Lucas James - Induction, Csection, and a beautiful baby!!

kitandcat · May 2016

It is 3:41am here in Columbus, OH and what better time to share my birth story than when my newborn won't stop crying unless he's lying on my
chest and I'm either standing or sitting up straight!! So comfy!! LOL

Due to gestational hypertension, I was scheduled
to be induced Thursday 5/19 at 8am. I came to the hospital at 8 with DH and the induction process started at 10:20 am with the insertion of a foley bulb. I was about 90% effaced and 2 cm dilated for about 2 weeks before that. Foley fell out at 2:15 pm, 4 hours later, and they measured me at 5cm. They wanted to break my water next but when they felt the baby's head it could be pushed back in the water bag and they said they didn't want to break it unless it was firmly against the bag, so we started pitocin instead!

Pit started at 3pm, and my water broke around 5ish. That was insane! I was lying in bed, and had just had a cervical check where she said I was now up to 6cm, and 30 seconds after she was done it was the biggest gush I ever could have expected. It just kept coming and coming and coming and coming. The nurse said it was the biggest gush she'd seen in a long time. I was just lying there and my back and whole body just got soaked. Once it calmed down, she had me stand up and she cleaned me off and then cleaned the bed, and while she was cleaning the bed pretty much the same amount gushed again all over the floor :-) I seriously cannot get over the water breaking!!

Contractions came FAST AND FURIOUS not long after my water broke. They were intense. I wanted a natural birth so DH was helping me breathe through them and helping me stay positive. I focused my energy on breathing and grunting and yelling, even though I'm sure I annoyed everyone at the hospital, but it really helped me to continue to be nice to DH and take his support and input without getting frustrated. The contractions were very intense and they were very long and close together. Because the bulb got me to 5 and then pit easily moved me to 6, everyone thought it was going to be pretty quick. They went to check me again at 7p and I told myself if I wasn't an 8 yet I would get an epidural. I was 7cm at 7pm so I asked for the epidural and like magic they were there in 2 min, done inserting in 5, and my pain only lasted for like 3-4 more contractions.

THANK GOD I got that epidural. I got to 8cm at 8pm and then I was stuck at 8cm for 12 hours. I don't know how I would have made it through those intense pit contractions (they just kept upping it and upping it) for 12 hours with no relief! DH and I got a bit of sleep while we waited to dilate and if I hadn't had the epidural I'm sure it would have been beyond exhausting!

After 12 hours stuck at 8cm, my doc highly recommended a csection. MH and I asked about our various options for trying to go vaginal but there wasn't much we could do so we decided on the csection after 22 hours of labor. I was rolled into the OR at 8:47am, they started the csection at about 9:02, and out came Lucas at 9:12am! It was so fast!!! They held him over the blue sheet and I immediately started crying hysterically. MH stood and watched while they did his measurements and whatnot and came back to tell me what was happening every minute. They put Lucas just below my neck and we had a nice few minutes of skin to skin before I felt like I was going to vomit so they wrapped him up and gave him to MH. MH was amazed by the whole process and just super in love right away. He watched when they pulled Lucas out and has some pretty cool pictures, so I actually get to see what it looked like as Lucas emerged!!!

The csection was super strange btw. No pain of course but I could really feel a lot. Like I could tell that they were moving around my insides, and I could tell when I was being stretched open and I could feel like my stomach fat moving. It was crazy. I stayed super optimistic and positive and chatted with DH the whole time and it helped to control my experience and I didn't freak out at all.

Lucas James was born at 9:12am on May 20th! 7 pounds, 10 ounces, 20 3/4 inches long.

Breastfeeding was rough all day yesterday and today until about 8:30 this evening when one of the lactation consultants came in to help and I was successful!! I was starting to get nervous and upset and mad because I figured Lucas could only go so long without eating where they'd have to give him a bottle of formula :-( but they kept checking on him and he had the right amount of diapers and blood sugar looked good so I got to wait it out. Tonight is insane with cluster feeding now and I'm so exhausted from breastfeeding just in the last 7 hours but WOW it's amazing and awesome and really cool and a beautiful experience.

This is the longest birth story ever, but that's what you get from an insomniac Mom who has had MAYBE 45 minutes of sleep tonight from all this breastfeeding and my super needy LO :-)

VS2016 · May 2016

Congratulations!!!

nbgmom · May 2016

Congrats! Those pit contractions are no joke! This was my 3rd delivery and first experience with pit. Also my first time with my water breaking on its own, and I also couldn't get over how crazy that was!! Your baby is beautiful