Camden's Birth Story

I was due on June 4th but my doctor was going out of town and wanted to induce me before he left. We arrived at the hospital Wednesday May 30th @ 4 pm to start Cervadil to "ripen" my cervix and help me start to dilate. About 3am Thursday morning the contractions were coming on strong so I asked the nurses for some pain medicine. I can't remember what the name was but when the nurse gave it to me she said I would feel pretty dizzy. (I am not very good on pain medicine. I either sleep or throw up on it). It had the first effect and knocked me out. I woke up at 6:30a.m when my mom got to the hospital but I couldn't talk or hold my head up. I asked the nurse when the pain meds would wear off b/c I didn't like the way it knocked me out. She said about an hour and to just relax. I fell back asleep and woke up at 7:30 a.m to my doctor breaking my water then back to sleep I went. I woke up for about an hour around 8:30 and asked for my epidural since I could feel the contractions pretty strong. They checked me and I was at a 4 so they let me have the epidural. (Best thing ever!) My anesthesiologist I had was awesome, never felt one prick! Once that was over I fell back to sleep again! I would wake up on and off throughout the day and try my best to stay awake but the medicine just kept getting the better of me and I couldn't stay awake. I woke up at 1pm and asked for the anesthesiologist again b/c I could feel the contractions again. They called him back, he gave me more medicine in the epidural then I was back asleep again. I woke up at 2 pm with the nurses telling me I was at 9 1/2 cm dilated and they wanted to me to do some practice pushes. I started getting nervous because in between my breaks I was falling asleep and all I could think was "If this medicine doesn't wear off soon I'm not going to be able to stay awake for my baby's birth!" During the practice pushes, every time I would push Camden's heartbeat would drop. My doctor came in about 2:45 and said pretty much that I could keep pushing and wear me and the baby out our he could go ahead and get him out with the forceps. Since I had been listening to Camden's heartbeat drop I was scared and just said lets get him out now. 15 minutes later Camden Demarcus was born at 3:01 pm, 7 pounds 4 ounces and 19 inches long. 

 I had an awesome labor as I pretty much slept the whole time and hardly felt any pain. Afterwards though was a different story. I got an infection where I tore and 5 days after giving birth I was at the doctors crying my eyes out from the pain. I was scared I was just being a chicken but I also felt "skin" hanging down there by my bottom and was thinking it was just a hemorrhoid since I know they are common after giving birth. Turns out my stitches had dissolved but b/c my skin was infected it never "fused" together like it should have and was just hanging there open. Talk about the most painful, miserable couple days of my life. I advise all moms but especially FTM's to add Benadine(sp) to there "after labor bag". It's an antiseptic that helped me in healing just as much as my antibiotic did. I put some in my Peri bottle every time I go to the bathroom and soak in the tub with it 1 to 2 time a day.  I wish someone would have told me about the Benadine before hand so I could have used it right away and hopefully could have avoided the infection and all that pain. I will now tell every FTM I talk to about it.

 Camden will be three weeks old this Thursday and is overall a good baby. Still waiting for him to get his nights and days correct which can be tough. As a FTM I knew having a baby was going to be hard but never knew how hard it could get with so much lack of sleep ( on top of dealing with the pain from the infection.) We are having another child in the future but after this experience it's not going to be for a few years. 

Good luck to everyone!