40 weeks… birth story…

So I never got the chance to take a 40 week photo because on the day I hit 40 weeks, I was delivering our little man Jacob Michael! He joined our little family on November 2nd (exactly on time) at 11:16 am, weighing in at 7lb 15oz (WAY smaller than predicted), 21 1/4 in long. He is a tiny little guy with ridiculously long arms and legs and massively large feet! He has been an absolute blessing in our lives since the minute he entered this world!

I was able to write out a birth story.. which is VERY in depth. So here goes!

I woke up around 5am on November 1^st with a pretty strong pain in my lower abdomen that had me doubled over in bed. I brushed it off and tried going back to bed. I woke up 15 minutes later with the same pain. This time it ended up waking Gage up and I asked him what time it was and told him about the pain. Gage got up to get ready for work 15 minutes later and I proceeded to lay in bed having these lower abdominal pains randomly. I couldn’t sleep, so I got out of bed and went downstairs to get a bowl of cereal and some warm orange juice (my dad was told by my Aunt Kate that warm orange juice would cause labor). So I was desperate to try anything at that point and said what the heck. I came back upstairs, got in bed and ate my breakfast. However, the pains were making it so I couldn’t sit. So I got out of bed and paced back and forth. I went into the bathroom and told Gage about the random contractions I was having, then went back to the bedroom and kept pacing. Gage was getting dressed for work and with a serious face looked at me and said, “Why can’t your water just break so that I don’t have to go to work?”

After Gage left for work I decided to get in the shower. After I got out of the shower I started timing the contractions and they were pretty consistently 4 minutes apart from 7:40-9:40am. I had an appointment with my midwife scheduled for 10am and was worried about driving myself there while having contractions. My mom decided she would come home from work and take me to my appointment. I decided to go to the bathroom right before we left and noticed some blood when I wiped.

We went to my appointment and when the nurse asked me how I was doing today, I said “Umm, I think I’m in labor.” So she told me to get undressed and she would let Donna (my midwife) know. Donna came in, asked me about my contractions and then checked my cervix. She said I was 2cm and 80-90% effaced, but the baby was still pretty high. So she told me to go walk around the mall until 2pm and then return to get checked again. My mom and I took off for the mall and started walking. The intensity of contractions was increasing and I started having to stop walking during some of them. I noticed that my back was also starting to hurt really bad. After about 2.5 hours we left the mall and went to my mom’s work. She returned e-mails while I tried to quietly get through contractions. I was having to alternate positions and was grimacing from the back pain. 2pm finally rolled around and we returned to the office. Donna checked my cervix again and there was no change. I told her how intense my contractions had gotten and she asked me if I wanted to go into L&D or go home. I told her that I would like to go in. She called over to the hospital and they recommended that I go walk some more since I hadn’t made any change. So we left the office and went to my parents’ house.

For the next 4 hours my contractions became increasingly intense and I was doubled over from the back pain. I took a bath which seemed to make the contractions go away and space out for a while, but towards the end the pain was back full force. I had to keep changing positions and ended up on my hands and knees on the floor to get the pain off my back. It was adorable because Makayla, my niece, kept coming over and trying to play with me. She got down on her hands and knees, turned her head to look up under at me and said “Hi!” Then she would run and grab a pillow and try to lay on the floor with me. At this point I was in tears from the pain. I was completely miserable and couldn’t get the pain to stop. At 6pm Gage got off work and headed to our house to switch vehicles and change. At this point I decided enough was enough and that we were going to go in to L&D when he got back. I yet again went to the bathroom before leaving and there was a little bit of mucus when I wiped. So I wiped again and there was a MASSIVE amount of mucus. So we left for the hospital.

We got to ER triage and they took us back right away to the admissions area. They went over my insurance information and then called up to L&D to send a wheelchair. We were taken up to a triage room at 8pm where they hooked me up to the monitors and checked my cervix. The nurse, Traci, said I was 2-3cm and 80-90% effaced. She let the on-call doctor know and they decided they would give me some morphine and see if that helped me relax enough to dilate. At 9pm I received 12mg morphine and 25mg phenergan as a shot in my hip. I sat there thinking about how much this was going to knock me out. This just seemed like an absurd amount of medication to give someone. I was worried because she told me that we would give it an hour and that if I made any change that they would probably admit me. However, if I was comfortable and asleep, they would go ahead and discharge me home to dilate more. For the next hour I paced back and forth in the room and couldn’t really feel any relief from the pain. I sat on the exercise ball and tried to make my way through the contractions. I had a few that I could get through on my own, but the majority of them I would start them and then say “I need you!” to Gage and he would press his forearms on my lower back to relieve the pain. 10pm rolled around and I told Gage, “They’re going to send me home. I hope they get sidetracked. Please don’t let them come in!” Traci came in to check on me and was surprised to see me standing next to the bed. She figured I would be asleep. She told me the doctor was in a delivery and that she would be in a short while later to check me.

