My Birth Story

In case you aren't interested in reading the details of Anthony's birth, you might want to skip this post. There's nothing real gory or anything like that, it's mainly just the timeline of what happened last Thursday. Just wanted to give you a warning, though, before you read it.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:20 am on December 27th. My induction instructions told me to arrive fasting (nothing to eat OR drink after midnight) and to be there by 6:30 am. I told the nurse my name and my OB’s name and she put us into a L&D room. She had me change into the lovely hospital gown and told me to climb into bed. About 30 minutes later, another nurse came in and asked, “So what brings you here today?” I kid you not, that’s what she said!!! I wanted to say, “Well, I’m almost 38 weeks pregnant and am scheduled to be induced by Dr. S today, what do you think brings me here?” but I didn’t. I just politely told her I was scheduled to be induced. She went on to tell me that they had me on the standby list, **if** they had room for me!! They already had 11 other L&D rooms full, so they weren’t expecting me to come in unless they called. However, my instructions said they’d only call if they were canceling or postponing my induction, so I got there when I was supposed to. I’m glad I did because I don’t know if we’d had our baby that day if I hadn’t. They were busy all day long!!! She got my IV started, though, and we waited on my OB to arrive. She came in about 7:20 am and checked me – still 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She broke my water at 7:25 am and headed to surgery while we started waiting on things to pick up. My OB knew that I wanted to try to go without pain medication if I could, so she agreed to see if labor would begin on it’s own without pitocin. After sitting in the bed for a while, I asked if I could get up and my L&D nurse told me no, I had to stay on the monitors since my water had been broken. I wasn’t even allowed to get up to go to the bathroom. She brought me a bedpan instead! Well, it wasn’t urgent so that wasn’t happening! LOL She said that I could ask my OB when she came back in to see what she said. My OB came in again a little while later and I asked if I could get up. She said, “Yeah” with a very nonchalant attitude like it wasn’t a big deal to her. However, when she realized that there was no way to keep me on the monitors, she said I couldn’t walk to try to get my labor going. She did agree to let me go to the bathroom, though, and suggested that I could sit in the rocking chair and see if that made me more comfortable. So, the nurse got the chair ready while I went to pee! I could tell that this nurse wasn’t accustomed to having women labor in the rocking chair, but she accommodated me. She was a very nice nurse who took good care of me but she’s a grandmother and I could tell that she’s used to having things go the way they’ve gone for a long time. We’ll leave it at that. She was going to start pitocin before I told her that we were going to try without it, too, because that’s how inductions are normally done. Since I couldn’t walk like I’d planned, I was hoping that being more upright in the rocker would help but it didn’t really. I had a few contractions sitting there, but nothing that really signaled that labor was starting. So, an hour and a half after my water was broken, the pitocin was started. I was disappointed but knew that it was coming because labor wasn’t beginning. My OB agreed to just start with “a whiff” of pitocin and let it go very slowly to try to keep me comfortable without pain meds. About 20 minutes after the pit started, I started having some real contrax. Gigi (dh’s mom) and the boys were there by this time, so that was a welcome distraction. My mom had been there for a while but having the boys in the room was nice. I wasn’t very uncomfortable yet and the boys were dealing with everything so well. I’d packed an activity bag with coloring books, crayons and their Gameboys for them, so that helped a lot. Even though I would normally **NEVER** allow them to sit on a hospital floor, the room was a little crowded so they colored in the floor. That kept them happy and in the room with me. We’d been told that they wouldn’t be able to stay, but since they were so well behaved, they were able to stay in the room as long as I wanted. In fact, we’d been told that family members could come in for short periods of time but would have to wait in the waiting room most of the time. But, we had a room full of guests for quite a while. No one was being loud or causing any problems, so our nurse let them stay. I’d started contracting some but it still wasn’t anything real bad. Around 9:40 a.m., my contractions started coming about 5-8 minutes apart. They were getting stronger, too, so that I needed to breathe through them. I’d told the boys that I would have some pain and wouldn’t always be able to answer them right away so that they wouldn’t be scared by labor. They were in the floor coloring most of the time, so I don’t think they really noticed when I was hurting. Around 10:20 a.m., the contrax started coming every 2-3 minutes and they were definitely getting stronger. I would close my eyes and really concentrate on what my body was doing. I was still without pain meds at this point but I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to remain that way. At 10:35, I decided that the contractions must be making progress and I probably needed to let the nurse check me so that I could make a decision about pain management, should I be making fast progress. So, I let the grandparents and all our visitors take the boys out into the waiting room for a while and I climbed back into bed. Unfortunately, I was still only 3 cm dilated and maybe a little more thin. I was certain I would be farther than that! Within just a couple of minutes, though, my contractions were every 1-2 minutes and much more intense. At this point, Adam stood by my bed, holding my hand and helping me breathe through the contractions. I had been getting a little light-headed after each contraction and my OB said it was probably because I was breathing so much that I was