Ironbaby's Origin Arc... er, Birth Story (long)

Thank you everyone for the well wishes, first of all!  Being a new mom has been a much different kind of adjustment than I thought it would be, so I loved looking at the smiles and gifs in the rougher moments.  Now, since I KNOW you're all easerly awaiting it, here's mah birf storay!  (OMG I should totes have written it hayjamie style, right?!?!?  I mean, rite?@?@)

Last Thursday, I took my lunch break late and went to the OB for a non-stress test and a check, since it was two days past my EDD and I hadn't been showing much in the way of progression.  As expected, I was still only 30% effaced and hardly a fingertip.  Baby was head down, and as far as the NST went, let's just say if he were any less stressed there would be a Jimmy Buffett song about it.  I was a little discouraged, but the OB sat down with me and really explained my options, and took away a lot of my fears about inductions while still being honest about the risks.  We decided on Monday night, and he sent me for a growth scan for the next day.  I went back to work (it was my last day) and worked until about 6pm.

Friday morning, I was starting to feel a little stir crazy.  I got my first job when I was 15, and have not taken more than a few weeks off from working since, even in college.  The thought of no getting up and going to work was so weird, that I still woke up at 5am.  In retrospect, I wished I had made myself go back to bed!  I did a little cleaning up, but I felt pretty lethargic and a bit nauseated, so I took it easy.  I figured that we would have the whole weekend to get the house clean.

Around 3pm, SO picked me up and we went to the growth scan.  We saw a healthy and active baby boy, estimated at about 8.5 lbs.  Cervix still looked pretty much closed, so that was that.  Afterwards, I was still feeling pretty tired, so I suggested grabbing something while we were out and about.  I had been craving Chili's, so we went with that.  I love the spicy chicken and sausage soup, so I got a cup of that and the new chipotle chicken fajitas, hoping that the spice would help move things along.  We ate, stopped and rented a movie (if you haven't seen Election, I HIGHLY recommend it, btw), and went home to snuggle.

After the movie finished, it was around 8:30pm.  We were both feeling tired, so we went to lay down in the bedroom.  I fell asleep shortly thereafter, and SO went out to the living room so as not to wake me.

About an hour later, I woke up with horrid stomach pains.  I ran to the bathroom, where I alternately was vomitting or experiencing the worst diarherra ever.  Beautiful picture, I know.  I went out to the living room, and SO just held me for a little bit.    As he was helping me back to bed, I had to pee, so I ran into the bathroom.  I felt a huge gush come down, and I was pretty sure I felt it differently than passing urine.  I came out and told SO that I thought my water might have broken, but I wasn't having contractions.  We decided to call the nurse's line anyway, and they patched me through to the on call OB.  Of course, she couldn't determine if my water had broken over the phone, so she advised that we come in.

We ran around getting everything we'd need for the hospital just in case, and headed out the door about 10:45pm.  On the way, I got several strong contractions, anywhere from 4-6 minutes apart.  I had thrown on a pad at home, and it was soaked through by the time we got to the ER.  Admitting was a breeze, and we were off to L&D within minutes.  The nurse met me at the room, and immediately helped me change and hooked me up to the monitor.  By 11:30pm, my contractions were regular and strong at 2-3 minutes apart, lasting a minute each.  When the OB came in to check me, my water had definitely broken, but I was still only 1 cm and 60%.  They encouraged me to walk, which I did for about an hour.  After several laps, the contractions were getting stronger and more painful, so I asked to labor in the shower for awhile.  That was 45 minutes of bliss, and something I will definitely ask to do again next baby.

At around 2am, I was checked again.  Still only 1cm and 80%.  The OB and nurse discussed starting the pitocin, but ultimately decided against it because the contractions were strong enough.  They encouraged me to just relax, so SO and I watched some TV and tried to go to sleep.  He pulled out the sleeper chair and took a nap.  I tried, and succeeded for about 20 minutes.  I'm not sure what happened in the 20 minutes, but when I woke up, my contractions had shifted into severe back pain, which I can now recognize as the dreaded "back labor."  Despite changing positions, the baby was still not in distress, so I was allowed to labor in the shower again before they hooked me up to an IV for fluid replenishment.

