Part One of the "The Birth Story"

Where to begin...I guess just like do-ray-mi...I'll start at the very beginning. (I started this on Thursday!) My 11th Hour post starts the story...on October 1st we went in for our induction. We were both super happy with the nurses we had that night. We ended up spending almost an hour talking with Kim about her losses and our losses/journey. It sounded like her last loss has been fairly recent. I was amazed when she said holding a brand new baby really brought her back and made her feel like she could do her job despite all she had been through. J laughed at me though for spending so much time chatting...it was right after I had been given my Amb.ien to help me sleep. Oh well...I think we both knew we weren't getting a lot of sleep that night. Any time I needed to use the restroom J had to get up and unplug me. Plus the baby was not impressed with being monitored. It seemed like each time they got him on the monitor he moved. I think I had a nurse coming in to check the monitor every half hour. They told me they ended up taking turns doing it because it had to be done so often.

When I woke up the next morning the contractions had started. My idea of a natural drug-free labor went out the window after about 2 hours or so of contractions. All I can say is thank goodness for epidurals! The anesthesiologist was great...she was very friendly and did a great job explaining everything. There was a student nurse there as well observing. J had already made a joke with him about why it was better to be a male and I let him know that not having to get an epidural was another good reason to be a guy! Unfortunately, it took 2 tries to get the catheter in the right spot. Once it was in though, I felt oh so much better. My Mom got to the hospital at the same time I was getting the epidural...it was good to have her company again! I think my Mom's visit deserves it's own post. J and I both said multiple times (to each other and to my Mom) that we could not have done all that we did before the birth without her. It was just so good to have her visit for so long...she was with us for 2 full weeks.

Once the epidural had started and I got some relief from the pain I was feeling much better. The contractions were regular and I was dilating at a good rate. I think it was around 9:30am when we were told we most likely would meet our boy in the early afternoon. We did some practice pushing late morning and that went very well. I think it was sometime around 11:30 or noon when the real pushing began. Just before that my Mom left the room...she was fine being there for the practice but when everything started to get real she decided it was time to head to the waiting room. She said it was time for J and I to be alone (with the nurse and the 2 student nurses). Our labor nurse was great - we really lucked out. The nurse that came in at 7am was not exactly friendly and smiley - thankfully she ended up having a delivery and we had Elaine take over for us. Such a nice person!! The student nurses were great too - super friendly to all of us. It was sweet how they checked on my Mom as well while she was in the room with us.

We tried some pushing before things got funky. Things started to get a bit hectic when M did not enjoy my pushing during the contractions. His heart rate was not doing what it was supposed to once I was done pushing, so it was break time and back on the oxygen for me. We took about a 20 minute break. I am pretty sure Dr. W came to see me at this point. Once I had rested for a bit it seemed to help things. We were back to pushing. At this point J started DJ'ing the labor. :) It was good...he picked some great songs that really helped. Then time started to drag so the song selection started to change. We had the Emperor's March from Star Wars, Neil Diamond singing Sweet Caroline at Fenway after the Marathon bombings, the 1812 overture, Cookie Monster singing C is for Cookie and the absolute BEST song: Push It by Salt n Pepa...no one could keep a straight face during this! Elaine, our nurse laughed while trying to count for me, the student nurses laughed while holding my legs, I was laughing while trying to push and J laughed so hard he cried.

I am going to stop here for now...I leave with the link to my favorite song from my labor :)