Lil Man's Birth Story

WARNING:  SOME INFO IN THIS POST MAY BE TMI

ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK

I was recently prompted to share my story about my son's birth.

Ironically enough my water broke on my due date Wednesday, October 20th. This was after my appointment the day prior arranging my inducement date to be that Friday.

I had gone to work that day, working only about 6 or 7 hours as it was just uncomfy being in military uniform. I had gotten home, and was about to dig into a snack (I don't remember what it was) as I go to sit on the couch I felt a small gush. This was about 330. I waddled my way to the bathroom where I checked myself, and saw some clearish fluid.  Not sure what was going on (I had heard water breakage was much worse), I called my Mom into the room and asked her to look and tell me if she thought my water broke.  Indeed it had!

I proceeded to change into less wet clothes and call my husband, which he says he is still amazed to this day how calm I was, and tell him to come home we were having our baby.  I then finished my snack, because I heard that I wouldn't be allowed to eat, and I didn't know how long it would be before I could eat.  Lets face it I LOVE food.

We made it to the hospital about 430 and got checked in I kept leaking and the nurse checked and noticed a green tinge indicating meconium staining possibly. Still no contractions when I got to my room, so I walked around the hospital for about 2 hours to induce it.

I would say about 730-8 was when the contractions started, very fine at first and increase over the next couple of hours.

The problem between this time and the time I got my epidural about 1230-1 is that they couldn't monitor both the baby's heartbeat and my contractions, so I was manhandled so frequently it got REALLY annoying.

I was crazy you see, I told myself that I would wait until I was on the verge of tears or actually crying from the pain to get the epidural. Boy did I cry my little heart out. My Dad cried also, and it wasn't until after he came back in the room and I was in heaven that I found out he was upset because his little girl was in pain.  My Dad the big teddy bear with the heart of gold.

The funny part is at one point I'm in tears and the anesthesiologist is like ok be still. EXCUSE ME...YOU WANT ME TO HOLD STILL WHILE MY INSIDES FEEL LIKE THEY ARE PUSHING THEMSELVES OUT EVERY MINUTE AND A HALF FOR ABOUT 45 SECONDS?? With the help of my Mom I was able to hold still and get the epidural. About 5 minutes later Mom tells me I'm having a contraction and I'm like what contraction??

They were still having problems finding a good heartbeat, and I was getting worried. My nurse had finally found a spot that they could monitor both and told me not to move. I didn't until some random nurse came in and moved me. It went all downhill after that... I got moved around so much and it was making me nervous.  At one point they told me to get up on my hands and knees, just a reminder I had already had my epidural at this point, my doctor came in and he was amazed that I was able to do that. I'm not sure how I did it either.

Then they mentioned the C word, C-section was apparently inevitable, because at this point they still couldn't monitor both my contractions and his heartbeat.

I started hyperventilating at this point because I was seriously scared, this was the first hospital visit I had personally since I was born, so I was freaked about being opened up. They had let me eat a turkey sandwich at like 930, because I wasn't dilating quick enough so my Doctor gave the go-ahead. Well during my hyperventilating episode I almost vomited it back up again. My Mom and the Doctor got me calmed down and we got ready for the procedure.

I don't remember the whole thing because I kept dozing off.  What I do remember is the initial worry when they said Cole was out and I didn't hear him cry, followed by the sense of relief when I did. I remember being overwhelmed that I could not hold him. The other thing I remember is the doctor mentioning removal of my ovary (I had a cyst on the right side during my whole pregnancy, and it had pretty much decimated that ovary so they had to remove it, thankfully the cyst was benign).

I was in recovery and all I could think about was wanting to hold my son, and unfortunately I only got to seem him for about 10 minutes in the NICU then I was wheeled off to my room.

He had some respiratory problems at first but the main reason he was in the NICU was his blood sugar levels were way to low. He was there for about 4 days, and my doctor being the amazing person he was said I could stay an extra couple of days to be with him. It wasn't until I was able to start nursing him that his levels stayed at acceptable levels.

Thinking about the whole experience makes me emotional, but I also am very thankful to have him in my life and in such good health.  Spending time in the NICU does that, because all the other babies in there were so much sicker than my son was, and I felt lucky that he was just hypoglycemic.

The funniest thing about him being in the NICU was he was the biggest baby and the loudest.

He was 9lbs 1oz and 21 inches of pure joy!!

The hubby looking like a hottie in his scrubs

First Family picture

Cuddle time with baby and Momma 

Too many wires

Thanks for bearing with me for this incredibly long post.