Baby #3 - Birth Story

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Baby #3’s Birth Story

April 15, 2013 – 10:10pm

6lbs, 14oz. – 19.5”

On Sunday, April 14, 2013 I was having some painful contractions but nothing frequent or time-able enough. I finally went to bed around 11-12 after bouncing on my exercise ball for a little over an hour. The contractions were still strong and started coming about 7 minutes apart. This lasted for a few hours, and finally around 2:30-3am I wondered if this might be the start of labor. I was going to call my mom after the next contraction to come watch baby #1. However, the next contraction then came 14 minutes later. BUMMER. I figured it was for the best and did my best to sleep.

The next morning (April 15) I woke up late since Baby #1 had slept in. When I woke up, I needed to hurry and get ready for my doctor’s appointment. I had a contraction right when I woke up, then one 15 minutes later, two that were 7 minutes apart, and then they started coming less than 5 minutes apart. The average was about 3 minutes apart. I hurried and got ready for the doctor still. I tried calling the office to see if I should come in, or just go straight to the hospital because they were getting stronger and staying close together. I never got ahold of the nurses so I went into the clinic. I kept trying to have hubby make me a good breakfast because I felt positive I was going to be admitted to the hospital and wouldn’t be allowed to eat. Instead, I ate a granola bar on the way and called my mom to let her know I was having contractions. She said to let her know what the doctor said, and if we got admitted she’d come from my sister's. Once we got to the doctor’s office, I knew it was a bad idea to come.

We were sitting in the packed waiting room, and my contractions were starting to get more intense. I told Josh to go ask the front desk for my favorite nurse. She came out and I told her I was having strong, regular contractions hoping they’d get us back quicker and I wouldn’t have to be watched. I don’t think she quite understood how strong they actually were and so we sat there for over 40 minutes. By the time they called us back I was in a lot of pain. They did my blood pressure, weight, and urine samples and then checked me. I was at a 5 and 90% effaced. They declared that I was for sure in labor, and that they’d send me up to the hospital. The first doctor I saw said to hurry and go eat something but try not to eat something that was too fast food-ish. I settled on my favorite Pizza Pie Café.

Then they decided to hook me up to monitors and do a non-stress test to make sure baby was handling the contractions well. He was, but I think they were surprised at the intensity of them and they got really worried I’d have this baby SOON. They told me to go up to the hospital and check in but not to eat. WHAT A BUMMER. They were planning on coming right away to break my water. HOORAY! We went straight to the hospital and checked in. It took awhile to walk to labor and delivery because of construction and my contractions. When we got to the check in desk the doctor’s office hadn’t called ahead so we had to answer all sorts of questions. They finally admitted us and put us in a room. I put on my gown and got hooked up to monitors again. All while having awful contractions and not being able to get up and move around. The doctors finally came, but I’d decided to get an epidural. They decided to wait until they got that in to break my water. Therefore we had to wait for an IV (which took multiple tries since they kept blowing veins) to put in a certain amount of fluids and THEN they could give then epidural, and only then would the doctors break my water. That was at 1:30. They finally were able to come break my water at 5:30 since they clinic had gotten SO busy. Talk about a major bummer since I hadn’t progressed at all in all that time. They broke my water, and baby’s heartbeat started to decelerate with every contraction. They figured it was because I had too little fluid now so his umbilical cord was getting pinched with each contraction. They did an amnio-infusion which helped a lot. However, my contractions were coming too fast and too hard.

They gave me terbutaline to slow and soften my contractions. They wanted baby to be doing well, then if necessary they would give me Pitocin. Since I was going for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) I started getting a little worried I would end up with a repeat c-section after all that. However, the terbutaline worked GREAT and just slowed and eased them enough that they were still STRONG but at least they were effective contractions. This all happened around 6. From that point I progressed about 1 cm every 45 minutes.  I’d been telling them I was really numb, but it was finally apparent to them just how numb I was and they lowered my dose of epidural. It didn’t help. Finally around 9 they said I was at a 9. HOORAY! They thought I’d start pushing in about 20 minutes. However, I was still super super numb so they turned it off until I could start to move my legs a bit. They started waking up just enough so hubby and my mom held my legs and they had me push once to see if baby was close enough. Apparently my one big push was definitely enough and they started scrambling to get everything ready for the delivery.

A resident that is one of my doctor’s brothers was there the day I delivered. He was also there ironically (since he went to school in Iowa – 20 min from my hometown) the night I delivered Baby #2. He remembered us well and actually performed the delivery of Baby #3. They got all scrubbed and in place and had me push with each contraction. After about 15-20 minutes with a tiny help of the vacuum, Baby #3 arrived at 10:10pm. He started crying right away, and just like with Baby #1, I started crying too. That first cry is just so amazing! He was put right on my chest and he cried solid for the next hour. I held him and rocked him. This was amazing to me since I didn’t get to do it with my first two babies. They took him and weighed him in at 6 lbs, 14 oz. and measured him at 19.5”. He was then given back and I nursed him. He started nursing like a champ right away. We are SO thrilled with this precious boy and are amazed by the miracle he is. It was a long, hard road, but we couldn’t be any happier with the outcome! :)