My Labor Story

This is a record mostly for myself, but feel free to read if you are at all interested. Everything is already starting to blur, so I will do my best to recap the important details.

Friday morning around 4:30, a painful contraction woke me up. They kept coming faster and more intense so around 10:00am I started to time them while I painted the guest bedroom. They were about 5-10 minutes apart, and aprox. 30 seconds long.

When Matt arrived home that night they were lasting much longer and getting closer together, so we decided to head into Triage to see if I was progressing.

After a few hours on the monitors, the results were that I was having good strong contractions, but that they were not in a set pattern yet. Some of them were 10 minutes apart, some of them 2. The baby's heart rate was also a small concern. It showed that he wasn't dealing well with the contractions, and there was a small drop in rate after a few contractions. So the nurse called the Dr who decided he wasn't that concerned and sent me home.

That night I woke up every 2 minutes to a contraction and tried my best to breathe through them. I tried my best not to wake Matt up, but I couldn't help but moan in pain. So by the time the morning rolled around we were both very tired.

My mom decided that she was going to come up and take me to the hospital and I quote "bash some heads together." She didn't believe they should have sent me home and by this time my contractions were very painful and I couldn't talk through most of them. I took a shower before heading out and lost my mucus plug. I was convinced I was progressing well, so we headed back into Triage, this time with our bags in tow.

After hours and hours in Triage, and the news that I was only 1 cm dilated, the nurse checked my chart and the monitor records. She offered to send me home on morphine so that I could sleep better, but something told me that I needed to stay in the hospital.

Not long after this, the nurse came back into the room and said that she felt I should be induced because my cervix was not dilating on its own, and the baby was very stressed by this time. (By now it was around 6pm) So she called the Dr and convinced him to induce me. Here I am feeling pretty hot in my hospital gown.

I was admitted into the hospital around 7pm, and they hooked me up to the Pitocin. My contractions became VERY painful, and extremely close together (some of them a minute apart) and by now I was exhausted from being awake and in pain for a good 36 hours. This is a shot of me during a contraction without any drugs. I look pretty happy right?I was having trouble catching my breath between contractions, so I did the un-imaginable and asked for an epidural.

Being absolutely terrified of needles, this was a hard decision to make, but I am so thankful I worked up the courage to do so. By the time the anesthesiologist came to administer the epidural, I was 5 cm dilated. Here I am after the drugs.

Once the pain had subsided, I was able to fall asleep until I woke up to vomit cranberry juice and jello, and experience my water breaking. (Weirdest feeling ever.) Here is my support group (minus Matt) that helped me through the labor. My parents, and Shannon and Bridget. They were there until Sam was born.

At 2am, the nurse came in, examined me and made the announcement that I was 10cm dilated, and 100% effaced. It was time to start pushing.

I had 2 nurses walk me through the delivery, and both of them were very beneficial to me. Matt held my left leg and my mom supported my right and together we pushed that baby out! I had pushed for 2 hours by the time the Dr was called in to do a vacuum extraction on Sam since I was so worn out. When he arrived he said "No way do you need my help, you're doing great on your own" and about 10 pushes later, Samuel Benjamin was born.

Matt, Sam and Dr. VoldThere was muconium found in the amniotic fluid, so when Sam's head was out far enough, they stuck tubes down into his lungs to suction out all the gunk before he took a breath. Then right after he was out he was rushed to the table where they continued to clear his airways and stomach.

Matt stayed with Sam while I was cleaned up and attended to. I thought that he was beautiful right off the bat regardless of his purple skin and cone head. I loved seeing Matt be able to bond with him, and we are thankful now that he had some time to spend with him before he was taken down to the NICU.

As if I havent said it enough, we are so thankful for this miracle. Many women talk about how they have to forget about some things before they even think about having another baby again, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. We are so in love, and it was such a rewarding experience.