Thomas James' birth story! (Super long)

Finally at 41 weeks and 6 days my "little" man was born on Dec. 4th at 11:45 am. after a quick 3 hour and 45 min. labor!

This was my fourth pregnancy, 3rd baby and was the toughest I've ever had. I was first graced with terrible nausea and vomiting for the first 15 weeks that had me bedridden. This is very difficult when you're a stay at home mom to two very rambunctious boys and also homeschooling lol but we mangaged to keep up on our days.

Then at 17 weeks I was diagnosed with a subchorionic hemorrhage (where blood pools between te placenta and the uterus, and there is possibility of the placenta tearing away from the walls of the uterus and causing me to go into early labor) and was told there was a chance I could lose the baby if he was born before 24-26 weeks. The next 7-9 weeks scared the heck out of us. I kept myself on bedrest worried I'd set off complications.

By week 26 my OB told us that because I was so early the hemorrhage was so small it was insignificant at this point and there was no need to worry. BUT I now had marginal/partial previa. I could just not catch a break! This is where my placenta was partially blocking my cervix. Doc wanted to wait a month to see if it would slide over as my uterus grew. If it didn't I would be an automatic c-section and with that complications could arise. Thus followed another freak out for 4 weeks. By then, luckily, everything had moved over and I was in the clear!

Everything was good... for about a week. Then I was graced with a very mild case of PUPPS. The most excruciating itchy rash that spread all over my entire body. There is no remedy and barely any relief. By suggestion of multiple message boards I tried out some pine tar soap (the stinkiest soap ever!) and used it like crazy. Then suddenly at 32 weeks it was gone!

Finally I was feeling great! Then the SPD kicked in badly! Symphysis pubis dysfunction is when your body produces too much of the relaxin hormone and your pelvic muscles are super loose. This makes it very difficult and painful to walk, move, and even move around in bed. Grocery shopping or small errands or even making dinner was painful and exhausting. So back to a lot of bed rest

I was an absolute hobbit my entire pregnancy (but so glad that with all the complications, they were minimal and baby was safe and healthy the entire time).

With my due date quickly approaching I held on tight knowing the end was near! Or so I thought...My due date quickly came and went. Then I became 41 weeks and still nothing. Those last few days seemed like months! Finally my doc said we couldn't wait any longer and scheduled me for an induction when I was to be 41+6.

I was pretty devastated. This whole pregnancy I really wanted to go all natural. I wanted to start labor on my own, and I didn't want any pain relief. I read tons of natural laboring books and now it all seemed for naught. Even though it was going to suck, and the pain would be worse (or so I hear, since all my previous pregnancies had been induced as well), I would suck it up and deal without an epi. My last labor I got an epi that only numbed the left side of me and I had excruciating back pain at the injection site for 6 weeks. I told myself one day of pain would be better than the possibility of back problems later.

About 3 days before my induction I start experiencing contractions that were timeable. First night about 11 min apart. Second day about 9 min apart. And the third about 8-7 min apart. But the contractions always went away by morning, except on the day of my induction.

We showed up at 7:00am. They hooked me up to the EFM for 15 min monitoring before they start the "lovely" pitocin. Apparently I was already contracting so they had me on a very low drip. I was sort of excited about that knowing that my body was helping out with the process on its own. Things were looking up. So I labored. I tried to stay comfy and lie down since I had woken up at 4am and was still a little tired, and I remember from all my birthing books that the key to avoid pain was to relax the body and avoid tension. Everything was good and calm, contractions were barely noticeable and not painful at all just a tight feeling. We thought we would be there for a while before anything got too exciting so hubby left to get a snack for himself in the cafeteria.

His timing was awful. After he had been gone just a few minutes I got two nurses rushing in looking nervous talking of baby's heart rate dropping and they need to make sure he's not on top of the umbilical cord, etc. so they had me turn to my side. Then they had me on all fours to see if that helped. It didn't so then they broke my water to see if the weight of it was the problem. Then I hear her say we need to get an internal FM. That's when I got nervous. I've heard of it but would never had thought that it would happen to me. It seemed so invasive and I was so worried if would be painful to my baby. And on top of that they already broke my bag of water. If anything I was sure my labor was going to take a turn toward the inevitable c-section. But hearing the urgency and confidence in the nurse's voice, reassured me that this is what we needed to do at the moment and everything would be fine. They also had me on an oxygen mask. That mask always makes an appearance in my labors. Lovely garb, that.

Then things settled down a bit. We got the heart rate back to normal again. While they were there the nurse checked me for the first time since I've been admitted and I learned that after one hour I had jumped from 3 cm since my last appt a week and a half ago and was at 5 cm! The nurse asked me how I was coping with the pain and I told her I wasn't experiencing any. The nurse just laughed at how lucky I was lol then everything calmed down again and of course, Hubby comes back right as they all leave lol

After that it was hard to get comfy again but I tried and contractions grew stronger but still manageable.
Suddenly I hit a rough one. I was relaxed for the first half but then I gave in, tensed up, and ouch! A few easy ones passed but they were right on top of each other. At this point I was no longer on pitocin since my body kicked in itself after they broke my water.

On my third tough contraction I started to think I couldn't do this any more I wanted to go home, I wanted the epi I just didn't think I could do it anymore. I recognized these as signs of transition but I had only been there for not even three hours surely it was too soon for transition and I was just being a wimp. Hubby convinced me to stick through it so I did for the next three big ones. Then I told the nurse I needed to pee. But when I got in there, I couldn't. I also had another contraction in there AND I felt like pushing! (A feeling I've never experienced before but I just knew that's what it was.) Really?! Already? The nurse said we better get you back on that bed, like, now! Lol so she called in for my OB but I couldn't wait for him. I was already pushing with the nurse for a few min before the OB arrived. Then it was show time. The pushing was definitely an experience. The pushing was fine but I could feel my OB just stretching me open and pushing everything down and up and to the side. It was painful! They kept saying how baby was still so high and far back in there so I was like, "great, this is going to be tough." So he had me pushing for 10 counts. I'd do okay until 3-5 then I would focus too much on the pain and forget to continue pushing. Ugh! Just no fun. After about 10 min., I'm guessing, baby's limbs squirmed out in those last two pushes and I was ecstatic!

I heard the doc and nurses exclaim how big he was! My other two babes were 7 pounders so I thought this one was probably like 8 pounds. Nope! I hear a nurse exclaim 10 pounds 5 ounces!! Oh my god, lol I am a small girl, started out at 113 and only gained 30 pounds this pregnancy. Never in a million years would I think I could make such a huge baby. Of course my OB kept saying I did a good job but if baby was only 6 lbs I could have been done in three pushes. Thanks doc, but I just got done with excruciating pushing, keep that opinion to yourself! The nurses even said how lucky I was that we didn't even have to deal with shoulder dystocia. And even more amazement after all that, absolutely no tearing! I feel so blessed that everything worked out

Even though I had wanted a completely natural labor and birth and I had to go through an induction instead and had a few interventions, I am happy with my labor and so proud of my body for the work that it did and even for it's own contribution to the contractions.

Thomas is now 5 days old and healthy as can be. He looks a lot like my middle child but has blue eyes like my first born. He's gorgeous! I'm a happy momma of three boys and I'm on cloud 9!