kind of hyperventilating each time. She pointed out that I was taking good, deep breaths but I guess it was still affecting me. I’m sure the pain from the pitocin didn’t help any. My OB had been in surgery again and she came back at 11 am and checked me again. This time, I was “a good 4-5” cm and now 90% effaced. The baby had dropped, too, and was now at –1 station. Contractions were still coming every 1-2 minutes and were VERY intense. At this point, I knew I couldn’t keep laboring like this. I wanted to go without pain meds and if my labor had been faster or had started without pitocin, I might have been able to make it. But, the pitocin makes the contractions come faster and harder than they normally would and it was just too much. I knew I was making progress and feared that once I really started going, I wouldn’t have time for an epidural. So, I let the nurse call the anesthesiologist. At 11:45, I got my epidural and was checked again, still 4-5 cm and 90%. The epidural brought relief within just minutes and I was able to relax a bit. The nurse told me to let her know if I started feeling pressure. The epidural takes away the pain and sometimes the sensation of the contractions. What I did feel felt like Braxton-Hicks contractions again. She certainly didn’t want me to ignore the pressure, though, since that usually indicates a need or readiness to push. During this time, we let the boys and everyone come back in for a visit since I was no longer in pain. They stayed in for a while and it was nice to be able to interact with my kids without being in pain. At 12:45, my OB came back in to check on me again and this time, I was 5-6 cm, still 90% effaced and the baby was around 0 to +1 station. So, definite progress had been made!!! I was able to nap a bit, too, and get a little rest. I’d been up since 4:15 and needless to say, didn’t get a lot of sleep prior to 4:15! Just after 1 pm, I had a contraction and felt pressure. I decided to wait and see if it happened again before I said anything. In just a couple of minutes, I felt it again and knew I needed to let the nurse know. So, I said, “I know it’s only been 25 minutes since she checked me, but I’m feeling pressure.” At 1:10 p.m., the nurse checked me and I was 9 ½ cm, completely effaced!!! I told you I go quickly when it finally starts!! So, I got Adam to bring the boys in one more time for one last kiss and hug while I was still pregnant. I told them that the next time they saw me, their baby brother would be here. The nurse got the room completely set up with all the delivery tools and sterile equipment. She made sure that Adam had everything he needed (cameras, etc.) on his side of the room because once she had everything sterile out, she didn’t want him to have to go through it. It took a few minutes to get everything ready and she said she’d check me again at 1:30. She did and this time, I was complete and ready to deliver!! She called my OB to come down to our room. The boys told me later that my OB went running through the halls to get to my room. She came in, suited up and we could already see the baby’s head! She asked if I felt the need to push and I said yes, so with the next contraction I pushed. He would have been born with that contraction, but I needed a small episiotomy to keep from tearing. So, she made one very small incision and with the next contraction, I pushed and he was born at 1:41 p.m.!! I never thought it would only take pushing through two contractions for him to be born, but it did. We had a mirror set up so that I could watch his birth and it’s still amazing, even after 4 children! As soon as his mouth was suctioned out, he was placed on my chest and we got to help dry him and warm him. Our nurse even finished suctioning him right there. My OB had given him to me so quickly that he still had a bit of fluid that he needed to get rid of. He laid there with me for quite a while because there wasn’t even a nursery team in our room yet. The L&D department was very busy that day and we had to wait a while for them to come in. That was okay with me, though. I got to just hold him and watch him for a long time. Our L&D nurse did eventually take him to the warmer and wrap him in dry blankets and weigh him. He weighed in at a healthy 7 pounds, 14 ounces. Adam also let me know then that the name Anthony Joel was fine with him. Up until this point, we still weren’t sure what we were naming this baby! I had picked out Anthony Joel and Adam had been telling me he wasn’t too crazy about the name Joel, so I had chosen Anthony Luke as an alternative. He told me then, though, that he’d just been giving me a hard time and Anthony Joel it was. After I was all cleaned up and presentable, Adam brought the boys in to meet their little brother. They were all amazed at how small he was and that he was finally here. After a little while, we let everyone else in, too. We had 3 sets of grandparents, 2 sets of aunts, uncles and cousins and my very good friend Cayce. Everyone oohed and aahed over Anthony for a while before the nursery nurse got there to finish cleaning and measuring him. By the way, his Apgar scores had been 8 and 9, so that was good to hear, too. The nurse finished his assessment and measured him – 20 ½ inches long with a 14 inch head circumference. He got his first bath and we let the boys stay in the room to watch. Then, he was given back to me and we got to get to know each other a little more. Around 4 p.m., I was moved up to my hospital room. Of course, we had a gaggle of family members waiting for us to get settled in so that they could pass the baby around. We hadn’t passed him around in the L&D room, just let everyone admire him from our arms. But, once we were upstairs and everything was set, everyone got a chance to hold him. After a long day of waiting, Gigi finally took the boys home around 5 pm and everyone else started dispersing then as well. I’m so proud of how well the boys did with such a long day at the hospital and not being sure of what all was going on. They were so good, though, and everyone talked about how well they did, even when they weren’t in my room. So, that’s the story of Anthony’s birth, hope you’ve enjoyed reading!