Birth Story

Before amnisia sets in. Here are the details of Aiden Michael's birth.

I planned on working till the bitter end, but on Monday April 25th, 4 days past due, it hit me. Why the hell did I want to do that to myself. So I asked for a sign to let me know I shouldn't go to work. Sure enough, I went to the bathroom and got gobs of bloody show. That was it, maternity leave had started for me. I called the doctor to move my appointment up from 6:00pm to 3:00pm. I went for a long walk, sat on my birth ball and then headed out for the doc appointment. I was monitored for 20 minutes. All looked good, except my blood pressure was 140/95. When they took it again it was 145/100. The doctor came in and said I would deliver the next day. I agreed as I was ready to go. I was to be at the hospital at 5:00am. As soon as I left the office I started getting regular contractions. I think the doctor might has stripped my membraines to get me started. They were 10 minutes apart. Felt like mild AF cramps but in my back. They seemed to have stopped or slowed down at 11pm. So we headed off to sleep. Contractions started again at 1:30am and were much stronger. Some of them pretty painful. Couldn't sleep so I took a shower at 3:45am. Then got the phone call posponing the induction till 11:00am. Everyone went back to sleep, except for me. Side note....my sister the labor coach came by to spend the night, Mom and Dad were still living with us. Their closing on their new house was at 3:00pm the next day. My brother came by to work, so we had a pretty busy household in the morning. All the while my contractions were getting stronger and were now 5 minutes apart. I was crossing my fingers that I would not need pitocin after all. We got to the hospital at 11:00 and checked in. Was very happy that the room looked like a hotel room instead of a hospital. We met Kim, our nurse and she was wonderful, soft spoken and very concerned with my well being. She monitored me for a while but my contractions seemed to have gotten really irregular. I got through getting the IV after two tries. That was probably the worst part of labor. She started pitocin at 1:00pm and kept it a minimum for 15 minutes, she then upped it to a 2. Contractions got pretty regular at 3 minutes apart but pretty managable. My sister and husband helped me get through each contraction. At about 4:00pm, they both got side tracked and I got left alone for about 10 minutes. The lack of support through each contraction made them seem unbearable. I really have to stress how wonderful it was to have support, because when I didn't have it, it was much worse. Kim adviced me that if I was considering the epidural, I might want to request it earlier than expected because the anestisialogist could take a while getting there. I got the epidural around 5:00pm. I was really scared about the procedure, but my husband helped me get through it. Everyone says this, but once the epidural went in, I felt like a million bucks. Kim told me that the next 3 contractions would feel less and less painful, but when the next one hit, I didn't feel a thing. Michael tickled my feet for fun and again, didn't feel a thing. All the internal checks after that, didn't feel a thing. At 6:00 I was checked again and I was at 8 cm. I was checked again at 7:00 and I was complete according to two different nurses. When the doctor came in at 7:45 she broke my water and checked me, but told me I was only a good 8. Both nurses rolled their eyes as they knew I was much further along. The nurse made a comment that by the time the doctor thought it was time, the baby would be starting college. I got moved around a little bit because Aiden was under stress. I was glad she made me wait to push because by the time she had me start, the baby was already way down there. She had my epidural turned off so I can feel the contractions and know when to push. I started pushing at 8:45. It took a couple of pushes to learn to do it right. It was amazing to feel the head coming out, and even more amazing to feel the rest of the body coming. I felt shoulders, body, knees and feet. I thought it would all come out at once, not slowly and feeling every body part. Overall, I didn't think it was that bad. The worst part of it was afterward. Aside from the stiches, they gave me a full bag of pitocin to get my uterus to contract. It felt like one long but mild contraction. On top of that, the nurses kept pushing on my stomach every 15 minutes.

I feel really blessed to have had a good delivery. Aiden Michael was born Tuesday April 26th at 9:29pm weighing 7lbs 5oz. He was 20 inches long and his apgar scores were 9 and 9.