Birth Story

Since our little man is sleeping with MJ at the moment, I'm going to try to get the birth story written down before I forget......

We went into the hospital on Thursday, Nov 4 to be induced.  We arrived at about 8:30 in the morning and I was promptly hooked up to the NST machine to monitor the baby.  After a 1/2 hour on the machine, they checked me and I was 1.5cm dilated and 60% effaced.  So, they started me on a suppository to ripen my cervix which meant I had to be monitored for the next 2 hours.  At this point, I had an hour "free" to wander the hospital, get some fresh air, etc.  My mom came to see us and we had some lunch and got some fresh air.

Then began our next cycle - 1/2 hour of monitoring, bathroom break, suppository, 2 hours of monitoring and then an hour free.  Of course, baby wouldn't cooperate with the monitor as usual, so it was more like 4 hours before we got a break.  I started some slight contractions during this second round.  During our break, we went to get some fresh air and did a few laps around the hospital to try and get things moving along.

My parents came to visit after dinner and we started our third round of monitoring and ripening.  I started to have much more regular contractions at this point and they were lasting 40 - 50 seconds and about 2 minutes apart.  We got our hour off around 10:30PM and went to do some more laps around the hospital.  My contractions were strong enough at this point that I stopped to breathe through them each time I had one.

We headed back to the room and I was checked again.  At this point, I was 3cm and 70% effaced.  They told me that they could either break my water, start pitocin, or let me sleep for the evening.  Since it was close to midnight, we decided to go ahead and try to get some sleep.  They also started an IV and some antibiotics since I was group B strep positive.  I am very thankful that we decided to get some sleep even if it wasn't the most restful.

Friday morning, the doc came in and checked me and I was 4cm and 90% effaced.  She broke my water at that point.  We had some breakfast while we waited for them to move us  to a "real" room since we were now considered in active labor.  At 10:30 we got ourselves all moved and they started pitocin at the slowest drip possible.  My contractions got more regular and stronger at this point.

At about noon time my contractions started to get much worse and closer together.  It wasn't long until the contractions began to come very strong and very close together.  They were having trouble keeping the baby's heartbeat on the monitor so the doc same in to check me and put an internal monitor on.  At this point she said I was 6cm.  At this point the contractions were almost unbearable.  I was completely in my own world and looking back, I am amazed at how my mind and body just went to another place as I labored.

After about 20 minutes of feeling like the contractions were going to kill me I remember saying to the nurse, "I think I just pushed a little."  She told me to listen to my body and push if that was what I needed to do.  Before I knew it, the doctor was there and I was pushing.  I remember almost feeling relief during the pushing.    To me it didn't hurt like the contractions had just before and I had a bit of a break between the contractions.   After about 20 minutes and a half dozen or so pushes, the baby was crowning.  The doctor told me to stop pushing and I remember trying to hold back when all of a sudden the baby literally came flying out.  I heard everyone around the bed say "Whoa!"  As he flew out of me and on to the bed.  MJ said he literally flew out, flipped and bounced on the bed!  We always joked that this baby was going to come out running!  I heard choruses of "It's a BOY!" and couldn't believe that we had our baby boy!

He wasn't crying right away and I found out afterwards that he had the cord wrapped three times around his neck and also around his arm and elbow.  MJ was able to cut the cord and then Drew was given to me.  It was the most amazing feeling to finally have my son on my chest.   He stayed there for over an hour when I finally gave him up to let the nurse weigh and measure him and do all of the newborn checks.  I love that they gave us that uninterrupted time together before doing all of his measurements.

By 4:00, I was in the shower and having lunch.  Drew checked out perfectly and had already had his first bath.  We were already madly in love with our little man.  I couldn't believe how quickly things progressed once I started to really be in labor.  My mom was the same way and she warned me that I would be as well - she was right.  My parents and MJ were all there for the delivery and I wouldn't have had it any other way!

We found out on Sunday from the midwife that Drew was in quite a bit of distress during labor.  His heart rate was low and not recovering and it is a good thing that I delivered quickly.  She said that it was a good thing that the doctor who delivered him was there.  I'm glad I had no idea during the birth that he was having so much trouble.  Despite this, he has checked out perfectly ever since - and of course, we think he is absolutely perfect!

What an amazing experience!