David's Birth Story

I decided I should write down David's birth story for all those that haven't heard it yet. I will warn you , it may be a little long, so here it goes....

David was due on May 20th but didn't grace us with his presence until a week and 1 day later on May 28th. 8 days late! That last week was pure torture. I think I avoided as many people as possible, only to avoid the comments that everyone had to make "You haven't had that baby yet"? or "When are you going to have that baby" or the comment that my Mom made when she first saw me "Wow you are HUGE, bigger than any of your sisters ever were". (gotta love my Mom). My whole pregnancy I had this perfect scenario in my head of how this would all go down. Let's just say it didn't happen in real life like it did in my head, but in the end I wouldn't change one thing of how David entered this world.

For those of you who didn't know, Doug and I really wanted a natural birth. We took The Bradley Method Class and did lots of reading and rehearsing and was hopeful we would be able to do this without medication. I even ended up switching doctors in my 7th month to the Midwives at the Reunion Birth Center who specialize in natural births.

On May 27th I had had a check up and was only dilated to a 1 and he was still very high. It was bummer news. I was told that if labor didn't start naturally over the weekend we would meet on Monday (Memorial Day) and then decide if we needed to go to the hospital to be induced or if David had dropped some, we could potentially jump start labor by breaking my water. I was content with this plan, and figured this was my last weekend as a pregnant woman. Well that evening at 11 pm on the dot my water broke! I am more than certain all the dancing and bouncing on the birth ball that I had done that evening is what triggered it to break. I had thought I was completely ready, but when this happened a little panic set in.

Well we ended up meeting our midwife at the birth center an hour later at midnight. She did an exam and hooked me up to a machine to monitor the baby and check my contractions. Pretty much nothing had changed and I was having very very minor contractions. I was also Strep B positive, so I also had to get started on antibiotics right away. She ended up having us stay the night at the birth center so that she could monitor the baby and I throughout the night. I didn't know this at the time, but our midwife had been contemplating sending me straight to the hospital, but in the end she wanted to give my body time to start labor on it's own, which I am grateful for.

I didn't sleep at all that night. Contractions had started but there was no pattern to them at all, they would get closer together and then further apart. By morning I had barely made any progress. At one point my contractions were pretty close together and were a lot stronger, We had thought I was getting into active labor, but about an hour later my contractions stopped completely. By 11 am we all decided I needed some pitocin to get some good contractions going. This meant I needed to go to the hospital. So we packed up and was on our way after picking up my Mom at our house.

We arrived at the hospital at about 11:30 am. They got us right into a room, but they were so busy that day we didn't even get the pitocin started until 4:30 pm. Our midwife had advised me to consider an epidural so that I could get some sleep so I could have the energy needed to push when the time came. After being stuck on my back with the pitocin and not being able to move, I definitely opted for an epidural and finally got it at about 5:30 pm. Before the pitocin was administered I had naturally dilated to a about a 4 and had thinned out lots. David was just not dropping down, it was a little frustrating. I felt like the progress was so little that I had a hard time focusing on the what was going on. When your water breaks there is a 24 hour window from start to finish for when they want the baby delivered, so the time limit added stress to an already stressful situation. It was completely out of my control, and that was hard for me to swallow.

Once I got the epidural I was able to relax some, it didn't hurt as bad as I had imagined in my head. Although I was able to relax some, I still wasn't able to sleep any. Luckily Doug was able to snooze a little.

By about 8 pm I was dilated to about a 7 and he had come down a little bit more and by 10 pm I was dilated close to a 9 and I was fully effaced. At about 8 pm The nurse had had me lay on my side to try to get the baby to turn. They had thought the baby was a little posterior and thought that might be the reason he wasn't dropping completely. Well lying on my side for so long created this unbearable pain. The epidural was not helping it at all. Close to about 10 pm I had developed chills (my teeth were completely chattering) and my temperature was rising and then I started throwing up. I felt awful. Our midwife had become concerned, she ended up consulting with the OB that she practiced under. They had both come to the conclusion that we needed to get this baby out, and the quickest way to do that is by Cesarean. They were afraid that I was developing an uterine infection causing the symptoms above. So the OB was on her way to the hospital to perform the surgery. At that point I felt it was the right thing. I was so exhausted and frustrated that I just wanted him out of me. What ever they had to do I was fine with. I think I was also a little delirious at the time, because I just remember telling Doug over and over I was probably going to die. I just felt like I couldn't endure any more medications, like my body had had enough. I just wasn't in my right state of mind... poor Doug. Well the nurse went to alert the operating room we would be coming for surgery, but because there were so many mothers that day there was an hour wait for the OR, and the OB was still a half hour away. With this, the nurse suggested we try pushing in the mean time. I wasn't fully dilated but with the help of the contractions and me pushing they thought there was a chance they could help pull the baby out, and we could avoid a c-section all together. At first because of the extreme pain in my side I told them I couldn't try, I didn't want to try, but they convinced me otherwise. After my first push I realized I could do it and I pushed again. After about 20 minutes they could see the head! Once this happened something inside of me ignited and I knew I could do it all the way! I knew I could push him out. There was finally light at the end of the tunnel. A few minutes later the OB came in and checked me out, she ended up turning David inside of me. Once this happened it was only about 30 minutes later that David arrived at 11:38 PM. The pushing part of labor was absolutely amazing! I loved it, my Mom and Doug were both able to participate by helping me hold my legs and were able to be part of the experience. What a high it was! It was a total of 1 hour of pushing and a total of 24 hrs and 38 minutes after my water had broke that David had finally arrived, weighing in at 9 lbs 10 oz and 22 inches long. It was probably the longest 24 hours of my life, but was also the most miraculous thing I have ever experienced. It was one miracle after another that took place that day.

Yes, the labor was long, but I have no regrets at all on my choices and the decisions that were made that day. My midwife was amazing. I felt like she looked after me the whole time. No doctor would have ever given me a whole 24 hours to deliver that baby. All in all it was such a great experience that I can already say that I will do it again... someday...