My birth experience

Well, here is the story of how Michael arrived. It's a little long but I wanted to write down everything so I can have it to read in the future.

Justin and I dropped off our kids on Sunday night to my in-laws so they could babysit during our hospital stay. Justin and his Dad gave me a nice blessing before we left which I really appreciated. We came home and I tried to sleep but I was restless and nervous. We woke up at 5:30 AM and got ready and arrived at the hospital around 6:45 AM for my 7 AM induction.

We got checked in and headed up to the labor and delivery room. Before any meds were started, I was dilated to a 2. She checked my blood pressure and it was reading a little high but she said it was normal since most moms are a little nervous. At 7:30 the nurse put my IV in and it hit a block so she pushed through it and it hurt like crazy! I am still bruised from it! My blood pressure dropped really low so she put me on oxygen for 15 minutes so I didn't feel so light-headed. She then started me on the oxytocin and contractions started to come every 3-4 minutes although not too hard. My doctor arrived around 8:30 and broke my water and said I was at a 3. After that the contractions started to come every 2-3 minutes and they were pretty rough. The nurse asked if I wanted to epidural and I said yes, although I felt like a wimp since I was only at a 3 :) By the way, I loved all of my nurses, especially my delivery nurse.

It took probably 30-40 minutes before the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. It still wigged me out a little but was okay although it worked much better on my right side. I told the nurse I was still feeling some contractions and back pain on my left side so she had me lay on that side to help the meds flow that way. It definitely helped and later they let me turn and lay on my right side which helped also. I stayed at a 4 for a while and felt like the labor would be really long.

The nurse then upped my dose of meds and came in at 11:30 AM to check me and I was at a 7. She said I would be a 10 in 20 minutes and to plan on having the baby by noon. She came back around 11:50 and indeed I was fully dilated. She called the doc, prepared the room and put me back on oxygen for the delivery. My doctor came and had me push once and said the head was crowning. He told me I would tear a little and recommended a little episiotomy so I agreed. He then had me push again and out came the head. For my final push the baby came out and it was amazing because I wasn't really numb above my belly button and I could feel the baby leaving my body :)

He cried for a few minutes and then calmed down. His first Apgar test score was 8.9 I believe. He weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz, 21 inches long and was born at 12:06 PM. He was bundled up and Justin held him while the doc finished up with me. I guess my placenta wasn't cooperating so he had to push high up on my stomach a lot which hurt quite a bit since I wasn't numb there. Finally he finished and stitched me up. I held the baby and he was sounding like he had fluid in his throat so we asked the nurse and she sent him to the nursery to suction him out better and warm him up. He was gone for about 2 hours so it felt weird to give birth and then not have my baby for so long.

After waiting the standard hour in the delivery room, they moved me to my private room and my lunch had arrived and I was glad, I was hungry! The meds were wearing off pretty quickly although I stayed numb and didn't need medication until 9 PM that night.

Well, that's the story of how I delivered my baby. Really easy delivery, and a wonderful baby to hold.

I will write another post about my hospital stay because I love the hospital, the nurses, the food (well mostly) and the pampering they give you. It deserves its own post.