At around 4am, the contractions become so unbearable that I found myself moaning and yelling involuntarily.  My SO woke up and sat by the bed with me.  I tried several different positions, but I was inconsolable with pain at that point.  SO went and grabbed the OB and asked her to check me again.  80%, 1 cm.  I was starting to get a little sick of that chorus.  She finally offered something for the pain about 4:45am.  I had planned to wait as long as possible before the epi, if I felt I needed it, and avoid IV pain meds altogether.  That was a plan that was easy to come up with at 25 weeks, but in the heat of the moment, in pain, the epidural became the right choice for me.

I will admit, the epi terrified me.  I have never had a great reaction to pain meds and anesthesia, so I was worried.  Plus the thought of a catheter going into my back is really icky to me.  I was already out of it from the pain and lack of sleep, so I started really freaking out.  SO, the anesthesiologist, and the nurse were all amazing and got me through it.  Looking back, I had nothing to be afraid of.  By 5:45am, I was pain free and happy.  I was finally able to take a nap, which was amazing.

At 7:00am, I was woken up for shift change and checked again.  FINALLY some progress: 90% and 3cm!  I really believe that the epi and sleep helped me relax, because things started moving a lot faster from there on out.  I really lucked out, because my favorite OB happened to be the on call doctor that day.  He's pretty new to the practice, but I saw him several times during my pregnancy, and he just rocks.  I went back to sleep until about 10am, when I woke up and sent SO down to the cafeteria to eat.  I was checked again when he got back, and made it to 90% and 4cm.

At 2pm, SO's sister came to sit with us awhile, and they started the pitocin shortly thereafter.  We had a nice visit, but at about 4pm, I started to feel some major pressure and pain.  The anesthesiologist came back to change the bag of happy juice, and give me an injection that really helped (I don't know what it was called, but it was weird going into my back, followed by pure amazing).  SIL left then, and we started to prep for delivery.  After being checked again, I was 6cm and 100%.  Best news ever.

At around 5pm, the sun went down.  I started to feel pressure again, and the only way I can describe it was that it was in my butthole.  I kept begging the nurse to help me get up and poop, but she explained that was just the baby and encouraged me to labor down.  In my super loopy 19th hour of labor mind, I decided I was just going to poop in the bed then.  I found that my body kind of started pushing on its own.  At about 5:30, I asked to be checked again.  The OB was in a c-section, so the nurse checked.  As she was joking how funny it would be if I were suddenly fully dialated and the baby's head were right there, she abruptly stopped and said "Oh goodness!" and ran to have the doctor paged as soon as he got out of surgery.  Apparently, the baby's head WAS "right there."

At 5:45pm, the OB and nurse were prepping for delivery and explaining to me that I wanted to "labor down."  I tried that, for about five minutes, and suddenly I felt like I HAD to push.  They had me do a few practice pushes, and they were able to see the head.  From there, everything is a blur.  I was the most primal thing I had ever felt.  Even though I was being told what to do, my body took over, and I just "knew" everything - when to push, when not to push, how hard to push.  I only screamed a few times.  My mind is still blown by the whole process.

At 6:39pm, after about 45 minutes of pushing and an episiotomy, Shawn Michael was born, measuring 21 inches and 7 lbs 13 oz.  (The 21 inches blows my mind.  I'm barely 5 feet tall, so that is over a third of my body height.  No wonder I was so uncomfortable!)  He let out some hearty cries, than started to take everything in.  They allowed me immediate skin-to-skin for a few minutes while new dad cut the cord.  It was an amazing moment, of course, and I will never forget that moment.

Here are some pictures of the new family:

First picture of the little man!

Family picture: Shawn, my partner Andy, and me (Katey, looking a whole hot mess)


Picture of Shawn taken just a few minutes ago.  He loves sleeping on Daddy's chest.