a spinal tap which scared the crap out of us. They thought he might have a bacterial or viral infection. After 4 long days in the hospital we were released this morning, and he is so much better. No infection that they could find, so they think he might have been dehydrated. The stay in the hospital totally threw off breastfeeding so he has been having expressed breastmilk the last few days. I'm trying to keep up, but he eats A LOT! I may have to supplement him, but I've seen that a full baby makes life more liveable for everyone involved, so I don't feel guilty. All in all it has been a rough adventure of a week, but we are so happy to have our little man home, happy, and healthy!