He is Here! – Birth Story.

On September 25th at 4:43pm my son was born. He was 11lbs 14oz and 23inch long. The largest baby my OB had ever delivered. It was a long and hard labor and I had to make a hard decision at a difficult time that went against all of my wishes because of difficulties. OK here is my story.

I was BIG. It’s early and I’ve been in labor all night.

On the 24th I started having period like cramps at around 1pm I knew this could be it since I was 3 days past my due date so I went and took a nap. My mom was here to watch the children so I was lucky. When I woke up at 3 I started having contractions that were irregular but I went a head and texted my husband and told him that he would probably want to wrap things up at work and leave on time since this might be it. He came home straight away and went straight to bed knowing that it could be a really LONG night. My contractions started to lighten up and were almost completely stop by midnight so I decided to go to bed. As soon as a laid down they picked up again. I labored through the night and by 5 am could not lay in bed any longer. I woke my husband up at 5:30 and told him to take his shower and get ready to go to the hospital. At 6am I woke up my mom and we made coffee to take with them to the hospital. I couldn’t eat but I had a glass of juice to keep my energy up. When we got to the hospital I was already at 8cm and it was only 7am. We were all happy and hoping that I would be done at 10am. 3 hours go by where I labor standing up. This labor was much different than all my other labors. I was much more alert and had much more energy than I had with my other 2. My contractions were tough but not as though as I thought they should be. In between contractions I was still joking around and laughing. My husband and my mom taking turns rubbing my lower back during contractions which really helped and felt nice. 2 hours after that I am still at 8cm and my OB is talking about rupturing my membrane to get the baby’s head to help with the dilation. I had so much water that he was still floating around in there loose. I have always been against rupturing the membrane in a normal progressing delivery but I had now been stuck at 8cm for 5 hours and getting nowhere. I agreed.

After a rough contraction still catching my breath

With my other 2 my membrane always ruptured when I started pushing and then the head worked like a cork and I never felt the water until the baby was born. This time it felt very weird like I was peeing uncontrollably. A very odd feeling. She only made a small hole in the membrane so as to let labor come on stronger slowly. My contractions became harder and longer. Some lasting 5 min. but no progress. OB came back and made another hole and after that labor hit hard. I started having contractions back to back maybe getting 30sec between 5-7min contractions. The pain was beyond anything that I had ever felt before and my blood pressure had gotten really high. I couldn’t relax. 2 hours of this and I was begging God to save me. My mother at that point asks me if it wasn’t time for me to get something for the pain. As many of you know I am against epidurals unless there is a medical need. I had not progressed from the 8cm and the contractions were not letting up and my blood pressure was high. I caved. I felt like I failed. I started shaking uncontrollably I was in so much pain. But by the time I came to terms with getting and Epi the anesthesiologist couldn’t get there fast enough.  When she got there she asked my husband and mother to leave which neither of them were comfortable with doing. I remember my husband and mother looking at me while they were leaving, unsure and uneasy.
 Just getting the needle in place was an ordeal. I had 3 contractions and with each one I flooded the floor with amniotic fluid. The nurse had to jump out of the way. At first I thought I was peeing myself and at the time I really didn’t care. The nurse was asking me to bend forward which I hadn’t been able to do for months because my belly was soooooo big. With each contraction I could bend further forward because each time more water would flood out with much relief to me and each time the nurse would ask for another towel to clean up the floor and then after the epidural was in place they had to change my whole bed because I flooded it all. They had never seen so much fluid come from one person. Finally the epidural kicked in and I couldn’t stop shaking. The odd thing was having feelings of pressure but not pain. I laid there shivering and in and out of sleep since I had been up at that point for over 24 hours and been in unbearable pain for over 2 hours. I felt when I had a contraction but even though it was uncomfortable it was so much better than what I had been feeling. I had done my research on Epidurals and knew that since I had gotten to 8cm there was a little chance that it would interfere with me having the baby naturally. My OB came in and explained to me and my family that since the baby was so big that there was still a likelihood that I might have to have a c section. I told her that I wanted to try everything to have this baby naturally. I was still at 8cm at that point but we waited an hour and when the OB came back I was 10cm and ready to push. I found it weird that someone was telling me it was time to push. With my first two there was no question if it was pushing time because my body  would just do it. The nurse started having me push to see if the baby would fit under my pubic bone. Pushing was hard since I couldn’t feel much of anything that I was doing. But with the help of the nurse and my mother and husband I was able to push him under my pubic bone. At that point the nurse called in my OB and an army of nurses. Here I am exposed to the world and since my belly was so large no landscaping had been done in that area for months but I didn’t care.
Giving birth this time was an odd feeling. I felt the pressure but nothing else. My son came out and he was placed on my belly and he was blue, covered in vernix (the white fatty stuff), his head was coned and he had rolls on his upper arms and legs. He was angry!
 The nurse kept touching his head to try to help him to latch on to nurse and each time he yelled. I kept telling her to stop touching his head since it was clearly painful to him but she kept trying. He was a BIG baby. The nurses started guessing on the weight and writing the guesses down. Nobody guessed high enough. Nobody thought 11lbs 14oz. or 5400gr. I didn’t think that he would be that big. I only had second degree tears and less damage than I had with my second that was 9lbs 3oz. For the rest of my stay at the hospital my room became like a side show at a carnival and the nurses took turns coming in to see him and amazed at his size and being born vaginally.

That is 5400gr for you non Americans

My labor and delivery nurse was so great!

My mother one of the best labor coaches Ever!

Baby was a little slow to nurse but I expected that with having had an Epi. as soon as it started wearing off of me he started nursing like a champ and hasn’t stopped since. I didn’t get to sleep that night though. He was uncomfortable and hungry and I ended up awake until the next day. The next day our pediatrician Dr. Hart came to see us. I was so happy to see her because I was a bit worried about the swelling that looked like fat around his neck and under his ears.  If you look at the photo of my mother holding the baby you can see the swelling under his ears. Dr. Hart did OMT therapy and the swelling went away! I was so thankful. It didn’t look right to me and I had been praying that he did not have some sort of  disorder all night long.

The big brothers checking out the new addition.

 It’s a month later now and what a ride. Being a mother of 3 and healing from delivery. My mother and father have been great help and so was my mother in law and father in law a few days after birth. I was surrounded by people that cared for us and felt very blessed. Everybody is not that lucky.

This week I took baby boy to his one month check up and he is now 15lbs 14oz and 24inch long! He is in the 100th percentile. I grow giants and have given little boy the new nickname of Mr. Chubs. He is so chubby! I guess the breast milk works.

Thank you all for all that you do!