Owen's Birth

On Sunday, July 20, I went in for another non-stress test. Mary was chomping at the bit and wanted to move my induction up a day. I was exhausted, after being up all night with bad lower back pain and cramps. I was also having a decent number of contractions until the time of my non-stress test (go figure). Anywho, Mary asked them if we could start the induction that day since they weren’t very busy and we were told to call later. I thought I was going to punch Mary as we left as I had prepared myself for an induction on Monday night and now it was possibly going to happen that night. It also wasn’t set in stone so I spent the rest of the day anxiously waiting to call at 3:00. I called at 3:00 and was told “no” and to call the following day about hopefully getting in for my scheduled induction.

I was emotionally and physically exhausted so I went to my room to cry. Mary came up a while later and I started having what I thought were some serious lower back spasms. The back spasms continued and Mary realized they were happening every 15 minutes so we came to the conclusion that they were actually contractions. I tried to relax myself with some hypnobirthing methods and eventually took a bath to try to relieve the back pain and clean up for the birth of my son.

The contractions had started around 4:00 p.m. and by 9:30 they were about 6-7 minutes apart and excruciating. It was all back labor and I dreaded the approach of each contraction. We weren’t supposed to call until they were 5 minutes apart but I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. I had also started vomiting. So we called and were told to come in for a check. When we got there at about 10:15, I was 2-3 centimeters. They gave me something for the nausea and then I was free to use the jacuzzi tub and what not (I also tried the birthing ball).

At 1:30 a.m. I was in so much pain and so exhausted. I was checked again and was still 2-3 centimeters so I decided to get an epidural at 2:00 a.m. and it was the best decision I made in the entire process. I was able to relax and rest (and Mary could actually sleep). Within 4 hours, I was 7 centimeters and at about 8:00 a.m. I was fully dilated and was going to start pushing within the hour. We were just waiting for the baby to drop some. We called my mom who was a nervous wreck after not hearing from us since we left the house the evening before. We told her we’d have the baby in a couple of hours.

Well, things did not go so smoothly. After 3 hours of pushing and getting into an array of positions, I was told that the baby’s position was not optimal for pushing him out. The baby was getting tired and so was I so the plan was to bring in a doctor for a vacuum delivery. If that didn’t work, it would be on to a c-section. Suddenly, “a team” was brought in. Some how, it was all women so there was about 10 women in the room for Owen’s birth. With the vacuum I thought I would no longer have to push but no, it was on me to make sure he got the most assistance possible while the vacuum turned him and pulled him.

At 12:39 p.m., July 21, he made his first cry – the pediatrician (a member of the team) gave the go ahead for him to go directly to me. The pain and exhaustion was wiped out. It was the most amazing thing ever. There is nothing to describe the feeling of having your wet and messy baby right on your chest immediately after birth. Though the labor was less than desirable, it was more than worth it and I’d do it all over again to have my baby boy.