our little man

11.16.2006

birth story

on tuesday morning, we were scheduled to be at the hospital at 6:00 to start our induction. adam and i had dropped sophie off at chris and paul's house the night before, so we planned a nice relaxing evening and the hope of a good night's sleep before heading to the hospital. just as we were getting home, i realized that the contractions i'd been having off and on all day were coming pretty close together. while we sat and ate dinner, we timed contractions and found that they were coming nearly every three minutes and lasting just about a minute. they were very mild though and weren't getting uncomfortable. i decided to take a shower to relax before bed and adam made a quick call into labor and delivery just to check in with them, as we'd been told to come back in if anything started up overnight. the nurse adam spoke with said that we could come back to the hospital if we wanted, but as long as i was comfortable and could sleep through the contractions, we could stay home and try to get some sleep before coming back in the morning. i was feeling fine and wanted to get a good night of sleep in if i could, so we decided to just go to bed. as i'd predicted, the contractions did slow down a bit once i was really relaxed and i had no problem sleeping through them. however, i did end up getting up even before the alarm went off just because i was so anxious! it was exciting to think that even though we had agreed to the induction, little ben seemed to be ready and probably would have been on his way anyhow.

after getting up, showering, and gathering our last few things, we loaded the bags into the car and headed to the hospital. we got there just before 6:00am, checked in and were sent right up to the birthing suite. i got changed and hooked up to the monitors. the nurse tried to get my iv put in, but missed the vein - the shift change was just about to happen, so she decided to let the next nurse try instead of doing it again herself. (the nurse who was with us throughout the labor and delivery, janie, was absolutely fantastic - very informative and supportive... we loved her.) while we were waiting, someone from the lab came and drew some blood for my admission blood work, and then the nurse tried her hand at my iv. she actually missed on her first attempt, too, but she got it in fine the second time. i wasn't thrilled with all of the extra poking, but it was over and done with fairly quickly. the iv was in at 6:45 and at that point the nurse started the bag of fluids and the pitocin. the nurse had also done an internal exam and i was still at 5 centimeters - the same as the appointment the day before. adam and i got up and walked the halls for a little bit and when dr o'hare checked me at 7:45, i was up to 6 centimeters. it was nice to see that some progress was happening.

my mom and brianna arrived at the hospital right about that time. for a few hours it was all pretty relaxed; we all talked while i walked around the room and tried to get the baby to move down a bit more. his head was still kind of high (-2 station) when the doctor checked me, so she didn't feel ready to rupture my membranes yet. i knew things would speed up after that, so i was eager to do what i could to get him to move down. hoping gravity would help a bit, i stayed out of bed and just kept moving. by 9:30 when the doctor checked me again, ben's head was low enough for her to rupture my membranes. we were all expecting a lot of fluid to come out, but because of his positioning, there actually wasn't that much at first. i was warned that it would come out eventually, though, and sure enough while we were sitting and talking there was a huge gush of fluid. my mom went to find the nurse and we all laughed about just how much there was. in fact, the nurse took the opportunity to check me again while she was there, and when she did that (it was now 9:50 and i was at 7 centimeters) there was even more gushing. we knew from the ultrasound that there was excess fluid, but this was far more than i expected, and i think more than the nurse expected, too.

by this point, the contractions were getting more consistent - between 2 and 3 minutes apart - and more uncomfortable. still nothing i would consider painful, but definitely changing. by 10:50 when the doctor came back for another check, i was still at 7 centimeters, but now about 90% effaced, which meant that the cervix was almost all the way shortened and thinned out. once that was complete, the nurse said that the rest of the dilation would happen quickly. at this point, i was standing and using the bed to lean against and was needing to close my eyes and concentrate on my breathing to get through the contractions. i could tolerate the pain, but it was certainly getting a lot stronger.

at 11:15 the nurse checked me again and i was at 8 centimeters. the baby's head was turned slightly and preventing him to move further down and finish out the effacement and dilation. the nurse encouraged me to switch positions again, this time to all fours in the bed, to help move his head a bit. i stayed this way for probably a bit over a half an hour, and this is when i got a lot more uncomfortable. i was having to really focus to get through each contraction and the pain was very intense. because of the pitocin, the contractions were coming right on top of each other. i was getting maybe 30 seconds in between to rest, which seemed like barely enough time to collect myself and prepare for another one. i pretty much stopped talking to everyone at this point and just concentrated on what my body was doing.

i had thought when i made it to 8 cenimeters without any kind of pain medication, i would be able to make it the rest of the way through. but at this point, i started to doubt myself and wanted to know if there was still time to receive an intrathecal. adam went to ask the nurse, and she came back in and told me that she was going to check me once more to see how close i was to being able to push. she knew that i had wanted to make it through the delivery med-free, and she was more than willing to call the anesthesiologist for me but wanted me to have all the information before i made my decision. i really appreciated that she helped me keep things in perspective at that time. she checked me again and said that i was nearly complete but that there was still a "lip" of cervix covering the edges of ben's head and that needed to be pushed back before i'd be ready to deliver. she asked if i wanted to try a few practice pushes and see if she could help me move that bit of cervix out of the way. if it didn't work, she'd call and order the intrathecal for me, but if it worked, i'd be ready to start pushing.

i pushed through the next couple of contractions and that was enough to move ben past that last bit of cervix and i was complete and ready to deliver! i started pushing for real a bit after noon, and the baby was about ready to crown when the doctor came in... i knew we were really close at that point. i pushed through a few more contractions with both the doctor and the nurse there, and then his head was on its way out. the hardest part might have been when his head was out and i had to wait and breathe through the contractions while they suctioned him - the pressure was so intense and i was so anxious for relief, it was hard not to push. but it was just a matter of seconds before i was able to push out the rest of his body and our little boy was here! he made his grand entrance into the world at 12:42 pm, after not quite 6 hours of labor.

he was so beautiful. perfect from the very first moment. his apgar scores were 8 and 9, which is great. while the doctor delivered the placenta and checked me all out (no tears, which meant no stitches - i admit i was a bit worried about needing stitches when i hadn't gotten any pain meds), the doctor and nurse remarked on his size. we were all expecting a baby bigger than sophie had been, but according to the ultrasound, ben was measuring right about average... so we didn't think he'd be this big. the nurse guessed that he was over 9 pounds. i held him for awhile and we all marveled over him, but then i let the nurse take him to be cleaned up. she weighed him and he was actually 9 pounds and 15 ounces! exactly three pounds bigger than sophie had been. i could not believe it! and he measured 23 inches long. he's a big boy, that's for sure. between his size and all of that extra fluid, its no wonder i was feeling so uncomfortable and over-stretched by the end!

the entire experience was just incredible. even though i ended up with the induction, everything else about the labor and delivery went smoothly and just as i'd hoped. knowing that it was our last baby, it was nice to have the experience we wanted. we are beside ourselves with pride for our handsome little man and are loving having our little family of four.

posted at 5:24 PM by aimee // 1 comments