Carter Steven Birth Story (walkek85)

walkek85 · March 2014

Carter Steven was born March 18^th, 2014 at 5:51pm. He weighed a whopping 10lbs 3oz and was 21.5 inches long.

Birth Story:

We went in for a scheduled induction at 39 weeks 2 days per OB’s recommendations for progress and size. Checked into the hospital at 3-4 cm and 85% effaced, -1 station. At about 8am the OB broke my water, we walked around the hospital floor for about an hour and 15 minutes in hopes that contractions would get started on their own but they were not strong enough or close enough together. Decided to start Pitocin at 9:30am on a low dose and after about an hour with little progress the dosage was upped. I started walking the halls where contractions started picking up. They still needed to be closer together and stronger so Pitocin was increased again to 9ml/hour. I sat on the birthing ball for a little while and then decided to walk the halls a bit more. After a couple hours of painful contractions the nurse advised that if I was considering getting an epi I should get it now, otherwise I could be looking at 6 more hours of contractions this strength or higher. I decided to get the Epi, and thank GOD that I did, because with Carters size it would have been a nightmare pushing in out med free. I had to wait about 40 minutes for the anesthesiologist to come so I worked my way through some really painful contractions and finally got my epi at about 2:30pm. At first the epi was only working on my left side and I could still feel my contractions in my lower right abdomen. They had me lay on my right side, upped the strength and eventually the epi moved over and I was numb from the top of my uterus down. By about 4pm I was fully dilated and ready to push. Did some practice pushing and it took a while to get the hang of how to effectively “feel” my pushes. I was having textbook contractions and could feel the onset of each with pressure at the top of my abdomen but no pain. Baby was face up and kept sliding back and forth with every push, but after about 2 hours of pushing he finally came out. Dr. was surprised by how big he was, and I actually had to push out his body as his size did not allow him to easily slide out.

I ended up having a 2^nd degree tear, but it did not tear into any muscle. We did an hour of skin to skin and attempted to breast feed, which went OK.

Last night was out first night home and it was a little rough to say the least. He is not very good at sucking, so breastfeeding is not going the greatest. We try to breast feed, but he ends up getting frustrated and pulls away. I have been pumping, and DH has been finger feeding him which is working for now but tends to be very time consuming and frustrating. We have our first Peids appointment today so will be talking with them about suggestions on how to handle his feedings.

I am very much in love, and so excited his is finally here. My recovery has been going OK, but I really need a little more swelling to go down before I will feel more normal. My belly is also quite like Jell-o but I am using a belly band which helps to make me feel supported.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!