Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Eli's Birth Story



Wow. I am a mom now. Talk about a revelation. Saturday March 3, 2012 at 9:25 pm God gave us a beautiful baby boy! I just wanted to share the story of how he came into the world, so here it goes...

We checked into the hospital Friday night at 7, the nurses monitored him for about 30 minutes and then started me on cervidale. It is a medicine that helps prep the cervix for labor. The nurses told me that it normally took 1 hr for contractions to start and that some people never get contractions with that medicine, but the most important thing was not to move...at all... for 2 hours. No rolling over, no getting to go to the bathroom, no nothing. They placed a wedge under one hip to keep me from laying flat on back, and the adventure started! I got contractions 15 minutes into it. They were registering pretty strong on the monitor and after an hour they were only about a minute apart. Have no fear there was no dilation, just lots of fun contractions. It was a miserable 2 hours. After the 2 hours was up I could get up and use the restroom Ryan ran down to the subway and got me a sandwich (which I only ate 2 bites of) and I got some sleep meds and anti-nausea. I still couldn't sleep because the contractions were so strong. I broke down and got some pain meds about an hour later. I got some sleep somewhere after midnight. Poor Ryan didn't sleep much.

About 8 am the dr came in and took out the cervidale and started the pitocin. He also broke my water. After that the contractions (the ones that actually do something) started around 10 am. Everyone encouraged me to go ahead and get the epidural because we had no way of knowing how quickly it would go from there. The dr came into to administer the epidural around noon and promised it would not wear off. Around 2:30 I was at 4 cm and feeling good! About 5:30 I started running a fever, I had developed an infection because my water had been broken for so long. The dr and nurses carefully monitored the babies heart rate to make sure the fever was not bothering him . About 6 my epidural wore completely off on my right side. We got the dr back in there by 6:30 and I felt better. By 7:30 I was ready to push but the babies head wasn't low enough so I was sat straight up to let gravity do it's job. By 8 it was time to push, and the epidural had worn off on the right side... AGAIN! DANG! DANG! DANG!

I pushed for 1 hour and 25 minutes. I looked at Ryan several times and said I can't do this! At one point I even asked the dr to just PULL HIM OUT! My sweet husband and mom tried to encourage me by saying "I can see his hair! It's dark and curly!" I responded with "I don't care if he is bald, just get him out!!!" I didn't have the energy to yell at anyone though. It was more pathetic whines. It turned out he was facing my right hip so he was trying to get the widest part of his head through. OUCH! The dr had to go in and help him tuck his head and get out. OUCH AGAIN!

Now everyone says "When they lay the baby on your chest you will forget all the pain, you will experience love like you've never know." THEY LIED! For me when they laid him on my chest I loved him yes, but not like that. Not an overwhelming love. In fact I was still in so much pain I was thinking more about that than anything else. He looked like any newborn all red and squishy and he wasn't the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I know, I'm horrible. But I think it's important to be honest. I felt horrible. I felt like I wasn't going to be a good mom, shouldn't I have all those feelings? What is wrong with me?

The took him over and got him cleaned up and brought him back. Ahhh much better. Now he looked cute. But still no overwhelming love, love oh yes, but not the kind you hear about. I was shaking horribly. Our AMAZING nurse (seriously, if Eli had been a girl I would have named him after her.... she was amazing) suggested placing the baby on my chest. We were letting everyone else hold him, she said "no, trust me it's the only thing that will make it stop." She placed him back on my chest and soon after my shakes stopped. I tried to eat, that didn't work out well.

We got moved us to postpartum around 11:30. I was in so much pain. I was so tired. He seemed to nurse well though. Ryan got some sleep. We had him in the nursery that night, they brought him to us for feedings and then we sent him back so we could get some sleep.

I have lots more to post about the next day in the hospital but this post is long enough so I'll post that on another day! :)

1 comment:

  1. Wow, sounds like it wasn't the easiest way to give birth. I'm sorry it was like that. Doofus Dr. breaking your water so early and anesthetist for not getting the epidural right. I've heard from several folks that inductions are often difficult. But you have a beautiful baby boy and you have a few years before he becomes a teenager. ENJOY him NOW.

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