Birth Story

Okay, I'll admit that I like to hear/read about others birth stories and I thought some of you might be curious about mine. Others (like my mom) can just skip this post--hey, not everyone is into hearing about this sort of thing :)

Zach's birth was a scheduled induction. My mom and sister came into town on Saturday afternoon and he was set to come on Monday. Sunday evening was spent watching the Super Bowl, visiting, and eating yummy food. It was also the time when I became emotional and cried while I gave my children a bath because holy-cow-they-soon-won't-be-my-babies-anymore. Tim gave me a blessing of peace and comfort that evening and my mom said a really nice family prayer and then we all went to bed and everyone slept except for me. I don't really think I got more than a couple hours of rest because I was a ball of excitement, anxiety, and WOW for what was going to happen the next morning.

I got up at 5:30 am, had some cereal, packed, and we headed out the door around 6:45 for our 7 am appointment. I told Tim that I felt like I was about to defend my thesis again, lots of nervous excitement and energy. As soon as we got there, they put us in our room and I got into the lovely nightgown. I am Strep B positive, so they put in my IV and got the antibiotics going. Then my awesome nurse, Bonnie, did a quick ultrasound to make sure Zach was still in a good position (he was) and she started the pitocin. She also checked me and I was still a 2 and 70% effaced (my week of walking had accomplished nothing!) I told her that in my experience things wouldn't start happening until my water broke. I sort of wanted them to just come and break my water so we could get the show on the road . . . but they didn't. She told me Zach was still a little high and wondered how I was at pushing, to which I responded, "I'm rock star when it comes to pushing."

I started having small but regular contractions but they weren't painful and I still wasn't really dilating. Like I said, this was no surprise to me. We spent the morning watching Super Bowl recaps on ESPN, playing cards, and just chatting. My room had a nice big window that looked out onto an empty courtyard with a nice fountain. It was very pleasant. I started to get REALLY hungry though. At one point the epidural woman came in and introduced herself and asked if it was something I was interested in. I told her, "Yep." I appreciated her coming in to visit with me before I was in the middle of huge painful contractions. She was very kind and I told her I'd see her in a few hours.

Eventually, my nurse came in and asked me if I'd like to try sitting on the birth ball--it's like a big exercise ball. Honestly, my first thought was, "How granola," and "Can we just break my water already?" but I just shrugged and said, "Sure." I bounced around for awhile and found that I actually really liked that big ball. It was really nice for my lower back. I think I sat on it for 45 min or so and then Bonnie came in and said she wanted me to take a quick break so she could monitor Zach for a minute (it was difficult to keep track of him when I was bouncing around). As I was getting up off the ball I had a quick thought of, "Yikes, I really need to go to the bathroom," and then my water broke--gush--. Bonnie suggested we call for that epidural now to which I quickly agreed because just like the other times, the contractions really ramped up in pain. The epidural woman (angel of mercy) came and and administered the best epidural I've ever received and I went from a 3 to a 6 in 20 minutes (I told you things really happen once my water breaks).

My nurse called my doc and told him he probably better start heading this way and then she started getting things all ready for the baby's arrival. I was really comfortable for awhile and rested as the epidural moved throughout my body. It felt warm and cozy and I felt sleepy and comfortable, but then I think I went through transition because while I couldn't feel the pain of the contractions, I did start to get very shaky. I've had that happen before but it came after the twins were born if I remember correctly. This time I was shaking before. Bonnie got me some warm blankets and gave me some oxygen and Tim looked at me with lots of concern and said, "I don't like seeing you shake like this." I wasn't worried about it, though, I just knew it meant that baby Zach's arrival was pretty imminent and my body knew it.

Dr. C arrived and I moved into position and began my "rock star" pushing. I'm not going to lie, I felt some pressure to perform after my bragging. It didn't take too long and they had to tell me to back off a bit on the pushing :) and then Zach arrived. They put him right up on my belly and the doc handed Tim the scissors to cut the cord to which Tim said, "No," and I said, "Just do it," and he did. So I was induced at 7 am, my water broke at 1:00 pm, and Zach was born at 3:40 pm.

Untitled from kmt63 on Vimeo.

I did have a second degree tear (I tore with Marcus as well but not with the twins--go figure) and then we had the blood sugar scare--see earlier post. But overall it was great and I was very happy with my experience.

So there you go, my birth story.