Thursday, May 23

The Birth Story

I figured since Charlie is almost 2 months old, I should document his birth story before I forget it (shame on me). He was born on March 30th, and his arrival was perfection. Honestly, it was my favorite labor and delivery to date. Friday night we had Heather and Allen over for a "let's live it up while we still can before the baby gets here" party. We stayed up till 1:30 am playing on the wii. I had a couple big contractions, but nothing regular or anything to indicate labor was approaching. Then at about 3 I woke up with some more intense contractions. I willed myself back to sleep.  By 4:30, the contractions had woken me up to a point that I couldn't go back to sleep, and they were 10 minutes apart. I got out of bed and took a shower, packed my bag, packed the boys' bags, did my hair and makeup (super important), and wandered aimlessly around the house. By 6:30, the contractions were 5-6 minutes apart, so I woke up Sam and we called Allen to come back over and watch the boys so we could go to the hospital. At this point, Sam and I realized we hadn't installed the infant car seat, so we pulled it out of storage and put it in the tub to wash it. Yeah, we were super prepared. Anyway, by the time we left the house at 8 am, my contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart and painful. We parked the car and started walking, suddenly aware we had no idea where to go (remember how I said  we were prepared?). We got lost a couple times, but a very nice janitor finally sent us in the right direction (seriously, what kind of hospital doesn't have signage to lead you to the l&d unit?).

We got all checked in and admitted by 8:30. I was at 5cm. The waiting game began.

By 11 I was in a lot of pain and the 2 hours of sleep night was starting to catch up to me. I told Sam I didn't know how much longer I'd last. I had iv's so I couldn't walk around, and the hospital had somehow misplaced the birthing balls. It was frustrating to say the least. I was so tired that my body was reacting poorly to the pain. I was shaking pretty badly and the longer it went on, the worse it got. I started having mini full body convulsions. I was miserable, but in hindsight it really wasn't that bad. I recognize I was just tired. My nurse said it was shock. My system was tired and shutting down from the stress and pain of labor. Weird, I didn't know that could happen. I'd heard of epidural shakes, but not labor shakes. Anyway, by noon I was miserable, tired, and in pain. Then my dr came in and told me that based on the ultrasound, he thought the baby would be around 9 + pounds. That was what did it for me. I got scared. I didn't think I would be able to push out a 9+ pound baby with as tired as my body and I both were. So I caved and got the epidural at 12:30 and at 8 cm. I still regret that decision, but boy did it feel good. At 2 I started pushing. Charlie was born at 2:08.

He was beautiful from the second I looked at him. All 8 lbs 11 oz of him. I kissed him all over before they took him away to weigh him. He was hungry and ate - from both sides!- when he was about 30 minutes old. I shoulda known then that he'd be a chunk.

He slept so well that first night, and for the most part, he has ever since. He is perfect. We love him so much it hurts. He's our good good good boy. We're so glad he's part of our family.

1 comment:

Nicole said...

Ha! Staying up late playing the wii--I guess that needs to go down in the books as a way to induce labor!! Don't regret not getting an epidural. Not for a second. Having done it both ways, I would choose epidural every. Single. time. I promise you made a good decision. Loved reading your experience! Can't wait to meet him!!