Ok I am finally going to finish up Noah’s birth story! It only took me four months haha. Bear with me on this one. It is pretty long and may have a bit more detail than you’d like, but I want to get this all written down so I remember it!
Last thing I wrote about was us jumping into the car and
heading to the hospital on the morning on May 11th around
10:30am. We live about 20 minutes away
from the hospital and I can’t say that was the most comfortable car ride of my
life! I had several contractions along
the way and just had to suck it up while sitting there in the front seat.
Once we arrived we went to the registration desk. I am VERY grateful I had pre-registered so I
didn’t have to fill out a ton of paperwork.
The receptionist still did need some info from us and I probably had
about 3 contractions while sitting there with her. Normally, they send you to triage to get
checked first to see if it is “time” but she said she could tell from the pain
on my face during my contractions that they were the real thing! At least it was evident!
By 11am we were checked into the hospital with a wristband
on my wrist and headed to our laboring room!
The first thing they did was strap a heart monitor on my belly so they
could watch Noah. Man, that thing was so
uncomfortable! Besides the painful
contractions, this thing bothered me the most.
It was seriously digging into my belly the whole day.
The nurse checked me when we got settled and said I was only at 3 centimeters dilated. She said that is on the verge of when they keep people or send them home, so she let me make the decision if I wanted to stay or not. Um hello? Of course I wanted to stay! I am very glad I did too. My contractions weren’t necessarily even, they were between 2-5 minutes apart still, but they were very intense. Once they hooked me up to the monitor I could see the evidence of that. By noon I was at 4cm though, so I was moving right along.
Next we discussed an epidural, which I definitely knew I
wanted. I had read that sometimes it can
slow labor though and since my contractions weren’t exactly regular I thought I
would try and wait it out a bit. I
thought maybe if I didn’t have it yet I could walk around the hospital to help
my contractions become stronger. She said she’d hook up my IV (which happened
around 12:20) and then I could let her know when I was ready. It took about two
more contractions before I called the nurse in and decided I was ready for my
epidural!
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| Epidural time! |
At about 1 o’clock the doctor came in to start my
epidural. Now, I really dislike needles
and getting my blood drawn so I was not too excited about this process. I made sure I never looked at the needle
(I’ve heard how scary it is) to help keep myself calm. I can say I felt a pinch when they inserted
the numbing stuff and maybe some tightness when they inserted the epidural
needle itself, but it was not as painful as I was imaging at all. Heck,
compared to contractions it was easy! The whole process took probably less than
10 minutes. Also, because I had gotten
it pretty early, I didn’t have to try and “stay still” during a contraction,
which most women say is very difficult (no duh). I got checked again after this and I had gone
from 4 to 6 centimeters in this hour, so progress was happening!
Now a lot of this is a little fuzzy (mainly because I don’t
have photos to help me with the timeline…and it took my forever to write) but I
know my mom finally arrived and then the doctor stopped by around 1:40pm and
broke my water. By now, I was feeling
good from the epidural and literally could not feel a thing! I know she was doing something down
there….but I didn’t even feel the water haha.
Is that TMI? Both Cliff and I had
to ask if she had actually broken it, because I had no clue! She also told us at this time that she though
he was going to come fast. Yay! Best
news ever right? I wouldn’t have to
spend all day in labor :)
Around 2:30 they checked me again and I was at 7 centimeters and my contractions were 3 minutes apart and regular. They had turned me to lying sideways and put this giant ball type thing between my legs (I guess it helps with labor?!?) but Noah didn’t like it too much. His heart rate kept dropping, so they had to put me on oxygen. They had me lay back down on my back, which I liked better anyways. Oddly enough, I was never scared when they had to put me on oxygen. I went with the flow and let the nurses do what they needed to. Maybe it was how calm they were acting, but I never felt worried. I knew they would take care of us!
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| Oxygen Selfie #1 |
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| Oxygen Selfie #2 |
The next bit of the day was just a lot of “sit around and
wait.” I spent time looking through face
book and texting my closest girlfriends. There was a tv on playing some sort of
movie (I honestly can’t even remember what it was) but I couldn’t focus on it
at all, so I didn’t even bother. The
nurses were coming in and out of the room and preparing for little man’s
arrival. At one point the baby nurse
came in with his bassinet and all of the items he would need right away. I think that’s when it became pretty darn
real!
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| "Noah's corner" |
At 3:45pm they checked me again and I was at 9cm! Ah!
This was happening soon! They
called my doctor to come back to the hospital and got everything prepared. At some point they had decided that I didn’t
need any more epidural medicine and that they were just gonna let it wear
off. I knew that they do this a little
bit, so you can kind of feel what you are doing, but I had no clue how strongly
I would still feel all of the contractions.
I was mad as heck because I remember it hurting soooo bad! I thought, I
paid the anesthesiologist so I wouldn’t feel this and now I am in so much pain!
It was not fair!
The nurses thought that to help take my mind off the pain
they would tell me I could start pushing.
My doctor wasn’t there yet and they thought it really wouldn’t get
anywhere, but lo and behold the first push they could already see Noah’s
head. I think everyone kicked it into
high gear at this point! The doctor walked in nonchalantly thinking she had
plenty of time but quickly realized she needed to get ready a bit faster. She
coached me through about 6 sets of pushes, only 3 of them where she was
actually in position before Noah arrived. I’m not quite she the exact length of
time I pushed for, but I know it was an hour or less. It felt like forever, but
I know now it wasn’t.
During my pushing, they kept trying to get me to look into a
mirror. They brought one over and
thought that for some reason this would help me. Um no thanks!
Plus I was way too focused on pushing and closing my eyes to be able to
see anything. I’m not sure if my doctor was in a hurry or if it was really
needed, but I did received an episiotomy.
I never discussed with her beforehand about that, but in all honestly at
the time I could have cared less! Anything to get the baby out quicker and take
away my pain sounded good to me. I didn’t feel it at all, but I do remember the
stitching up part being a bit uncomfortable because she was tugging so hard on
the sutures.
Noah was born on May 11th (5/11/15) at 5:12pm and
he weighed 6 pounds and 11 ounces (6-11).
How’s that for confusing? Poor C still gets the date, time and weight
mixed up haha.
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| The first moment I held him...you can't tell but the cord is still attached! |
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| Daddy skin to skin time :) |
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| Not happy taking his first bath.... |
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| But loving the heat lamp! |
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| Moving to our new room! |
Our doctor actually cleared us to go home that evening, but we decided to stay another night based on recommendations from the nurses and lactation consultants. Noah was having a bit of trouble breastfeeding, so they thought it would be good for us to stay and get more help.
We headed home as a little family on Wednesday May 13th around noon….and life has been amazing ever since!
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Beautiful story and beautiful son! Congratulations!!
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