He’s Here!

So we had our little boy on his due date. It was quite a journey and still is right now but for those waiting for the birth story, here it is!

My water broke spontaneously while I was lying in bed at 6:15am on 6/5. I felt the POP and the baby jump at the same time. I remembered this feeling from Joey’s birth but I had been contracting and walking when his broke, not lying in bed so this was an interesting feeling. I tried to ignore it because I didn’t really want to believe it. As much as I wanted to have my baby AND have labor start in the morning after a good night’s rest, I didn’t want my water to break first because I knew that meant he was most likely positioned wrong.

After about 10 minutes lying there in wait with NOTHING coming out, I decided to make my way to the restroom. I held my legs together as I quickly walked to the toilet but before I could sit down, it gushed out everywhere. I lost about a cup of fluid. It was clear, thank goodness. As I sat on the toilet waiting for it to stop, I gently called for Jason who was sleeping in bed. I heard him say, “Hmmmm,” when I called his name. I said, “My water just broke.” Then, with as much enthusiasm as when I told him I was pregnant, he jumped out of bed exclaiming, “It did?!”

“Yup. We need to get up,” I replied. Jason went into high gear of preparing everything in case the baby came fast. He wanted to wake Joey up but it was only an hour before he had to be up anyway and we can rush him out the door if we had to. Jason loaded the car and made breakfast. Nothing was happening however. My uterus was quiet.

Nothing really happened for a few hours. I had minor cramping and I didn’t really know what to do, so I just walked around the house like I was stupid for a while. I was very excited to tell Joey that he wouldn’t be going to school today so I waited at the bottom of the stairs when I heard him jump down from his bed. It felt like forever before he came out his room door. I knew he would go straight to the shower so I yelled at him to come to the top of the stairs. As Jason and I stood there looking up at him, I began to get teary and said, “Sorry honey, you won’t be going to school today.” He said, “Did your water break?” I replied, “Yes. It did.” He got a huge smile on his face and said, “YAY! When do we go to the hospital?” I told him it wasn’t time just yet but to get in the shower and get something to eat because it might be a long day.

I ate breakfast but was hungry again an hour later. So I asked Jason to make me something more and I finally sat down. I had been standing and walking around for almost two hours. We had texted the doula to let her know to be on alert as well but she wasn’t needed here yet. Then, I felt like I had to pee but when I stood up, I lost a ton more fluid. I felt it coming and yelled at Jason to get a towel. Joey was great and ran to get more supplies as my water poured out all over the kitchen floor. I had never seen so much before even when my water had broken with Joey’s birth. This time though, the fluid was a bit brown. I knew there was meconium but I didn’t stress because it wasn’t green and thick. The labor pains began almost instantly that time.

I instinctively had to stay standing and rocked side to side while I contracted. I told the doula to head over. Jason and I were planning on laboring at home for a while but I soon changed my mind. The drive to the hospital was 45 minutes and my contractions were already two minutes apart. I had also become very shaky which was a sign things were progressing. The contractions weren’t lasting long but I was worried we would have the baby at home. As nice as that would have been, we didn’t want me to bleed out. So, Jason told the doula to meet us at the hospital because we were leaving.

I had Jason put a shower curtain in the back seat of his car and I got in. I listened to music on the way to the hospital and just zoned out. It was really nice despite all the contractions. We got to the hospital and our doula was there waiting. She assisted me to triage and we began our routine for labor. I was still quite shaky. The midwives thought I might be in transition so I was checked. Unfortunately, I was only 3cm. I wasn’t disheartened as the shakiness can be a sign of moving from the latent phase of labor into active labor. I laughed when they said I wasn’t in “active labor” yet because this sure was hard work already.

We wanted a natural minded nurse so I had to labor in triage for a while because that nurse was in a c-section at the moment. The only thing I really wanted was a tub and they didn’t have that in triage. So, I stood alot, sat on the birth ball, and leaned over as much as I could to help my baby get into a good position. After what felt like several hours, I got moved to a labor and delivery room and was able to get into the bath tub as soon as I had been monitored for the required 20 minute time.

I labored well but when the monitoring was over, I had to get in the bath tub. Once in the tub, I began to get shaky and nauseated. Contractions were still every 2 minutes. The nurse wanted to check me again as she thought I was in transition. It had been about 7 hours since my water had broken. She checked me and I was still a 3. I had been a 3 for about 4 hours at this point.

I was very disappointed but optimistic things would change. I got back in the tub and changed positions. Things got really intense at that point. I felt like I was struggling and I was really getting tired. Jason was amazing and by my side the entire time. Joey was also relief for me as he ran to refill water, refill the tub, etc. Jason kept telling me I was doing really well and how proud he was of me. It felt really nice and was very helpful  but after another 2 hours, I began to ask for an epidural. I had told Jason and my doula that I had to ask for it 3 times before they let me have it. So, we opted to be checked again before I got one.

I got checked and I was still a 3, maybe a 4. I said I was done and wanted the epidural. We tried a few other positions to see if that changed anything but ultimately, my mind was made up. Jason and my doula kept telling me I was doing a great job with each contraction and that I didn’t look like I was struggling but in my mind, I couldn’t handle it anymore. I needed to be progressing to keep going and I couldn’t do this any longer staying in the “latent” phase of labor.

I got the epidural and everyone was hoping it would go fast from this point like it did with Joey’s birth (3-10 in less than an hour). Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. I labored very slowly with the epidural but eventually made progress. By 10pm that night, I was exhausted but started to feel shaky and nauseated again. The epidural kept my legs numb but I had horrendous uterine pain. I was beyond wanting to die. The epidural didn’t allow me to get up which is what I needed to do in order to relieve the pain.

They brought in anesthesiology again and they helped get things under control. At midnight, the nurse came in and said my baby’s heart rate had decels. She said he was probably ready to be born but I needed to flip over just in case. She got me flipped over and checked me. I was complete and ready to push.

She asked me to do a practice push and then yelled at me to stop. They got the labor team in as well as the NICU team (due to the meconium). I continued to push and 10 minutes later my little man was born. Jason got to catch him and hand him to me. It was the most amazing moment of my life. I kept hearing that his head was out and when I looked down, I saw Jason holding our new son screaming, with part of his body still inside me. Jason folded our new son up towards me and I pulled him the rest of the way out.

Our son was placed on my chest even though they were worried about the meconium. As I held our new son, we all cried. Joey was astonished and was so happy to have his brother in the world where he would teach him everything. Joey was offered to cut the cord and immediately said he wanted to. I watched as Jason assisted Joey in cutting his brother’s umbilical cord. We also got the delayed cord clamping that we wanted so it was very nice. I got to hold our new son for 2 hours before anyone touched him or any procedures were done. The baby latched on 45 minutes after birth and has been an amazing nurser.

I DID end up hemorrhaging due to my prior Asherman’s Syndrome. The placenta did not detach all the way until 30 minutes after birth. They thought they might have to take me to the OR but it finally came lose. I didn’t need any extra blood either.

I have had some complications for the first few days. I had a numb right leg for over 48 hours. This was due to poor placement of the epidural. I also have and STILL have, severe uterine pain. I was on 4 different pain killers to make it manageable but things are okay now. I am only taking 2 of the 4 now. It doesn’t seem to affect our baby at all.

My milk came in today and we are doing much better. We are taking it easy and doing nothing for the most part. We have had neighbors bring over lunches and dinner which REALLY helps so if you haven’t had your baby yet, be sure to set this up. It’s one less thing to worry about.

The journey was rough and it’s still hard with the baby blues setting in but I am so happy to have my son!