Birth Story Part Deux

This is where the documentation ceased.  The nurse and doctor told me that sometimes after the epidural is placed, the mom can relax enough that her cervix will start to dilate again.  After a couple of hours I was checked and was still at 3cm, where I had been for the past 8 hours, despite having monster contractions.  It was then the doctor mentioned c-section.  She was concerned with my failure to progress (in fact, my dilation was mostly from her and the nurse stretching my cervix open; my body had only dilated me ½” total).  She was concerned with the meconium and the baby possibly aspirating in the event I was able to deliver vaginally.  And she was also concerned that my pelvis was narrow and we had possibly a 10 pound baby. 

M and I talked about it and knew that even if my body would begin to dilate over the next several hours, that it may be best for the baby and for me if we went ahead with the c-section.  I cried and cried about this decision because I was ultimately trying to avoid a c-section, but I wanted my baby out safely and was worried about an emergency c-section happening if the baby got stuck or I failed to progress even further.   They prepped me for surgery, gave M his OR gear, and wheeled me off. 

I had never been so nervous in my life.  I have never had major surgery; I had no idea what to expect.  Overall, it went fairly quickly.  They gave me more medication and made sure I could not feel anything.  Both of my arms were tied to arm boards and my blood pressure was taken frequently.  I was never more relieved than when M walked in, donning his adorable blue surgery gear, camera in hand.  As soon as he entered, he broke down and tears kept streaming down his face.  I think that was the moment that he realized we were having a baby! 

Over the next few minutes, I felt a lot of pressure on my belly, near my ribcage.  The doctor kept us informed of what was happening and gave us the 1 minute warning of when baby D was going to be born.  It was at this point M took the camera and held it over the sterile field to capture some of the most awesome pictures I have ever seen.  If you don’t like blood, or get queasy easily, you may not want to scroll to the next picture.  It’s not for the faint of heart.  Here is the birth of my baby boy: 

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((OK!!! GROSS (AWESOME) STUFF OVER!!!))

Even though I was not able to see him born, this picture captured the moment and I am so grateful for my husband’s awesome ninja picture skills.  They immediately suctioned him and took him to the warmed bed to continue suctioning to try to get all of the meconium.  Damien was born at 8:40pm and was 9 pounds, 2 ounces and 21.5 inches long.  He had the cutest little squishy face and perfectly round c-section head.  Here was the first time I met him:

 

Even though he was taken to the NICU right after and I couldn’t hold him for a couple of hours, I was immediately in love with that little guy.  I met him for all of a minute and he stole my heart and four months later I cannot imagine life without him.  It wasn't my ideal birth but I wouldn't change a thing.  And just because I love him so much and think he has the most perfect little face, here’s a current pic of my little guy:

Birth Story Part I

I thought I would share my birth story since a lot of people have asked me about it.  After D was a week late (and they said almost 10 pounds), the doc said it was time to serve the eviction notice and set us up with an induction date for 6/14/11.  So as a neurotic first-time mom, I asked my wonderful husband to document our induction and birth story since I knew not much would be remembered after.  Upon looking at the notes, I couldn’t help but laugh.  Here is M’s take on the process and my random notes behind: 

4:45pm             Arrived at hospital wrong entrance L  (yes, he wrote the sad face.  and yes, I insisted we could go to the main lobby and he kept saying we needed to enter at the ER.  M-1 Sarah-0)

5:00pm             Got right entrance.  Moved to Room 303 J  (beautiful lake view, new furniture.  no neighbors on either side of us screaming and scaring the bejesus out of me.  good start)

5:05pm             Met nurse Mary.  Super nice

5-6:10pm         Vitals taken.  1000 questions asked

6:45pm             Nurse tells us Dr’s running late.  ETA 7:15-8

7:15pm             Mom and “sister” Tyler arrive (my mom and oldest niece wanted to be part of the induction.  now that i think about it, this is *perfect* birth control for teenagers her age.  highly recommended)

7:45pm             Dr. arrives and explains she forgot about us (she showed up in workout clothes…apparently me HAVING A BABY was insignificant compared to the 5 miles she just ran at the gym)

7:50pm             Dr. inserts Cervidil (small contractions start almost immediately.  oh, and at this point I’m informed I cannot get out of bed for 2 hours.  so I had to pee in a bedpan.  I have put plenty of people on bedpans in the past but it’s so different when it’s your ass sitting on that hard plastic pan trying to urinate in bed, slightly reclined, and in front of a complete stranger)

A pic before the party really got started.  These were my labor supporters.  Yes, I brought a rolling suitcase and laptop.  Don't judge me.

