Friday, October 3, 2014

Baby H: MJH Birth Story pt 2

Miss part one? Go here.

Once we finally made it to labor and delivery and quickly got checked in at the nurses station we were headed to a triage room to make sure that this was really happening. More of a technicality than anything else because I for sure knew this baby boy was on his way out. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors as I tried to lay in bed writhing in pain with each contraction. She checked me and I was between 5-6cm, up from 3cm five days before at my doctors appointment. It was confirmed that I was indeed in labor and I started the journey down the hall to our labor room. I glanced at the clock and it was 10:15pm.

Keeping in pace with the rest of the evening, once we got to my actual room things just kept on ramping up. I had gone into this whole thing not sure what to expect in terms of pain and what I wanted to do as far as meds were concerned. I didn't want to go into it assuming I would get an epidural because I had never experienced it before while on the other hand there wasn't a single part of me that felt bad or ashamed or less strong for wanting meds. I wanted to play it by ear with that part of labor and by the time I made it into the room I was already asking for an epidural. Epidurals however require an IV to be started and labs to be drawn before the anesthesiologist can begin. I literally couldn't even sit down during contractions which were coming only minutes apart at this point and it took every square inch of me to hold still long enough (while standing up, mind you) for my nurse to be able to put in the IV line and draw my blood. Then she gave me the worst news, it would be about 30 minutes for the labs to come back.

I literally almost lost it. There was no way I was going to be able to wait 30 more minutes. My contractions were stronger than ever at this point, I was already feeling the unstoppable urge to push and I was about to give in, things were getting so rough. There was one contraction in particular where I didn't even know what to do with my body and I told J I couldn't do it anymore. I asked for a birthing ball because we had learned in our birth class it can be comfortable. My nurse went running from the room to get one for me, I sat down and immediately stood up. That wasn't going to work. I tried sitting on the bed, I tried squatting on the floor, I tried bending over, clutching J's hand, shaking my legs, anything I could think of. My nurse became my biggest advocate at this point. She called the anesthesiologist seeing if she would start even without labs since I was healthy and had no pregnancy complications. No dice. I swear she must have stood at that computer continuously hitting refresh for my labs because finally, about 15 or 20 minutes later the anesthesiologist walked in with her glorious cart and started to prep me. Knowing that sweet relief was coming was like someone else took over my body as I sat completely still with my back rounded allowing her to work her magic when just minutes before I could have run around the room like a chicken with it's head cut off. I felt the coolness in my back and knew it would be better from here on. Time check was 11:20pm.
The first few contractions were still fairly painful but each one became progressively weaker and lasted a shorter amount of time.  I had 3 contractions after the epidural was in place before my nurse checked me again. I was complete. And I think I might have cursed in disbelief when she said that. Essentially I had progressed to active labor ready to push completely on my own without medication.

From then on it was time to move this baby down and out. I was thankfully able to still feel the pressure of each contraction and would look at J to tell him I was ready each time I felt a new one rising. With the help of my nurse and the constant encouragement from my husband we made progress towards meeting our son. Between the epidural, my hormones and the adrenaline rushing through my body I had shakes like I've never had before. J asked me why I was so freezing at one point and I told him I was sweating and that I couldn't help but shake. At one point they were worried about baby's heart rate and ended up attaching a monitor to the top of his head (which I had no idea they could do) since it seemed like the external monitor wasn't picking things up correctly. Once we were close the OB covering for my usual one came into the room and helped bring our sweet, sweet boy into the world.

Mark was born at 0049 on September 25th, 2014. Just six and a half hours after I thought I might be having real contractions. The nurses and OB jokingly told us that we need to head to the hospital immediately for baby #2 with the pace that my first labor decided to take.
I'm not sure if it was because his cord was around his neck or just because of a miscommunication and the lack of my regular OB but he wasn't placed directly on my chest like I originally wanted him to be. This was my only negative feeling towards my labor experience as a whole and thankfully we quickly demanded that I have him and the nurses placed him on my chest in one of the best moments of my life. J and I were completely smitten by him. He weighed a tiny 7lbs 3oz which was much littler than we thought he would be based on u/s estimates. His APGAR scores were 8 and 9 and he was the most perfect little thing we'd ever seen.

We spent the rest of the early morning visiting with the eager and ever doting grandmas who made their appearance at 3am just to meet this sweet little boy. I was still hyped up with energy from labor itself but we finally were able to get some rest as the morning progressed. Mark slept in the bed with me the entire first day as I couldn't fathom giving him up, not smelling his brand-new skin and stroking his dark head of hair.
We stayed in the hospital until Saturday and took full advantage of having so many nurses and docs around to get advice from. Breast feeding started off well, the pediatrician came by each morning and told us that he was as healthy as can be, he passed his hearing test with flying colors and even got his first bath while daddy watched. We definitely had our tough moments as we were given a pretty high-needs baby it seems making these sleep deprived new parents quite at a loss. Add in a few shifts of unhelpful nurses and we were feeling pretty defeated. Thankfully our last nurse, Sandy, was a godsend and turned our world upside-down with all her help and advice and patience and just general goodness.
We left the hospital around 2pm on Saturday afternoon with our precious bundle of joy ready to start on the adventure that is parenthood. Becoming this little boys momma early that Thursday morning was one of the most fantastic moments I have ever had. Mark was ready to meet the world in rapid fashion and we can't wait to see what the rest of his life brings.

1 comment:

  1. Oh my gosh this sounds almost identical to my labor with Brooks. Super fast, got to hospital was 5 cm, thought I was going to die, finally got epidural after having to have iv fluids, and was complete already. Boo haha! Although my pushing wasn't as quick as yours :) And my first delivery was horrific compared to that, so consider yourself lucky! :) So glad everything went well and hopefully little Mark has eased up on you guys a bit! Enjoy those snuggles mama, it goes so fast!

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