Birth Story

Now for the story…

Aunt Mary, Josh, and I were out on Saturday walking around various stores and went out to lunch. After nearly falling asleep in my salad because I was so tired, I convinced them to take me home and stop making me walk. Within minutes of arriving at home, I fell asleep on the couch waking occasionally with contractions about 20 minutes apart. After my 4 hour nap, we had dinner around 9pm. The contractions continued to get a little stronger, but were still bouncing around between about 4 and 10 minutes apart. I refused to go to bed because every time that I had contractions over the previous 4 weeks or so, they stopped or at least let up when I want to bed. Josh and I stayed up and watched a movie before Josh begged to go to bed. We moved to our room where Josh dosed on and off while I walked around or played on my computer. Around 2:30am, I suddenly felt a strange gushing feeling and immediately thought my water had broken.

It only took a few minutes to confirm that it definitely must have been my water that gushed. I called and the doctor said to come in. Josh started gathering our bags as I called Marty and woke up Aunt Mary. We were on our way to the hospital by about 3:15am. Just after we left the house, I started having stronger contractions that were 2-3 minutes apart. We arrived at the hospital just after 3:30am. By 4am, they had me settled into a room and working on my admission paperwork.

The nursed confirmed that my water had broken and that I was dilated 4-5 cm. The contractions got stronger during the paperwork process. By 5am, I was trying to hold out but was starting to ask questions about an epidural. I really wanted to wait until at least 5cm so I felt a little bad about asking so early, but the contractions were coming so strong and so close. The nurse could tell I felt bad, so after finishing the last of the paperwork, she checked me again. I was already at 6cm and thrilled to hear it. The nurse got things ready for the epidural and around 6am the doctor was in my room giving me the epidural.

From there until just after 8am, I was a happy camper. At 8am, I was 8cm and totally effaced. Shortly after they decided to having me start pushing whenever I felt the pressure and urge to push. I had Marty Siu on one side and Josh on the other. Aunt Mary was sitting in the corner watching from a distance. The nurses let me direct the timing of much of the pushing and even had me pushing when no nurse was in the room. After almost two hours of pushing, I was exhausted and giving up. Each push felt less and less effective. We were making slow progress and his head was swelling. Dr. Solomon (the doctor on call from my OB practice) suggested using forceps to bring the baby down a little to help me out. I reluctantly agreed, but I noticed that the nurse made a strange face against it. When the doctor was out of the room, I asked her opinion. She said that she thought it was the best option considering the circumstances.

So then began the scariest thing I have ever done in my life. Dr. Solomon inserted the forceps and the next time I felt the urge to push everything went crazy. Because of the epidural, I couldn't exactly feel pain, but I could feel the pressure. I was terrified because I couldn't tell exactly what was going on. Apparently, at this point, Josh was staring down the doctor and didn't stop until he knew that the baby and I were ok. My eyes were closed and I did more screaming than proper breathing at this point for what seemed like 10-15 minutes… in reality they told me it only only 2-3 minutes. They told me afterwards that Dr. Solomon had pulled the baby's head past the point where he was stuck and I did the rest. In the process I received a 3rd degree tear.

That is pretty much the story. My labor didn't really kick into gear until my water broke and then it all happened so fast – Jonathan was born just 7.5 hours after my water broke.

My OB, Dr. Meek came to see me the next morning. He said that he didn't want to scare me, but when he has examined me that I have a rather small pelvis. He said if he would have been the one to deliver the baby he would have suggested using the forceps especially considering how big the baby was.

We spent two nights in the hospital and came home on Tuesday late morning.