Finally..a birth story for Corbin James!

So I have been so caught up in new mommy hood I have been completely MIA, from TB and the world in general! Haha. But I've finally gotten back to TB and want to first say congrats to all the new mommies who had their LOs in the last week! Second, I see the new bump has arrived in the last week, at least on mobile, haven't gotten to a computer yet. I'm confused all over again after I was finally figuring things out..

Anyways, about our LO. Corbin James was born July 22, 2013 at 3:44am. Yes, that means it was his birthday before it was the royal baby's, just want to point that out. He was 21.5in long and weighed a whopping 10lbs 7oz, my vagina wishes I was kidding..

I went into the whole thing set on my birth plan and determined to make things go how I wanted them to, despite everyone's advice to be flexible. And I have to definitely say all the BTDT moms can say "I told you so" because my birth experience was nothing like I had laid out on my nice pretty birth plan. Things got kind of complicated so I'm warning you this may be long, but for anyone who is bored, perhaps with a LO on the boob and feels like reading it, enjoy:D

My timeable contractions started Saturday evening and I labored at home for about ten hours with contractions about 4 minutes apart and pretty much entirely back labor. We headed to the hospital around 3am when they all of a sudden came back to back like crazy. I totally had that movie moment of being all calm and all of a sudden being like oh shiit we've gotta go now when they came out of no where less than two minutes apart!

Checked into triage and my contractions slowed a little but they still kept me. First birth plan fail: my MW who I adore, as well as the other OB at my practice who I also liked a lot, are both unavailable, so I will be seeing an OB I've never met. No beuno. Second fail: apparently I was GBS positive and I was never told so I had to have IV antibiotics. Kinda makes it hard to not have an IV when you have to have antibiotics every 4 hours!

After triage, I got into the hydrotherapy tub as quick as I could. I was having back labor that felt like someone stabbing the smalls of my back with a hot cattle prod and I needed relief asap. I labored without meds for about 9 hours, in and out of the tub to get my antibiotics and be monitored. Those 20 minute periods laying flat in the bed with contractions were the worst 20 minutes ever. After laboring for about 19 hours total with consistent contractions I was stalled at 6cm. I was having contractions but they weren't doing anything to make me dilate. At that point the OB came in and started talking pitocin, a big no no in my birth plan. I refused and said I would continue to walk and bounce and whatever I needed to to dilate on my own.

After two more hours, my contractions slowed and became inconsistent. My body was so exhausted from not having rested at all that it was slowing the contractions. After all that work, my body was basically shutting down and stopping my labor. At that point I got an epidural so I could nap and then start pitocin. Birth plan fail, I absolutely did not want an epi. The truth I had to face was there was no way I was going to deliver this baby without any augmentation. If I kept the way I was going, I wasn't going to get anywhere. I won't even say I 'caved' and got an epi, the pain wasn't unbearable, I was exhausted and after crying for half an hour about how I didn't want to throw all I had done to prepare for a natural birth out the window, with the help and support of DH and my amazing nurse, I made an informed decision, which I am okay with.

After a short nap, they started pitocin and broke my water. Contractions came on much harder and more regular. The epidural was dulling the pain, but I still felt some pretty painful pressure. I could still move my legs and all so I don't know if the epi was not as strong because everyone I've seen get one can't move below the waist..

When I finally got to 10cm the nurse told the OB I was ready to push. LO was still not fully descended as far as he should be, but I wanted to try pushing anyways, while the OB kept talking csection. I had had some issues with him being a jerk from the beginning but when the nurse told him I wanted to push and he said "I guess she can try if she wants" and left the room, basically saying he knew I was going to have a csection, I had an eff you doc moment and pushed like hell. I pushed for two hours and ten minutes and when the OB finally came in he was freaked out I was about to deliver the baby and rushing to get ready. In the last stretch of pushing, his head got stuck because he was so big and I had to have an episiotomy, yet another birth plan fail, I had wanted to allow for a natural tear if need be. But the bottom line was he wasn't coming out without the episiotomy so it had to be done. When he finally came out, they put him on my chest and my mom reminded them I wanted to delay cord clamping and DH was to cut the cord. The OB just said "not this time, baby's losing blood' and the nurse cut the cord and took him off me quickly. It turns out the cord had separated from the placenta on his way out and he was losing blood through the cord instead of blood flowing to him had he still been connected.

It got ugly for my lady bits then when the OB had to pull the rest of the placenta out with his hand since the cord wasn't there the pull it out with..Sorry if thats TMI. He stitched me up, which by the way I felt every stitch despite whatever numbing meds they tried to inject. While he was stitching me up I made sure to point out that I had just delivered this baby vaginally that he was so sure was going to need a csection. Ahem, you don't tell me what I can and can't do. Even though I didn't have my desired natural birth, I felt empowered because I had done what the OB was so sure wasn't going to happen. So hah!

We came home Wednesday and have been slowly adjusting to life revolving about this precious little guy. I have been BFing but had to supplement in the beginning because my boobs were just not able to keep up with such a big baby. They're finally catching up now thank goodness! Even though my birth didn't go as planned, I would absolutely do it again in a heart beat as LO was beyond worth it! If you made it to the end, I'm impressed, sorry it's so long but I warned you it might be, thanks for reading! I will try to post a picture with this new bump nonsense but if it doesn't work I'll post one when I can get to my computer! If the second picture shows up, excuse the bra, I just posted that picture because it shows pretty well how big he is:D