At 11pm the doctor finally came in, checked me, and I was 4-5cm and “thinned out”. Then she said the best thing I had ever heard. We were being admitted! So after that they moved us over to one of the labor rooms. We went over some paperwork with the nurse and then she asked me about my plans for pain meds. I said that I would probably want them after a while and she said to let her know when it gets to that point because it would take a while to get the fluid bolus in. At around 12:30am my contractions had gotten so awful I could barely stand. Being in bed during them was definitely NOT an option. So I hit my call light and let her know that I was ready. She went and got the IV supplies and on the 3^rd attempt my IV was in and my bolus was hanging. All I remember was Gage keeping me updated on the progress of the IV fluids letting me know when we were down another 100cc. After the fluids were in the anesthesiologist came in and I remember sitting there worried that I wouldn’t be able to stay still enough for them to get it done. Honestly, the epidural was probably the easiest part of the whole process. It went in quick and painlessly while everyone in the room talked about what was on TV.

After the epidural was placed, I was able to get some rest. They came back at 2:30am to check me and I was 5cm, 90% effaced and -2 station. I started to get so comfortable that my contractions started to space way far apart and got weaker, so they started a pitocin drip. At 5am they checked me again and I was 6cm, 90% and still -2 station. The doctor decided to rupture my membranes at this time. After they ruptured my membranes, my contractions started to get stronger and by 6:45am I was uncomfortable and they had to give me the button to press to get more pain meds on demand. They told me to hit it 3 times and if I still don’t get pain relief, to let them know. I didn’t get much relief, so they called anesthesia and they came and gave me a bolus. After that, all I remember was my legs going completely numb and I felt like I didn’t have legs. I kept saying, “I’m just too numb!” Luckily this allowed me to get some rest. I woke up at around 9am because I was starting to feel the contractions again. I hit my call light to ask the nurse if I could roll to my other side and to tell her that I was getting uncomfortable again. She started to help me roll over and noticed that I had pooped a little and decided she should probably check me while we were rolling. She said I was fully dilated and could see the top of his head. So I immediately called my mom who had gone to her meeting at work and was going to McDonalds on her way back to get food for Gage. I told her, “Don’t bother stopping. I’m fully dilated. We’re ready to push.” Then I immediately texted Keren (birth photographer) and told her that she better head over to the hospital and that I was ready to go. Donna, my midwife had just come on shift at 7am and came in after hearing the news and asked me if I was ready to start pushing. I told her that I was waiting for my mom and Keren and she said we could go ahead and labor down for a while until they got there. Of course, I started to feel the contractions pretty bad in my lower back and had to start hitting the pain button again. After my mom arrived all I remember was clinging to the side railing of the bed begging people to keep hitting the button to see if it was time for more meds. The nurse kept coming back in to see if I was ready to push and I kept stalling until Keren arrived. At that point I was a wreck and was totally devastated that she wouldn’t arrive in time and that we wouldn’t have photos of our little man’s birth. So I kept having Gage text her to get updates on her whereabouts. At 9:50 Donna and the nurse came in together to see if I was ready. I said, “She’s not here yet! Give it 5 more minutes and then we’ll push.” Luckily Keren showed up in the nick of time and Donna and the nurse trailed in behind her.

At 10am we started pushing. Fast forward past lots of breath holding, pushing, pushing again, pushing harder. Everyone kept talking about all of the long dark hair that he had. After a few more pushes, Donna mentioned that I had a tight vaginal band that was preventing Jacob from dropping so she asked if I would be ok with an episiotomy and I said, “At this point, I don’t care!” So she made a little cut. After a few more pushes my mom said to me, “Have you looked down?” And I said, “I cant… [looks down].. oh!” As I was trying to say that there was no way I would be able to see anything, I looked down and noticed the top of his little head sticking out. A few more pushes later, our little man was born at 11:16am. Right after he came out, Donna exclaimed, “he has a true knot!” (his umbilical cord was completely knotted). Then she took him down and cut his cord as fast as possible. She then asked who wanted to cut the cord and Gage tried to say no, but I begged him to do it anyway and he did. Then they put our little guy up on my chest and my world was changed forever. As he was on my chest being dried off, I looked over at Gage and said, “He’s not that big! He’s so not that big!” (they told me that based on ultrasound that he was going to be 9+ pounds). Our little man ended up being 7lb 15oz, 21 ¼ in tall and with a 13 ¾ in head. He is amazing and wonderful and I wouldn’t trade him for the world! So far he looks like he has Gage’s nose and my mouth. Other than that, we’re not really sure who he looks like just yet.