We had "planned" on Jason coming around 10-12 days late. A quick background. Max was born 9 days late. I had wanted to go all natural but because he was my first and an ultrasound that was only two days after his due date was saying he'd be 10 lbs., my doctor was talking to me about shoulder dystocia, etc., I decided to be induced. So I had some pain meds to take the edge off of the hard contractions, but I experienced a mostly natural birth. It was an awesome/hard experience--awesome because Tony and I had taken the Bradley classes and he was an awesome birth coach, hard because it was birth. Ryan was 10 days late. I really wanted to go natural because I like the recovery and I don't like being hooked up to IVs. Ryan was also born 6 months after Tony's plane crash, I didn't feel as mentally prepared to "relax" through labor. I was so done being pregnant (we were also in the middle of a move so I'm sure it was taking it's toll). I set an induction date but then went into real labor the night before. We went to the hospital but then labor stopped but since I was going to be induced the next morning anyway, they kept me and induced me. When labor started getting really intense, I was tired physically and mentally. I'd had a really hard year and just didn't want to do anything else so "hard". I asked for an epidural only the anesthesiologist was busy and I progressed at super speed so Ryan came out with no pain meds. Afterwards, again, I was glad because although it is hard and I have really panicky transitions, I love the bounce back from natural birth.
With Jason, it was going to be different. I wanted to experience labor without pitocin. I wanted my water to break naturally. I had been practicing relaxing techniques and I felt ready to go late and I felt ready to experience natural labor. I also planned on Jason being so late that I planned Max's 5th birthday party 6 days after his due date. People thought I was crazy but I just told them, "no really, I go late, believe me". So thinking my due date would be the 17th, 18th or 19th, I asked my parents to come up the 12th so most of their time could be after the baby was here. Well, as John Steinbeck said, "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry".
On our due date, June 7th, Tony and I dropped the boys off at a friend's house and went to the doctor. I was excited for Tony to finally meet our doctor (he has a crazy schedule and had only come to the gender ultrasound). I should also mention that we had finally found a time to go on a hospital tour (the following Sunday-three days after our due date. We figured one hospital can't be that different than the last so we weren't too worried about it). Tony wasn't able to meet Dr. Scanlon at first because she was out on a delivery. Another doctor checked me and I was still at a 2. Jason was facing the wrong direction though. He was head down but facing my belly instead of my back. Then the nurse had me hooked to the heart monitor so they could monitor the baby for 20 minutes to see how he was doing. Then Dr. Scanlon was back from the delivery and we could still do the ultrasound. She knew how willing I was to wait on this baby and so she felt bad to have to tell me that she needed to induce me because my amniotic fluid was low. I was thinking maybe the next day but she asked if we had our stuff with us. We just looked at her dumbly. She laughed and said, "well it *is* your due date." We had to laugh because we had barely gotten and washed the carseat the day before. I had just washed clothes the day before. We were not expecting the baby to need to come on time. We told the doctor after getting our stuff we could check into the hospital in an hour and a half. As we left the office, I was a little emotional because I didn't feel ready, this is not what I wanted. I sooo did not want to be hooked up to anything. I called my mom and told her. They planned on coming the next day instead of the 5 days later we had thought. We called my friend who was willing to watch the boys overnight for us. The biggest thing was I didn't want to go into labor with fear in my heart. I didn't want to be nervous or apprehensive just because it wasn't turning out the way I wanted it to. I wanted to be relaxed just like I'd practiced. So Tony and our friend gave me a blessing. I felt completely calm during the blessing and several times, I felt like I was supposed to get an epidural. At first I thought this was fear talking. It was fear that had me ask for one during Ryan's birth. I didn't feel ready for the hard labor (understandably so, but still). But then I knew that this was a very real prompting from the Holy Ghost. I didn't understand why a pro-natural girl would need to get an epidural, but I knew that I was meant to. To me, giving birth is a very spiritual experience. Giving birth to Max as Tony and I worked together to relax through the pain, I knew that I was also being helped by my Heavenly Father. When I was giving birth to Ryan, I felt less ready and even more in need of help and that's how Heavenly Father helped me through when it was hard and I didn't feel in the slightest bit ready. I knew that this time I needed to rely on the spirit and listen to what I needed to do.
Here I am before real labor kicked in.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
They didn't start me out on pitocin but on two separate doses of Cyotec which is a small pill they put next to the cervix to soften it. After that, I walked around, climbed stairs, ran stairs (yes, in my hospital gown). Then they hooked me up to Pitocin. Here is the nurse's screen that Tony and I used to joke about how I was in a "race" with other room numbers by how hard of contractions I was having compared to them. Yes, we are nerds.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
We had told the nurse and doctor that I wanted an epidural and they were awesome and didn't push it or act relieved like I thought they might. They really let me make my own decisions the whole time. I needed to let the contractions get intense before they did the epidural so it wouldn't prolong labor, like I had heard. So we let the contractions get pretty intense for awhile while I relaxed through them and listened to my Sense and Sensibility soundtrack. That is my CD that I've listened to throughout every labor. After the contractions were pretty intense for about an hour, the anesthesiologist was called and he did the epidural. They took me off of pitocin at the same time which was about 1:00am. The epidural wasn't as scary or painful as I had thought. It went smoothly and worked quickly. Tony and I both took a little nap. At one point I woke up to an oxygen mask on my face and about 6 nurses in the room. My blood pressure had dropped and so they just had to bring it up quickly. After about a minute I was fine again but wow, what a minute. Then we relaxed again and took a short nap. My nurse checked me after 5:00 am and I was between an 8 and 9. She said she would check me again in an hour. After about 40 minutes I started feeling pressure and told Tony I think that was the need to push. I decided to wait it out a few more contractions. I had been feeling my contractions but this feeling was definitely different. After 3 contractions where I really felt like I should push, we called the nurse and then everything happened really fast. The doctor came in and they decided to have me do a practice push. Well, the practice pushes were pretty effective and 6 pushes later, I had Jason Daniel placed on my chest (Max had been an hour and 8 minutes of pushing. Ryan had been 37 minutes of pushing). Jason was beaufiful baby.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Tony cut the cord.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Everyone was making guesses as to how much he'd weigh. When they told us that he weighed 7 lbs. and 12 oz., we couldn't believe it.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
But it was true.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Our beautiful boy had joined our family. And the adventure was only beginning. Our sweet, perfect baby was about to take a trip to the NICU, but that's for another post.
All in all, I think that every birth experience I've had was meant to be. I've learned from each of them. I wouldn't have chosen to be induced or have an epidural but I'm grateful that it was a positive experience for me. Other people have had negative experiences but I feel lucky to have had only positive. It didn't hurt going in, it worked well and yet I was still able to feel the contractions in a very minor way and I could feel it when I needed to push. I also recovered really quickly and my overall recovery was fantastic thank goodness because I had my baby to worry about. I had a positive experience with my natural births and my epidural birth. Maybe someday I'll be able to experience my own body going into labor, but if not, I'm grateful to have safe, healthy births.
No comments:
Post a Comment