In honor of it being my due date, and our boy being 3 weeks old, I thought it would he a fun idea to share my birth story with people who would even care to read it. :) get ready for a long story!
The whole process started on Sunday morning when I was driving to church and I had told Michael I hadn't felt the baby kick that morning which was quite unusual. I just shrugged it off and didn't think anything of it because this kid didn't move that much to begin with. I left church early (to get dinner ready for 2 of our couple friends who were coming over that night and also because at this point in my pregnancy, my ribs in my back hurt so bad I couldn't sit down for very long at all without being In tears). This day was non stop going for me and so I didn't really have much time to think about feeling him kick. Our friends came over and after they left, it came back to my mind and I kind of got worried then. I had been feeling full contractions (not really Braxton hicks) for a good couple of weeks and even those stopped the whole day. I called my mom and mother in law and both said to lay down for a while drink a sugary drink and wait. So I got some dr. pepper (which I hadn't drank my whole pregnancy and it was divine) and nothing, no kicks. We got a little worried and everyone said for us to go get checked. It was already around 9 pm and we didn't want to wait much longer so, Better safe than sorry. we left our house with nothing but my phone charger and made our way to the hospital.
We got there,they hooked me up and everything was looking good. About an hour into it, all of a sudden Michael and I realize the babies heart rate dropped down to 50's from 140's for a good 10 seconds and the nurses came running in and that's when I knew I was in this for the long haul. They obviously said they didn't like that and so then we had to stay for 2 more hours. After the 2 hours the babies heart rate stayed up so the nurse came in and told me to get dressed and that we were going to go home. I had my pants on and the doctor came in and said put your robe back on you are staying. She said I had 2 options. 1. I could get induced because I was 37 weeks which is considered full term or 2. I could stay and get monitored for 24 hours. (The main reason I got a midwife at the start of pregnancy is because I wanted more natural AND DID NOT WANT TO GET INDUCED) so I went with option 2. I was upset but knew that that was the safest thing to do. I moved to another room and it's about 2 am at this point so Michael goes home and got good sleep. Me on the other hand got about an hour total. I was so sick of the hospital at this point because even going to the bathroom was such a pain with all of the chords I had to carry around. As I was getting back into bed from going to the bathroom, his heart rate dropped again. This happened again as I was getting into bed a couple of hours later. After the second one of the day, another doctor came in and said you are not going home because we don't feel comfortable with this, so we are basically making the decision and we are going to induce you I automatically was nerves and very very emotionl. Throughout this whole thing I hadn't talked to my midwife at all and was kind of needing her guidance. It just happened to be that she was delivering babies all day and was right down the hall.
SIDE NOTE: about halfway through my pregnancy, my blood work came back with my blood platelet count at about 120. This kind of had my midwife worried so around month 8 she had me re-do my blood work and my platelet count went down to 90's Then dropped down to 70's by the time I was in the hospital. This was not good because to get any pain medication, your platelet count has to be above 100. So 2 days before I went into the hospital, I got put on steroids to help boost the levels so I could get an epidural. HENCE WHY I WAS FREAKED OUT TO GET INDUCED BECAUSE I KNEW THAT I WAS DOING THIS ALL NATURAL.(end of side note)
My midwife came in and calmed me down and said they would put me on a steroid through my iv to see if my numbers would go up fast.( I had the iv in me for 4 1/2 days not fun) They were around 80's at this point. I went up to labor and delivery and got to eat my last meal! The anesthesiologist came in and said the steroids didn't help and that an epidural was a no go. I cried and cried. This happened to also be when Michael had run home to get some things and so I bawled to my nurse. From this point on, I knew that I had to think positive and anybody i talked to had to be positive. They started me on pitocin around 9 pm. I was already at a 3 with 80% effacement when I came into the hospital . I called my friend who loves natural birth and is very knowledgeable to come and help me with some breathing techniques and her husband came as well to help Michael give me a comfort blessing. They came and it was an ultimate life saver. After they left I was feeling set( little did I know). I was feeling good, we went and walked around for a while which was a huge pain because I had so many monitors hooked up to me but loved getting out of bed. Every 30 minutes they up the amount of pitocin until you get to a 20. Right before we tried to sleep I got to a 20 and they let you just sit there for about an hour. It was around 1 am and this is when I started to feel it. It was mostly in my back and not much was helping. It got worse and worse and I had her check me and I was at a 4 and I also had a bloody show. This was a good sign!! About 20 minutes later, I sat up in my bed and my water broke. I was so glad it broke on its own and they didn't have to break it! As soon as my water broke the contractions kicked in about double in intensity. I had to go to the restroom and of course this is when they got so bad I couldn't move until the contractions were over. All I knew was that I could not go lay down on that bed again and so they got the exercise ball out and I labored on that. My contractions were about 15 seconds apart the whole time which meant not a whole lot of a break. This was around 2:30 am. I bounced on the ball while Michael rubbed my lower back. He was a lifesaver. I was in a lot of pain and my nurse felt so bad because there was nothing I could have. After about an hour I went from a 4 to a 7 and after I was at a 7 she said I had to get off the ball. Worst news all night. They called my midwife and she didn't think anything of it because you can be at a 7 for a while. After this each contraction felt stronger and stronger. I went on my hands and knees because I had heard that was comfortable. The worst decision ever. This was the most intense pressure I have felt in my whole entire life. I couldn't do much during a contraction but just groan through the pain which then meant Michael and the nurse yelling at me to breathe. Breathing seemed to be inpossible. Did I say there was a LOT OF PRESSURE?! I was very very uncomfortable. Around 4 am I had to lay down and the nurse knew that there was not much time left until he came out. She grabbed a doctor from the hall and as a contraction came the doctor said no wonder I was feeling so much pressure because his head was right there. My midwife was still 15 minutes away and there was no way she was going to make it. This point there seemed to be no break in between contractions and there was no stopping this pushing. Because of no break, I could not make it down to the bottom of the bed and so the doctor basically had to get on the bed to deliver richard. :) I pushed about 5 times and then our worst nightmare happened. His heart rate dropped and kept dropping and everyone panicked. The doctors started talking about emergency c section but obviously that wouldn't work. More nurses came in, one on the phone with the nicu, one putting an oxygen mask on my face and Michaels voice instantly went from supportive and strong to fear. Everyone was yelling at me to push as hard as I can before his heart rate just stops. I only had to push a couple of more times and his head was out and the doctor pulled him out the rest of the way. The pressure was so intense while pushing that I didn't feel much pain. I was completely out of it and my nurse had to nudge me to open my eyes because my baby was right there. They put him on me and everything was perfect! He was perfect. He didn't take him away to clean him, they left him on me for an hour and wiped him off the best they could. I didn't tare as bad as I thought and they then numbed me down there to stitch me up (yes after I had the baby they numbed me a little bit)
as soon as I saw my boy I knew that his name was supposed to be Richard. Richard is my grandpa's name who recently passed away, he also married Michael and I and he was truly one of my heros. I knew that my 3 grandparents were on the other side helping me through that, especially my grandpa Richard. After an hour I was up moving around which is something that I loved about not having an epidural. Richard was also wide awake for his first two hours which I also loved. My labor was the most intense thing I have and probably will ever have to endure, but I did it and I got a sweet boy out of it and so I would do it again in a heart beat. I love my little family!