10:45pm           Sarah falls asleep J

10:48pm           Alarms blare “Code Red Third Floor West” (awesome, I am having contractions and now I can’t help but wonder if we are going to be evacuated and little D will be born in the parking lot)

10:48pm          Sarah is awake L

12:30am           Jess + all come (my sister and 4 kids showed up.  apparently they didn’t get the memo that babies – especially stubborn ones that are already a week late – don’t want to make an appearance until *they* are ready.  but to my sister's defense, she has been waiting for me to have a baby for oh.....5ish years now.  oh, and did you see this is just past midnight?  they all camped out in the waiting room, occupying most of the available chairs and couches.  the nurses were not thrilled)

12:40am           Mo pees.  Noise in room.  Dee dee dum. (I have no idea.  these are my husband’s ramblings, not mine)

5:05am             Sarah wakes to pee (isn’t it fabulous that he’s documenting my pee but not about my contractions or anything labor-related?)

5:10am             Mo visits waiting room area.  Everyone here: Ty, Avery, Molly, Michael, Sydney, Jessica, Mom (and as expected, still no baby.  but they did get prime sleeping space on the couches)

5:20am             Mo and Mom head to room

5:30am             Mo’s alarm goes off L

5:45am             Jess, Ty, and Mom in room

6:00am             Cervidil removed (ok, good.  back to our regularly scheduled induction notes)

6:35am             Pitocin started (hard contractions ensued immediately)

7:15am             Pitocin increased (doubled.  Every 30 minutes from this point until maxed out.     sounds like my kind of Wednesday morning fun.)

7:25am             Nurse Mary arrives J  (we loved Mary.)

8:55am             Dr. arrives.  Sarah 2cm.  Water breaking?

9:00am             Water breaks!  Poop in water.  Baby okay L  (ok, freaking out a little here.  just had a friend whose baby was in the NICU for a week after meconium was found in the amniotic fluid.  this kid has been  living in me for 41 weeks now; I am not leaving the hospital without him!)

9:15am             Request for trashy magazine

9:45am             Music starts

11:25am           Sarah gets pain meds (HOLY HELL I do not know why people come into the hospital asking for Dilauded.  I was high as a kite and even though I felt my contractions, I no longer cared that I was having them every 1-2 minutes.)

11:30am           Sarah is relaxed (finally) and 3 cm

11:45am           Mo gets Lunchables for lunch YUM (i’m glad these details are in here.  It was very important for everyone to remember what he had for lunch on the day baby D was birthed)

11:50am           Sarah doing great.  Meds are all good

12:05pm           Pizza (who had pizza?  I didn’t have pizza. in fact, all I had since 5:00pm the night before was some fantastic fizzy lemonade concoction our favorite nurse Mary made for me and some water.  and she didn’t spike it with anything good either.)

1:45pm             Mo passes out ZZZZZ

2:15pm             Mo awakes (i guess it’s back to M’s non-birth story…)

3:20pm             Sarah gets more meds for pain J  Happy Sarah (actually, the 2^nd time around they barely worked and my contractions were 1-2.5 minutes apart and a minute-90 seconds long since the Pitocin was started).  Still 3 cm

5:20pm             3 cm.  Sarah epidural going in (yep, i begged for it.  since I had an internal monitor for contractions, they were able to gauge how powerful they really were.  the anesthesiologist pointed out that normally when he sees women with contractions this strong they are screaming and crying and he was surprised I was so calm.   great doc, put the effing needle in my back already.  I feel like I’m going to DIE)

5:45pm             Epidural completed (ahhhhhhhhh.  best invention EVER!!)

continued...

I have arrived

This is my official debut to the blogging world. I feel like I have missed out; like I am living in the 90′s, the equivalent of wearing hyper-color and teasing my bangs as high as Aqua Net would hold. There has been a recent realization that while I *love love love* my darling son D, I can only dangle toys over his head and sing nursery rhymes for so long in a day before I need some sort of outlet. And so I will write.

Hello fellow bloggers, family, friends. I am Sarah, a recently-turned 30s chic who has lived through tremendous changes over the last year – marriage, a baby, becoming a registered nurse, and being unemployed for an extended time for the first time in my adult life. I am extremely opinionated and call things as I see them and have stopped putting up with bs from others. In fact, I have finally grown the balls to get rid of the toxic people in my life and am extremely happy with where the future is headed.

Welcome to my world of crazy! Stick around – you might like it.