Birthing adventures

Okay, here it is.. my way to long birthing story! Preston and I are finally home and doing well.

We arrived at the hospital at 10:30 ( of course we were late.. it was not my fault. I am the on time spouse) After an hour of checking in and filling out some more paperwork and then sitting in the room bored we finally got things going. The midwife said we would insert cervadil and hope that within 12 hours i would be in full blown labor. We put that in at noon. At first I just read my book ( Breaking Dawn, the latest book in the twilight series that just came out on the second) while Cory read some manual for a football video game. They don't advise you to move the first two hours after you get it inserted or i would have been trying to keep moving! The contractions started right away and over the next two hours built up till they were 1-3 minutes apart and pretty uncomfortable to be sitting still in the bed! The nurse kept coming and checking me and asking me about an epidural. I kept telling her no.. i mean i was barely even doing anything and not in pain! She was annoying. I told the midwife later on and she magically was not my nurse the rest of the labor. Thank goodness! Anyways the midwife came back and checked me at 2:00pm because I was having such hard frequent contractions she wanted to see what was up. I was dilated to a 4. His head was -3 position and floating. She said she could push it and would float up. She did decide though that i was officially in labor and that i could now get up if i wanted to.

I paced in the room for a bit stopping during the contractions and doing hula hoops with my hips to help open my pelvis. After a while I rested on the ball and kept reading my book leaning over the bed. Soon Cory decided we should watch a movie and I agreed as i was having a hard time reading because i lost my place each contraction. About 6:45 the midwife checked me again and I was 5 1/2 cm. Baby still was high in a -3 station and posterior. I was a little annoyed but not really surprised things were going so slow. At least I was moving along, but I figured i was in for another 24 hour labor at this rate. Oh and she took out the cervadil and said if in a few hours i had not progressed again then they would start the pitocin, but she thought my body would continue to progress on its own. I told the midwife that if i stalled out at an 8 again i wanted the epidural, as i was already tired and couldn't stand the thought of being at an 8 in the wee hours of the morning for hours while on pitocin and then have to have the baby turned manually. They sent in someone from anesthesia to talk to me about my low blood pressure and the epidural. My blood pressure at the time was 80 over 40's and they were a bit concerned about it. It was decided that if i got the epi later that I was to have fluid before to bring up my level to closer to 100/60 and also they would just give me a half dose in hopes it wouldn't be as hard on me.

An hour later about 8 pm I sent Cory down to get dinner. While he was gone the contractions got a little more uncomfortable and i called him about 8:40 and told him to come back because i didn't want to be alone anymore! He came back and we decided to call our moms so they could know nothing was going on and just go to bed. We called my mom first and of course she reacted " only a five??!" Which just annoyed me because its not my fault and I wasn't trying to just annoy everyone with my slow labors! Cory's mom reacted the same way. Of course it had been a while since i was checked but i figured i was most likely only a 6 now. After he got off the phone with my mom the nurse came in. I told her I was having a harder time breathing through the contractions and that I thought I might take some fentinol (spelling?) in the next hour or so for a little break. She took me off the monitors so i could move around for 30 minutes to go to the bathroom and walk around. Said she would be back at 10 to check on the baby's heart and if i wanted the meds she could give it to me then if i went back on an IV. Right after she left i told Cory i didn't want to be on the IV that i thought i would wait till later.. when i was dilated to an 8 and just get the epidural. We figured that would be around midnight to 2 am ish. I went to the bathroom and Cory called his mom to tell her the not so news that i was still no where close to a baby. I came back out and sat on the ball and had a really hard contraction. Cory was chatting away with his mom, i told him to get off the phone! He told me that was rude that we talked to my mom longer and could talk to his mom if he wanted. Another strong contraction hit and I started yelling at him to hang up the phone and help me already! He hung up and kept complaining to me how i never let him talk... I started crying that i couldn't have this conversation right now i was in labor. He seemed to think it odd that 10 minutes earlier i was just fine. I gave up on him believing me and paged the nurse. Cory told me to wait as she would be back in 10 minutes anyway but i couldn't wait that long. She walked in to me crying through a contractions saying i couldn't do this and please just give me the fentinol. In my head i was thinking i was such a wuss.. only 5 cm and i couldn't even handle it! But I didn't care. She went to get the midwife who upon walking in and seeing me try to deal with a contraction insisted she check me before we did anything. I got on the bed and had the worst ever contraction laying down while she checking me. The good news i was a 7 so at least all the pain wasn't for nothing. The bad news was baby was only -2 station and still not engaged. His head was still floating!! Darn baby was so stubborn. I got hooked up an IV and by 10:10 she gave me the Fentinol. At this point i decided that I was way too tired and this baby was so high and posterior so I wanted to get the epidural so i could sleep some and then labor more in the morning. The nurse went to get the Epidural guy. While she was gone I flipped over to hands and knees leaning on the birth ball on the bed. I rocked my hips with the contractions. They felt manageable for about 10 minutes.. then I was struggling through them again and wondering why this fentinol didn't help longer!

