This is a birth story :-) I will not write intensely personal details in this entry, but there are some terms like "dilated" and "effaced", etc that will be used...so if the idea of childbirth and the technicalities turn you off, don't read this! I've had several people ask me to write it out...so I'm just putting it on here and linking to it. It doesn't bother me to post it...but if it bothers you to read it...don't! :-) Okie dokie. Glad we have that settled!
So. I met with my OB (Dr. Ball) for my 40 week check up on Friday, Oct. 8. She checked me....and told me that nothing had changed from the week before...which was...I was 50 % effaced, but my cervix was still closed and high. Sigh. I was so sad. I was really, really hoping to be a little dilated. Just a smidgen! I wasn't. Dr. Ball wasn't optimistic. She wanted to schedule an induction date. She agreed that I could wait until 41 weeks until she officially evicted the little person in my belly, but she was more comfortable with 40.5 weeks. I reluctantly agreed and scheduled my induction date for Wednesday, Oct. 13.
I was sad. I knew from stories and experiences of other friends that I could be nothing one day and boom...in labor and completely progressing the next day...but I just didn't believe it was going to happen for me. I had started to have significant swelling in my hands and feet and I was beyond miserable. I had been in pain really for weeks. I'm just good at faking it. The end of this pregnancy was not joyful for me...sadly...and I wanted more than anything to go into labor like any normal person and BE DONE! I couldn't understand why my body wasn't groovin'!
Anyways. Friday evening....Josh came home from soccer and we all just stayed in. We had talked about going out to dinner...but decided to make hot dogs and mac and cheese and just stay in that night. Looking back...it was a pretty good decision. It was our last night as a family of three! :-) I was pretty irritable and tried a few..." things "to try and get things going....I had done them before, but I thought...what the heck. Didn't really feel like anything was working for me though!
Early Saturday morning around 1:00 AM I started having what I thought were contractions. I wasn't sure. They weren't contractions like I had felt before. They were low in my uterus and...honestly...kind of felt like gas. :-) I didn't have normal labor/contractions with Owen because I was induced and had an epidural...so I really wasn't sure what I was dealing with. Also, I mostly had back labor with Owen...so I was kind of clueless as to what real contractions would feel like. So...I dozed off and on between 1:30 and 5:30 AM. At 5:30 I woke up to my pain being more intense, stronger and closer together. I got out my cell phone, set up my stopwatch and tried to figure out what I was dealing with. I decided that my contractions were lasting around 45 seconds and were about 2-3 minutes apart at that time. I stayed in bed for awhile longer, then got up and walked around the house. Josh came to see what the heck I was doing and I explained that I wasn't sure if I was having contractions or....gas :-) He went back to bed (after all...this was the morning of his big sectional game!)
At 7:30 AM I called my OB office and had the switchboard page whomever was on call so I could to them. It happened to be Dr. Johnson...not my OB, but I like her probably a tad bit more than my OB because she is a little bit more open to natural childbirth/not inducing, etc. :-) I was happy that she was on call! I explained to her what was going on...she asked me a series of questions (like: how long was your first labor A. LONG!, etc!). She told me that I definitely needed to go in and to be checked. I sent Josh's parents a text....explaining that I wasn't sure what was going on with me...if it was labor or...false labor, I wasn't sure...but could they come and stay with Owen so I could go get it checked out :-) Josh's big game was at 10:00 and he had needed to leave to get down to school to meet his team around 7:30. I told him to go...that I would hate for him to miss his game if this wasn't real! So...he went! I was fine with it...REALLY! I promise! I called my mom and she agreed to come pick me up and take me to the hospital. I cleaned up around the house a little bit and paid a few bills :-) My mom arrived around 8:30 and I got to Clarian North around 9:00. I got hooked up in labor in delivery and was finally told (after being checked and on the monitor for what seemed like forever!) that I WAS in real labor and that I was dilated three centimeters and 80 % effaced! I was staying to have a baby TODAY on my actual due date and on the day of Josh's big sectional game(s)! Craziness!
