The Birth Story!

WARNING- This is long and might be TMI at times, but it is a birth story :).

OK, So early Friday morning,  OCT 15, I woke up with contractions at 1:30am. They were 10 minutes apart and lasted for 2 hours! I was excited because I thought this was it, but unfortunately it stopped.  I was 41 weeks and SOOO ready to have this baby. I had my Dr appointment scheduled for 10:20 that morning. The entire pregnancy I said I did not want to be induced, but I had reached my breaking point after trying EVERYTHING to go into labor with no success. SO, I had this whole speech planned to give the Dr to let me be induced that day.....well I wouldn't need that speech. :)

As soon as I checked in at the Dr, the receptionist said "Oh, you are 41 weeks!? I hope you brought your bag, cause you're headed to the hospital" Well, I was thrilled to hear her say this, but I had not brought my bag! I was thinking if we were going to go to the hospital we would go home and then go check in a little later. Well when I saw the Dr, she said my BP was a little high and I had a small amount of protein my urine so it was time to be induced. Surprisingly I had a few contractions in the Dr's office but didn't think too much of them. So we headed to the hospital.

We checked into the hospital at 11:30am, and my contractions started getting a little stronger, still about 10 minutes apart. The admissions desk asked if I was checking in for an induction and I said yes, but I was having contractions. I waited for almost 45 minutes since there were other women in active labor that needed a room sooner than me, but I was starting to get more uncomfortable. I finally got my room and by the time they hooked me up to the monitor I was contracting every 3-5 minutes on my own! They started the pitocin on a very low level since I was doing fine on my own!
At 2:30pm the midwife came in and broke my water. I was at 4 cm and the contractions were getting a little more intense. I think I must have a higher pain tolerance than I thought because the contractions were painful but not as bad as I thought they would be. I think thats because you get a break and they are really only bad at the peak. Because my BP had been high that day, the nurses suggested I call for my epidural sooner than later. Apparently pain makes your BP higher and mine was high enough. I called for the epidural at 4:30....knowing that the pain was getting pretty uncomfortable and was sshh-ing people each time I had one. I didnt want anyone talking while I was hurting haha! 
The epidural wasnt too bad. It felt like a bad back spasm for a second. He had to adjust it at first because when he put it in, my right leg jumped! Apparently that means it was too far over but he got it centered and it was fine. It actually took a little longer to kick in that I hoped and we were worried he would have to try it again but thankfully it started working soon after that! 
By 7:30 I was 6 cm and 90% effaced. Baby was at 0 station and needed to drop a little more.  My contractions were a little irregular so they upped the pitocin to even them out. They also decided to flip me on my side and put one leg in a stirrup to try to get the baby to drop more. 

At 10:15 I was 8 cm but still 0 station. I was starting to get nervous about a c-section at this point. I was also running a fever of 101 so they were monitoring that as well as my BP which was still a little high. The nurses decided to sit me up vertical in the bed like I was sitting in a chair to help the baby move down. I sat like Buddah for 30 minutes and then started feeling the contractions in my back really bad so they turned up the epidural. This is when labor got harder. I got sick to my stomach while sitting up and threw up a few times. Thank goodness I had not eaten anything all day, but throwing up nothing is not fun either. 

At midnight I had made it to 10 cm and the baby had dropped to +1!! Gravity did its job and we were ready to push! I started pushing at 12:16am on 10/16. After 1 hour of pushing, I was almost passing out between pushes I was soo tired! I also got sick again :(. But after that I was better. My Dr. said the baby's head was nice and round and it needed to get more cone shaped so it could fit under the pubic bone. I was determined to make him fit and was pushing so hard it made my bladder bleed! Sounds scary but Dr said it was fine. 

Joshua "Brett" Bonner, II was born at 2:02 am on October 16, 2010! He was 8lbs 1 oz and 20 3/4 in long! I did not know this before, but the Dr. said he was going to give it 2 hours before we talked about "other options". Well, I pushed him out in 1 hour and 47 minutes! Just in time! My husband was amazing through the whole labor and was a great coach! He was also an awesome nurse the next few days while I recovered. He did everything I asked and never once complained. I love him so much..even more now than before. :) Unfortunately Brett had to be admitted to the Nicu for an infection the day after birth, but I will post about that later. He is perfectly healthy now and we are headed home tonight!! :)

 My handsome boys!!!