Journey to Addition: Ethan Gabriel's Birth Story

Yes, I know I suck at blogging. I was doing really well with this blog, but then I just tossed it aside. My apologies for that. However, Ethan is now here and has been for over 2 weeks now. Below is his birth story to the best of my recollection. It's a bit long and a ramble. Up until the day I delivered I had bouts of rhythmic contractions that would go on for hours and then stop, this lasted about a week or so...

Ethan Gabriel was born on Monday, July 23rd at 7:28PM weighing 7lbs 12 oz and 21.3 inches long at 38.2 weeks gestation.

Ok so lets see. As stated above my contractions were on and off all weekend. I would contract for hours on Saturday and Sunday then stall out for hours. On Sunday we walked and ran some errands after the first stall out of the day. The more I walked the closer they got and more pressure I felt down below. I noticed that when I swayed side to side I would feel more pressure. So I did that for some time too. Later that night I felt a strange pain down there. It was like a pop, stretch and poke all at once. I went to the bathroom and that's when I noticed I was losing the rest of my plug. Let me tell you that feeling was a first and very strange one to feel. I thought and hoped that it was my water breaking, but no such luck. Sunday night I thought was going to be the night, but I wanted to be sure since I didn't live close to the hospital. No need to be sent home when I live about 30 mins away. So I waited it out and was able to fall asleep.

Monday morning came and the contractions were getting closer. Ranging anywhere from 5-8 mins apart or less. They weren't that painful but hurt enough for me to know they were legit. I still waited a bit to be sure since DH had an important meeting that day. By the time he was done with his shower, I knew it was time to go to the hospital. I took my own shower ate a bagel, waited for him and T to be fully ready and around 8:30AM we left. Unfortunately, that is also rush hour traffic so we were stuck in that for about 45 mins.

Once we get to L&D it was now closer to 9:30AM. It took them a bit to get me registered, another person was in there ahead of me. I get registered by 10:00AM and get sent back to triage. They have me undress put on those stupid monitors, check my blood pressure and do all that "good" stuff. I was contracting pretty regularly but when I was checked I was still only 1 cm dilated, -2 station and just started effacing, I want to say I was about 30%. I truly don't recall the numbers for effacement. I was worried I was going to be sent home, but my blood pressure had them worried and they wanted to monitor that for a bit. A few minutes go by and they recheck my blood pressure, still really high. So OB thinks it's either hypertension or pre-eclampcia. This is where they draw my labs and stick an iv in my hand. They told me what was going on and I kinda felt defeated. I honestly was afraid that they were going to want to do a c-section once I heard they suspected pre-eclampcia. Sometime around then I was asked if I wanted to deliver or go home, which I thought was an odd question since umm yeah I want to deliver I am contracting pretty regularly after all. Now, with hindsight, I think it was more of a rhetorical question. The ob on call, who was my regular ob's partner, told me they were going to treat me like I had pre-eclampcia since they were pretty sure I had it considering my swelling, high blood pressure and +2 protein in my urine. She said the only cure is delivery and that they were going to induce with pitocin.

I'm taken back to the labor room all the while T is looking around all amazed by what's going on. Hearing the heart beat and watching the print out of my contractions really had her fascinated. The nurse got a kick out of me saying birth control to T every few minutes. Every time she looked at something and commented, I responded with birth control. lol I think I got my point across. lol The nurse hooks me up to the monitors again and goes to get the iv fluids, pitocin, and magnesium. By 10:30 or so they began the induction. Kev didn't even realize that they started inducing. He could have sworn that they had only given me the iv fluids and magnesium. I informed him that the pitocin was in already and had been in for a bit now. Poor man can be so clueless at times. Time goes by and we start to get hungry. Kev asks the nurse if I can eat and she tells us no because of the side effects of the magnesium. I wanted to cry at this point since all I had was a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. Had I known I would have had a bigger breakfast. Around 1PM Kev takes T to get some lunch and I'm left alone watching some TV.

The nurse and resident doc inform me they want to check me and break my water. This is where I told them no one was doing anything like breaking my water until I get the epidural. (I'm not sure if this happened before Kev and T went to lunch or after.) Anyways, I was forced to wait because something was a bit off with my labs and the doc needed to talk to me. This is where I text Kev to get back. They return a bit after that text and I'm still waiting to hear from the doc. Nurse goes on lunch and another nurse takes her place. I'm left to wait some more. They finally track down the doc and yes, my labs were a bit off, but not off enough to not allow the epidural.