So, I called Josh...told him that we were probably having a baby TODAY...but...I was only at 3 cm. I told him to stay for his game (against Ben Davis) and then head to the hospital :-) My mom had to leave to get to a breast cancer awareness banquet :-)...and really...really...believe me when I say that I was FINE with being alone. I was in the zone. :-) I didn't really want to talk to anyone! I walked for about an hour...then came back to my room and a nurse met me to set me up with a port (in case I emergently needed an IV). My nurse was awesome. She walked in and said something like..."hey, I hear you are trying to do natural childbirth. That's great. You just let me know if you need anything or something changes and we'll go from there, otherwise you won't hear anything from me". Score. That is EXACTLY what I wanted. She brought me in a birthing ball and I sat and rocked around on that for awhile. She told me that it would really help the baby drop and open up my pelvis. At this point...I was about 4 cm and my contractions were hard. They were about 45 seconds apart. I switched to the rocker for an our and rocked. During every contraction I would lean forward...drink water...and BREATHE/MOAN really hard. I was kind of animalistic. Lovely! Still...it was nice and quiet in my room and I felt like I was in the zone :-) It quickly got harder. My contractions started coming faster...and I decided that I needed a little help. I called my nurse and asked her to remind me what would happen if I tried nubain ( I had done it with Owen and loved it...but mostly because things were so long and drawn out that it put me to sleep!) She told me that it would take the edge off, but I would still be able to be mobile. Good. That's what I wanted to hear. So, she put the nubain in my port and I was zombie like immediately :-) It didn't take away the pain. The only thing it really did was make my down time in between contractions longer. I didn't feel the beginning of the contraction...only the middle to the end. The nubain worked for about 2 hours. Josh arrived in that time span...I had sent him a text and told him that things were really hard for me, and that I likely wouldn't be able to talk to him very well especially during a contraction. He was great. He just came in and sat...watched football...and ate a hamburger. My OB came around 3:30ish and broke my water...I was at 5-6 cm. She told me that my baby was still high and that I really ought to think about an epidural to get me to relax during contractions or she could give me pitocin. UM. NO. :-) I told her as much and she left me alone. My nurse said I did the right thing. Ya. Thanks!!
SO ...after my water was broken, it got bad. The pain during my contractions was really, really terrible...at one point I know I was crying. I don't think I ever yelled or screamed (I was doing all of that in my head)...but I was holding Josh's hand and moaning/crying...I don't know. It was really hard. About an hour after my water had been broken I thought that I had reached my breaking point. There was SO MUCH pressure and I was really outside of my body with pain at that point. I called my nurse and had decided in my head that if I wasn't close then I was done and ready for the epidural. Lucky for me...she checked me and I was at NINE! YAY! She told me that she thought I would be ready to push in about 5-10 minutes so she called my OB and wanted me to BLOW THROUGH the next couple of contractions without pushing even though I was pretty much complete. Let me tell ya...that was about impossible. At the end I didn't really have any control. My OB arrived about 10-15 later and I was so ready to push. The magical part of not having an epidural is that I didn't need anyone to tell me it was time to push...I just knew it. My body took over. It was insane...and painful and intense and kind of awful....but I pushed through three contractions...and HE WAS HERE! Praise Jesus! As soon as he was born, the pain was gone and everything was fine. The NICU had to come down because when my OB broke my water they found merconium (meaning Wes had had a bowel movement)....and the NICU team had to check him out to make sure he was ok...so that took awhile....but Josh went over to be with him while my OB cleaned me up ;-) With Owen, I had terrible tearing and an episiotomy. This time, my OB only had to cut a little old scar tissue so it really wasn't bad at all. She told me that because I hadn't had anesthesia that the stitches would be really painful...but they weren't. Nothing compared to those crazy contractions! :-)
Anyways, Wes was fine...they brought him to me and I about died when I saw him and saw how much he looked like Owen....he nursed WONDERFULLY right away...and then...I GOT UP and went to the bathroom! AMAZING!
So. In a really long nutshell...that is the birth story of Wesley Jameson Brown. We are all doing well and I would elaborate and post more pictures...but its time for my little guy to eat! Hope those of you who wanted to read all about this really enjoyed it...and for those who didn't want to know me this well...didn't read and are still really happy! Ha ha!
I'll be back with more pictures soon :-)
