Birth Story, Pretty Much

I'd really like to type out my whole detailed birth story, but I'm not willing to give up that much sleep yet.  Here are the basics (ok, it turned into more than the basics, reader beware):

3pm: water broke--my doctor's office says to come in within 6 hours of your water breaking, so I start leisurely getting ready and gathering things.

3:30: contractions start--our friend that was going to deliver the baby said I should plan on heading to the hospital as soon as possible, within 2 hours.  If not for that advice, I may have had a baby at home.  Thanks Matt!

4:30: Mike and my mom arrive, Mike and I leave, Ethan stays with Mom.

5:00: arrive at the hospital, get checked in.  Contractions are 3 minutes apart and I'm dilated to 4cm.  I had been wanting to try no epidural, but there were a few things that I decided ahead of time would make me get an epidural.  One of them was nausea.  When I get migraines they make me sick to my stomach, and I wasn't going to deal with that through labor.  Triage was really warm to me and I started feeling really sick, so we decided I'd get the epidural.  At that point we started pushing to get the epidural ASAP because my contractions were much closer and what was the point of going through the pain if I was going to get an epidural anyway.

6:00: walk to the labor and delivery room.  My doctor's office says I should have contractions that interrupt walking and talking for an hour before coming in.  If I had waited at home for that like I planned, or even until they just started to be that bad, I wouldn't have made it to the hospital. The nurse said I had to have an IV, even though my doctor said I could have a heplock.  She was VERY slow.  Mike said it took her 13 minutes to get the IV kit out!  Then she dug around in my arm for quite awhile and couldn't get the vein.  She tried again in my hand and got a valve so it wouldn't work.  She's only allowed to try twice, so she got another nurse who made me lie down.  She tried in my hand and the vein burst while I was having a contraction.  The next nurse got one in my wrist.  My contractions were really close and painful at this point.  I had to go to the bathroom and we got a little suspicious that I was starting to feel the urge to push.  Knowing I wanted the epidural soon, the resident said she'd check me after the epidural.

6:45: the anesthesiologist arrives (I think Mike had to go ask someone to page him because our nurse kept postponing it in her casual, slow way).  As he was trying the epidural my contractions started to change.  They made me feel like I was trying to "hold it".  I was grunting and couldn't really breathe.  He couldn't get the needle in the first time, so he had to try a different spot.  At this point I started making myself relax my pelvic floor with the contractions and that made it easier.  My contractions were also getting shorter and feeling like they were pushing down.  I really felt like the baby was coming, but they kept telling me it was normal pressure.  Then I started to feel some burning/stinging that made me think even more that the baby was coming.  I think at that point at least the anesthesiologist was listening to me, even if the nurses were unconcerned. 

abt 7:05: The anesthesiologist gave me a test dose and finished taping my back.  He had me lay down on my side to "get the pressure off the baby".  The nurse glanced and said she didn't see the baby's head, but I felt like I couldn't keep my legs together.  I think at this point Mike went out and asked for someone to page the doctor because the slow nurse had been putting it off.  He also sent Matt a text telling him the baby was coming.  Everything had been going so fast we hadn't even touched our phones to update anyone.  After another contraction or two I asked if I could push.  The nurse said I could if I needed to and then started to coach me to push.  After the first push the baby was crowning.  A resident or intern came in and Mike told her the baby was coming.  She casually said okay as she looked for gloves until she glanced at me and then she was in a hurry.  Before the second push the nurse told me to grab my legs.  I told her I couldn't and she said I had to.  Mike said one of my legs was tangle in the sheet, so he freed it.  I was still able to move my legs, so that shows the effect my epidural had taken at that point. 

7:15:I pushed again and his head was out, and my third push Benton was here! There was no doctor, but lots of nurses because it was a shift change I guess.  They didn't even get to put gowns on, prep the room or have me in any particular position.

After my first 4 cm check I was never "checked" again.  Had I been checked before the epidural I'm pretty sure I would have been about ready to push and I would have gone happily without the epidural.  I was pretty sure before feeling like I needed to push that I had a long time and a lot worse to go through; I guess not!  I can't say for sure how different delivery felt 10 minutes after the epidural started, but I know I could feel exactly what was happening as he was born and that was the goal in going without an epidural, so in that way I'm glad they took forever with my IV's.

Benton stayed awake for 2 hours after he was born and was a great nurser from the start.

We've gotten worse and worse about taking pictures these days, I don't even think I have any of Mike with Benton.  I should work on that!

Here are some hospital pictures:

Strong baby!

 Ethan came the next day.  I gave him a hug and he whispered "Where'd the baby go?"  He was SO excited to meet Benton!  After holding him he said, "I love this baby!"  He spent his visit running around with Mike, eating treats, playing with the hospital bed buttons, and asking over and over to hold Benton.