August 2014 Moms

Shawn's birth story

It’s taken me longer to do this than I would have liked, but I still wanted to share. I’m not disappointed with how my labor went, but it wasn’t what I expected or planned so it’s been helpful to me to share. I’ve tried to keep it short, but it’s still kinda long so here goes…

Tuesday I was having BH like many other days so I didn’t think much of it. I got home around 4 and noticed some bloody show. I was really excited that it looked like LO was finally going to arrive! I decided to walk the dogs to see if I could get the contractions going stronger. Then I tried sitting on the birthing ball and going about the rest of my evening.

Around midnight I tried going to bed to get some rest. Around 1am I was woken by a “pop”. I immediately felt the bed sheets but nothing was wet. I almost felt like I had dreamed it. Maybe it’s because I was tired or maybe I just didn’t want to believe it but it took me a long time to realize my water did break. With every contraction I was leaking a little. So DH and I started to time my contractions. They were coming every 4-6min and lasting 30-60seconds. We called my mom and DH’s parents to let them know what was happening. My mom decided to come over. I couldn’t rest so we stayed up waiting for something to happen. I tried to go back to bed around 5:30am. I felt a lot of pressure now with so many people waiting around watching me. At 6:30am I decided I wanted to go to the hospital to find out where I was. I was put in triage. Finally around 11am I was put in a room. I was checked and I was only at 1-2cm! I couldn’t believe it and I was totally disappointed. I was also scared because it had been 10 hours already since my water broke!

We went ahead and set up the birthing pool. The water did feel great but by the afternoon when they checked me again I still hadn’t progressed much. The midwife was suggesting we start Pitocin. I wanted to wait a little while longer. I think it was around 6pm Wednesday I was finally dilated to 4cm. I was so exhausted I finally agreed to have the Pitocin, but I was scared to have those contractions so I also asked for an epi. I cried after asking for all this because it’s not what I had wanted and I felt like I had done something wrong and I was scared.

After everything was in place, I felt relief but the monitors showed my contractions slowing down! They said it could just be something wrong with the monitor, but it really didn’t make me feel better. I just kept asking if Shawn’s heartbeat was ok. He seemed to be fine through the whole ordeal which I am so thankful for! The hours continued to tick by and I was so tired I just wanted it all to be over. I started to get a fever. They were concerned about an infection since my water broke so early. I had the shakes during this time due I guess to the meds, not eating, lack of sleep and anxiety.

At 3am Thursday I was finally fully dilated. I didn’t know how I was going to have the strength to push. This was my second night of little/no sleep. I was also nervous about pushing. We all had a feeling this was going to be a large baby. After about 30min of pushing with just DH (who never left me, sweet sweet man) and the labor nurse I hadn’t made much progress at this either. I was really tired of hearing this!! I was frustrated and found my second wind. I thought to myself, I have not been in labor this long to fail here! Nothing has gone as I planned, but I can still do this! I gave it all I had and after 30 more minutes the labor nurse said I should stop while she gets the midwife! I was so happy to hear these words! Once they got everything set up it was 30 more minutes of pushing and then I had my beautiful baby on my chest! At one point, the midwife asked me to stop pushing and later I found out that he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice! Luckily it didn’t seem to have caused any harm.

Shawn Edward was born at 5:22am Thursday July 31st! He weighed 9lbs7oz and was 22in long. His Apgar scores were 8 and 9. I had second degree tearing. We initially had difficulty with bf and he needed light therapy for jaundice, but I feel truly blessed. Even though I didn’t have the labor I planned on I have a healthy baby which is all that counts. I couldn’t have done it without my DH and family supporting me the whole time!  

Re: Shawn's birth story

  • Congratulations on your healthy huge baby!
  • Congratulations!
    Married June 2012
    DH: 31 Me: 30 dx PCOS 2001
    Surprise BFP 12/8/13 EDD 8/14/14
    Stroke: 3/15/14 dx expressive aphasia: had to relearn how to communicate
    Charlotte Joy Born 8/9/14

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  • Wow, big baby!! Congratulations!!
    Mom to Frances, 6, Adam, 4, and baby Lila.
  • Congrats! Our babes were born the same day, only a few hours apart and my LO needed light therapy too!
  • Congrats!
    TTC Since January 2012 Me:37 DH:34      DX July 2013: Unexplained Infertility      New DX Dec 2013: DOR
    BFP#1 6/4/12 EDD 2/13/13 M/C 6/6/12  BFP#2 2/21/13 EDD 11/3/13 M/C 2/26/13 BFP#3 C/P
    4 rounds of clomid, 2 with IUI = BFN
    November/December Retesting/Natural Cycle = Surprise BFP @ 11dpo! Beta#1 76.6@13dpo Beta #2 276@15dpo u/s#1 6w2d hb113 u/s#2 8w2d, measuring 8w4d hb168! 10w2d hb171 12w3d Verifi results are in and good! EDD 8/23 Our Baby Girl Rainbow Baby born 8/20/2014!!!
    Um...what? BFP 11/2/15!?! EDD 7/4/16
  • Congrats on your baby boy - way to keep going there at the end when so tired!
     
    Married since 8.2.08
    DS born 8.11.14
    BFP #2: 9.14.16, EDD: 5.24.17

    BabyFruit Ticker
  • Congrats! And wow, what a big baby boy! It sounds like you did great and in the end got the vaginal birth you wanted in spite of everything thrown at you. Great work Mama!
  • Thank you @Elbug for those kind words :)
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