Judah's Birth Story
I had been dealing with non-stop BH type contractions over the weekend & when I came in for my appt on Monday (the 29th) my blood pressure was up a little (138/82) & I was feeling really sick to my stomach. During my appt I had several contractions & I told my midwife that I had been having them off and on since 4:00 am. After we listened to the heartbeat we discussed stripping my membranes again and seeing if that would start a more regular labor pattern. However, when she went to check me she exclaimed "Oh, my...you are a good 5 cm and very effaced, so I don't think I'm gonna push it and do any membrane stripping right now". Then she told me she would be willing to just send me over to the hospital that evening & break my water. From the looks of it I was slowly preparing for labor anyway, so we made the decision to just get the show on the road. I thought that I would go for another spontaneous delivery this
time, but when I found out I was already 5 cm I quickly decided otherwise-LOL!
The main reason I agreed to the AROM was because I know I have a history of very fast labors, and this time the hospital was a good 30 minutes from my home in good traffic. As luck would have it, they were doing a ton of construction on the highway & there was no quick and easy route to the hospital without a bunch of construction delays. I SO did not want to have a "side of the road baby", and the idea of being able to arrange care for my other three kids was very appealing at this point.
We decided to have me check into the hospital around 4:30 and Jeane (my midwife) would meet me over there after she was done seeing her patients at the office. This way she could stay with me the entire time and give me her full and undivided attention. I went home with orders to "rest, eat some protein, and relax"...which is the exact opposite of what I did-LOL! I called Jonathan as soon as I left my appointment & told him "we're having our baby tonight" & he said "you mean...you're in labor!" hehe! Poor guy...he kinda had a bit of panic in his voice ;-). When I told him the plan he was very happy & said "oh, my gosh...this is it!". He left work right away & even got home before me! As soon as I got home I packed my bags (yes...I had been putting this off), called my family and arranged all the babysitting details, put Maya down for her nap, wrote down a few notes about kid care related stuff, and then I took a bath and of course... shaved my legs-LOL!
Jonathan and I decided to pick the kids up from school a little early so we could tell them the big news & give them hugs and kisses before we left. Everyone at the school was so excited for us and all the teachers were giving me hugs...it was kinda cute. After that we dropped the kids off at home & headed for the hospital. Once we checked in at the hospital they put me on the monitors & I was having a few contractions here and there, but nothing too exciting. We basically just hung out and watched TV until my midwife came around at 5:30. As soon as Jeane showed up she got me transferred to a "jacuzzi room" because she knew I was not getting an epidural & she wanted me to have some sort of comfort measures. Once we got all settled in the new room she broke my water right before 6:00 pm and we decided to have me do some walking in the halls to see if that would kick start the contractions. We walked and walked, but I wasn't really having any "good" contractions, so we came back to the room and I sat on the birth ball for a little while to just relax. At 7:00 pm my mom came by to "see if I had the baby yet"...and everyone laughed! My whole family is so used to me going quickly that they were sure he had already arrived. I told my mom to go ahead and go home because I thought it was going to be a long night.
Not long after that conversation with my mom I had one contraction that hurt quite a bit & I looked at Jeane and said "Now we're getting somewhere". She asked me if I wanted her to fill the tub & at first I said "no I think I want to wait until things pick up a little before I get in the water". Not 10 minutes later I said "you can go ahead and fill up the tub...this is going fast now". So, about 7:30 I got in the tub and did a lot of my hard labor in the water, which felt wonderful!
However, I started shaking really badly (transition...fun, fun!) & the contractions were coming one right on top of the other & I wanted to get out of the tub and stand. Once I got out of the tub I started making some noise which is not normally how I deal with labor, but it was just instinctual so I went with it. Jeane asked me if we could put the monitors back on for a few minutes since it had been awhile since we listened to the baby. As I was standing up I started swaying back and forth and Jeane just rubbed my back and belly, which felt very relaxing to me.
All of the sudden I felt the urge to push & Jeane asked me how I wanted to push. She told me that the squat bar might be the best option since I had wanted to do so much standing/squatting during transition, but all I wanted to do was sit down on the bed since my legs were feeling really shaky and weak at this point.
The pushing phase was definitely the worst/hardest part of my whole labor. I have NEVER pushed so hard in all my life. I felt like I was being really loud too, but I think in reality I wasn't making near as much noise as I thought. Every time I pushed something felt "off", but I couldn't stop pushing to save my life.
At one point I involuntarily quit pushing and starting doing this quick "panting" type of breathing and I heard the nurse say "is that what I think it is"...to which Jeane did not respond! I figured the baby must not be coming out the right way because this hurt WAY more than any of my other babies, and for the life of me I could not figure out why I was pushing SO HARD! All of the sudden I found myself saying "I can't do this...I can't do this". Jeane and Jonathan just kept telling me I COULD do this & that it was almost over. Right after saying "I can't do this", I got a huge surge of energy and pushed so hard I thought my head my explode, and then all of the sudden I felt the "ring of fire" and everyone said "the head is out!". When I looked down I saw my baby looking at me! No wonder it hurt!! However, it wasn't over yet! I still pushed a few more times for the shoulders. As soon as Jeane laid him on my tummy I said "WOW....he's finally here...and he's SO BIG!".
Everyone was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over his size & saying how they couldn't believe that was inside of me. Then they took him away to weigh him and I about fainted when they announced he was 8.14 :-).
Oh, and his time of birth was 8:49...just over an hour and a half since I had told my mom that I thought it was going to be a long night-ha! They gave him right back to me, but he started doing the sad little grunting noises, and I knew from our
Sure enough, the nurse said she was worried because he sounded like he was in distress, so Jonathan followed 
It was absolutely the best feeling in the whole world to be snuggling my little guy! After all the snuggling he latched on right away and nursed for a good 40 minutes.
After we made a ton of phone calls to tell everyone Judah had arrived, Jonathan and I looked at each other and said...."I'm starving!". However, it was nearly 11:00 pm and all the nurses could come up with was crackers, PB, and sprite. So, I sent Jonathan out in search of a giant cheeseburger and fries-LOL! He returned shortly after with Wendy's, and let me tell you...that was the best cheeseburger ever!
No comments:
Post a Comment