So now I'm waiting on anesthesia to come and place the epidural. The anesthesiologist shows up and begins to prep. Which feels like it takes forever. He finds what he believes is a suitable spot for placement and call another anesthesiologist in to oversee everything. The hospital I'm at is a teaching one so there is always another person there to oversee things. The guy sticks me and he stuck the wrong place. That freaking hurt! I have back issues as is and what he thought was a pocket was actually my messed up bone. On top of that I was already sore from labor and him pressing the freaking spot like crazy while waiting for the other doc. I have to say I had an awesome replacement nurse coach me through the placement. So now I get stuck a second time on a higher spot on my spine. This one bothered but didn't kill me like the first failed jab. By 3:30PM the epidural is in and the doc gives me a boost of meds, instructs me on how I can press this button x amount of time in a hour to get more boosts of the epidural.

I'm checked and my bag is attempted to get broken. The resident has a hard time breaking my water so the OB needs to do it. She gets that done and ask the resident where she thought I was at. Resident declares I was at 3cm and 70% effaced. OB agreed with cm but not effacement, she put me more at 50%. Around 4:30PM I was checked again and I effaced some more and dilated to 4cm. Things seemed to be moving faster now. By 6PM I was finally at 100% effacement, -1 station and 8cm dilated and getting tons of pressure. By 7PM I was almost at a full 10cm but had a lip hanging on that didn't want to move. The OB asked me to start pushing anyway and see what happens. What she didn't know that with each contraction I started pushing a bit since it was the only thing that relieved the pressure. I begin pushing with Kev helping by holding my foot while I have my hands around my thighs and T is feeding me ice chips and also pushing the magic epidural button for me every 6-10 mins.

Getting Ethan to crown was a pain, he decided it was time to play peek a boo. Kev declared he saw a head full of hair so I asked if I crowned and he said no he went back in. This kept up for a few mins until I found the strength to push really hard. I have to admit the ob, resident, and nurse were really good at coaching and telling me I was doing good with pushing. I felt like I wasn't and they were kinda annoying me. I still appreciated the coaching though. I just had a hard time cause my asthma makes it hard for me to hold my breath and push. I finally get Ethan to crown and now I have to push him out. I pushed about 5 times according to Kev and by 7:28PM he gets delivered and placed on my belly. I look over at T and Kev and T is in tears. Seeing her cry made me start to tear up. I'm not a crier at deliveries. I'm more of an in awe type person. They let the placenta pulse some then clamped, I would have liked for them to allow it to stop completely before clamping. The resident claims they did and that is did stop pulsating, but I didn't buy it and still don't. They ask Kev if he wanted to cut the cord and he refuses just like last time. He tried to get T to cut but she was to teary to even try so the doc cuts it.

They take him after a bit to get him checked out and stitch me up, I tore some when he crowned. They yell out his weight and APGAR scores, which were 9/9, took his foot prints and asked Kev if he had a shirt to put prints on. This is where he kicked himself cause he forgot a shirt and considered buying one while out to lunch but didn't. I get Ethan handed back to me and I try to nurse. I was having a hard time getting him to latch, started feeling like a failure and couldn't decide if I wanted to nurse or bottle feed. I really didn't want to stress him or myself out by not being able to provide. I must have changed my mind about 3 times. I think I drove the poor nurse nuts.

While I'm waiting for my room to be ready they inform me about the mag and how I need to be on it for 24hours after delivery, this means no food until then. Just clear liquids. OMG the torture! By 11PM I was in my room, Ethan was in the nursery getting his bath and being fed some formula. They finally bring him into the room and tell me he didn't really eat. That he only took a bit of formula and then spit up some phlegm. The nurse said that I should try to get him to breast feed and knowing how he reacted to the formula gave me the incentive to keep on trying. I'm glad I did since he's nursing pretty well 17 later and hasn't lost any weight since being discharged. I actually weighed the both of us recently and I do believe he put on a pound or two. He's definitely over 8 pounds for sure.

Well, that's my long drawn out rambling birth story. Sorry it took me a while to get up, but hey it's my blog and I blog when I want to. ;)

Meet Ethan