James' Birth Story

I have been trying to get this post out for almost 3 weeks now, so here we go, the Story of James' Birth!  It is pretty long, but I want to get it all down for my records as well.


The story of James’ birth goes back to Friday July 8th, All week I had been cleaning up a storm, and getting everything prepared. Starting Friday I was having a lot of cramping and we were unsure what was happening.

We decided to stay close to home just in case something happened. We waited and waiting and nothing…

Monday Morning came and my husband went off to work and I headed to the OB’s office for my weekly appointment. I was given the option of being checked or not. After thinking about it, I decided to be checked. I had been wondering all weekend and I thought if I am not even dilated yet I want to know so I am not waiting thinking I am close.

My doctor checked and then allowed his student to check. This was when I was informed that I was 3 – 4 cm dilated and about 60% effaced. My doctor sent me home but told me that after the check chances were I would meet him in L&D that night (he was on call that night)!!

I texted my doula and my husband to let them know of the progress and then I headed home to have a nap. My husband asked if I wanted him to come home. I told him it was up to him. He decided that he would stay for a while and get some work done and readdress the situation in a bit. This lasted until he met up with a few female co-workers who insisted that he head home to be with me and not plan to come back into work for the rest of the week.

So around noon DH came home and we both took it easy, DH hadn't slept well so he went to lie down.

At 4:45 I starting having what I thought were contractions. I pulled out my iphone and opened my contractions app and started timing them, sure enough they were about 10 minutes apart. I waited until I was sure I was seeing a pattern to wake up my husband.


At this point I was uncomfortable but making it through, I was actually surprised that I was not in more pain...lol. I actually sent a message to a midwife friend of mine to ask why it was not more painful.

Around 8 p.m. my husband and I decided to start walking around the block to try and get the contractions a little stronger. So off we went stopping every few laps to come back home to pee. Around 10 p.m. my contractions were about 5 minutes apart, but were still not very strong. We called our Doula Sarah and she headed over.

Back out onto the street we went to keep walking. Around Midnight the contractions were getting stronger, and I started throwing up during some of the contractions. I was getting uncomfortable at this point. I could not find a position that I was comfortable in.

Finally around 2 a.m. my contractions were about 3 minutes apart so we decided to head to L&D. We waved down a cab and headed to the hospital. Once we got there, they hooked me up to the monitors and sure enough they agreed I was in labor. My doctor came in and did a check. I was still only 3-4 cm dilated. The decision was made that they would break my water, we just needed to wait for a room to be available. It was suggested that I go do some laps around the hospital while waiting to try and get things moving. After one or two laps I broke down in tears. We had been walking around since 8 p.m. I was tired and I was afraid that if I kept walking I would run out of energy when it came to go time. We decided that I wanted to get into my room and take a bit of a break.

Well it turns out it was a pretty busy night and the doctors were tied up on C-Sections. Finally around 6 a.m. we all fell asleep. I was woken up around 7 a.m. and I found my contractions had slowed right down. My OB came in and apologized for not being available and that someone would be in soon to break my water. I got up and started walking around again which got things started back up again.

Around 10 a.m a resident came in to break my water. Unfortunately she could not feel the baby's head and did not feel comfortable breaking my water without knowing where the baby's head was in relationship to the cord. I was upset, my husband swore that the resident have short stubby fingers which is why she couldn't feel the baby's head. I was determined to make things happened, I spent the next hour and a half in the squat position and bouncing on a birthing ball to try and get the baby to move back down. 
Around Noon another resident came in, the baby was in a good position and their broke my water. It was at this point they noticed a tiny bit of Meconium, so they wanted to keep a close eye on things. I was hooked up to a monitor to keep track of the baby. It was a this point that my contractions really picked up in strength.
 
I got up to use the washroom and as I came back to the bed the contractions were on top of each other, I was hunched over the end of the bed throwing up with my Doula massaging my back. A nurse came into the room and started insisting that I get back into bed and onto the monitor. I could not move let alone get back into bed. I ended up getting pretty forceful with the nurse at this point stating I would get back into bed when I was good and ready to get back into bed and that I was not moving in the middle of a contraction.  Looking back we figure I was in transition at this point.

I started asking for the epidural at this point, I have heard of people having to wait for a while to get one, so I was surprised that within 10 minutes of asking the Anesthesiologist was in the room and within 30 minutes of asking I was comfortable telling the Anesthesiologist that he was my new best friend.

At this point I was checked and I was 10 cm and it was time to push.  I don't remember much of the pushing, it seems like I was only pushing for half an hour, but it was actually two hours.  In around the hour mark my husband said something jokingly but it pissed me off.  I can't even remember what it was, but it pissed me off enough that my pushes were much more effective, so I spent the next few contractions coming up with things that pissed me off and thinking about those.

Unfortunately coming up on the two hour mark these was not enough, the baby's heartbeat was starting to dip and was not recovering as quickly after each set of pushes.  We had to make a decision an episiotomy or vacuum or keep going and risk having to use the forceps.  We decided to go with the vacuum.  At this point I broke into tears. Everyone thought I was upset about the vacuum, but it was all the emotions of the pregnancy, the labor and this moment were catching up with me.  I knew that in just a matter of moments, I was going to have the one thing I had wanted more then anything in the world for so many years...I was going to be a Mommy.

With the next set of pushes the baby was born.  We were lucky, the baby waited to take his first breath so they were able to just wipe away the meconium and he didn't need any special care.  We had asked that DH tell me the sex of the baby, tears were streaming down his face, I couldn't understand what he was saying to me, the doctors thought he was telling me it was a girl, but he was saying "we have our Will" (which was a name that we were considering).  I kept saying what what what, finally I understood, It was a Boy.


I am finally a Mommy.