The Epidural guy finally showed up at 10:30. Cory left because he will pass out if he is in the room. The man asked me a bunch of questions which i answered as quickly and shortly as i could. Then they had me get into position which is sitting on the edge of the bed leaning over so my spine is a c curve. The midwife was holding my hands and the nurse was holding the heart monitor on the baby. The minute i got into this position from the hands and knees something felt weird. I felt like I needed to poop. I was mortified that I was going to right there in front of the young good looking epidural man. I didn't say anything and tried my hardest to relax while he sponged my back down and then gave me the numbing shot. By then I felt like my body was pushing on its own. It never occurred to me it could be the baby, i was just checked and only a 7 with a head floating! He started to put the catheter into my spine. I tried to stay still as best i could. He asked me if i could feel it in my right or left hip. I said i couldn't tell because all i felt was pain in my back and legs and like i needed to push. The midwifes eyes got all big and she asked me how i felt again. I told her I felt pushy and I couldn't stop it. She had the nurse get up and hold my hands while the Epidural guy taped down the catheter and she put on some sterile gloves. I laid down and she checked and I was a 10 with bulging bag of waters! This was only 45 minutes of so from me being a 7! That is really insanely quick for me and no one expected it. I sat back up because laying down was awful.. The epidural guy went ahead and put the medicine in since i was all ready prepped for it. He said i would feel my legs going numb in the next 15 minutes or so. ya, so helpful at the moment! They were trying to find Cory while I tried not to push. I was doing little pushes anyways because i couldn't help it. It felt so good to push. They ended up paging Cory who had gone all the way down to Starbucks for a snack??!! He about missed the birth. I was trying to wait but it was hard. They were about to break my water when he came in wondering why he had been paged. The midwife told him I was complete and ready to push! He was really surprised as we all were. The bed did not get broken down and the midwife just sat by my feet, the baby things were getting set up as I pushed. It was all a bit frantic at the end. They broke my water since it was bulging and it was such a relief. A few minutes and pushes later my feet started to go numb. lol... great timing. I was pushing sitting up in the bed pulling my legs toward myself almost in a full squat position. I just pushed when I felt like it and no one counted. I just wanted everyone to be quiet and let me do my thing. About the time he was crowning suddenly my whole right leg was numb so the nurse had to hold it for me. I was partially numb when he came out. I could feel on my left side but not my right which made it interesting when he crowned! I did good though and didn't push when they said to wait so he could ease out. Its hard to just breath and not push, but well worth it when i had NO tears or stitches! I had some skid marks but they are minor. After he came out i was hemorrhaging badly and the midwife was pushing on my tummy and put her hand up to get some stuck placenta out. I was more than glad the epidural was working at this point since I could only feel the pressure and that was bad enough! They also gave me a whole bag of pitocin on fast flow to help stop the bleeding. Eventually they got it under control but I was in the labor room for a while to make sure I was okay. I didn't mind and just snuggled my baby and enjoyed looking at him. Finally after an hour I let him get weighed and measured since Cory wanted to be able to tell his Mom the stats. We finally got to the recovery room at 2:30 am.

The first night Preston had to go get warmed for a few hours because he couldn't get his temperature up on his own, even snuggling skin to skin with me for 45 minutes didn't help. He also coughed up a lot of fluid and blood ( mine not his.. i know, ewww!) the first day or so. Other than that he is just perfect! He seems so small to me. He lost a pound by the time we left the hospital so i have a little 7 pounder now. I am sure he will fatten right up with my milk which just came in this evening. He likes to nurse, and gives my uterus lots of contractions from it!! I guess its good though because it helps the bleeding lessen and the uterus to go down in size quicker.

I am doing okay except having some trouble with my anemia and trying to not pass out all day. I was really nauseous and dizzy at the hospital and my iron levels dropped from losing blood with the birth so they kept me an extra day. The levels didn't go down again this last day so that is good. I still feel really yucky and like I am going to pass out most of the time. I hope it passes soon, I have never felt so out of it after a birth!

Here is a slid show with some pictures of our new little man!

Preston Arthur Nelson
August 6, 2008 11:08 pm
8 lbs 3 oz 20 1/2 inches long