Matthew Reed's birth story (long and lots of pics, I'm so proud :)

Ok. here we go. Matthew Reed was born on August 15th at 2:35pm after a successful induction. He weighed 6lbs 6oz and was 19 inches long. 

We went in that morning at 8 am to be induced at 39 weeks due to a previous precipitous birth with DD. We got all settled into our room and changed into my hospital gown when we first got there. The doctor didn't come to check me until 9 and I was still 2cm like I was at my appointment that week. They started the pitocin at 9:30 at 2ml and told me they would up it by 2 every half hour. I was doing great and having contractions but not feeling them all the way up to like 10ml. They stopped increasing it when we got to 14ml.

The morning was pretty uneventful with the only issue being that my BP was a little elevated. They made us cut the visitors to only 2 at a time and our waiting room full of people kept swapping out with each other and my daughter was in and out of the room until I started getting real pain. My doctor came back to check me around lunchtime and I was about 3 cm at that point. He said he was going to come back in shortly to break my water and we had the conversation about pain meds since I was starting to have some pretty intense contractions and the stadol that the nurse had given me did nothing except make me a little drunk but it didn't help the pain at all. He said he didn't think I had long enough to get the full benefit of an epidural so I opted to get an intrathecal right after he broke my water at 1:00. This ended up being funny because both my OB and the anesthesiologist are named Dr. Lee and they are both Asian. My Dr Lee had just left the room after breaking my water and he was dressed in slacks and a dress shirt. Like a minute later the other Dr. Lee came in in scrubs and a little scrub cap and he walked right over to my husband and shook his hand and said "hi I'm Dr. Lee" and even though my husband didn't say anything, I could see it in his expression that he's thinking WTF and how did this guy get changed so fast and why is he introducing himself to me again. I was dying and since I was drunk on the stadol....I couldn't control my laughing and I ended up pissing the anesthesiologist off.  )

 So anyway the drugs were awesome and I felt so much better and I thought I had some time to relax without pain until I progressed a little further since when he broke my water he said I was still only about a 3-4. He made it sound like I had made fast progress but it didn't sound like it to me since I had been at a 2 since my appointment on Monday. 

A little after 2:00pm the nurse came running in and acting crazy since the baby's heartbeat had dropped into the 90's. She got me all worked up and my blood pressure went sky high. They put an oxygen mask on me and did a vaginal check. She said I was already 8cm and she could feel the baby's head. I was hysterical at this point. The doctor and the whole team came in and got everything ready and told me it was time to start pushing since I was at a 10 in a matter of minutes. I was having a hard time concentrating on what they were saying to me since I had the oxygen on and was crying uncontrollably. Once I did start pushing he was out in 5 minutes. I only gave about 3 big pushes and he was out. I could feel enough that I was able to feel him coming out of me but it did not hurt that bad. The drugs worked amazing and I was up on my feet shortly after.

 I did not believe my husband or anyone that he was ok until I had him in my arms, I was still really traumatized from when the nurse came running in like that. It turns out that it was kind of still a precipitous birth. If my water had broken at home when I was alone like it did with DD, I might have been in some trouble. 

He's just the most beautiful thing I have ever seen...he looks almost identical to DD when she was born . I love him so much and I am so happy and blessed.