Birth Story

Warning: details included may be too much information for some so read ahead with caution.... :)


I mentioned a couple posts ago that I was scheduled to be induced Thursday morning...well, I woke up Wednesday feeling a bit off. Just not quite normal. First thing when I get out of bed is a trip to the bathroom. Then I was up preparing breakfast for Ian before he headed off to work. Only I ended up back in the bathroom about three times over the next 20 minutes. The thought crossed my mind that maybe my water had broken but I wasn't sure. I mentioned to Ian that this might be the case, but I also could just be crazy. :/

I wasn't in any pain, no contractions or anything...just LOTS of trips to the bathroom.

Finally about noon I was convinced that I was indeed leaking amniotic fluid. I made a phone call to the doctor and they said to head on over to their office so they could check things out and see for 100% certainty and whether or not I was dilating.

Fast forward a couple hours and a few phone calls later, a friend is watching the kids and Ian, Amanda and I are on our way to the doctor. He checks me and verifies that yes, my water has broken and I'm dilated 3-4cm. Still no contractions.

I had tested positive for the group B strep so the doctor needed me to receive antibiotics for at least four hours before birth. We headed to the hospital (the building is joint with the doctor's office, so it wasn't far). There they hooked me up to the iv with antibiotics and proceeded to ask me the standard millions of questions. The nurse hooked up the baby monitor and the contractions monitor belt things around me. I'm still feeling perfectly fine, no pain but she tells me that I am having contractions. Huh, okay well at least I can't feel them! :)

8:00 p.m. approaches and the doctor gives the go ahead for me to get some pitocin. Time to get this show on the road!


It doesn't take long before the contractions pick up, not to fast and still bearable. We pass the time watching Mythbusters on tv and the nurse pops in every 20 minutes or so and cranks up the pitocin.

The doctor wanted an update about once an hour so the nurse checked me a little after 9:00, 6 cm.

A little after 10:00, 7 cm.

About 10:30 contractions are starting to HURT! I'm in pain and I don't think Amanda was really sure how to watch/act. The nurse was really sweet and pulled her aside and showed her how to wet down a wash cloth with cool water and bring it to me, also how to swing it around in the air as a fun way to cool it faster.

Around 11:00 I'm really uncomfortable, on the pain scale 0-10...I'm about a 8-9. The nurse checks me once again and says I'm 8 cm and the baby is LOW, which explains all the pressure I feel. She calls the doctor in assuming that things are going to go quickly from this point. He checks me and says yes I'm 8 cm and could probably push a couple times to fully dilate but there's a lip (whatever that means) on one side of my cervix. He looks at the nurse and says, "have her breath through a few more contractions"....and then he leaves the room. I don't think I've ever, EVER been so disappointed then I was at that moment!

I'm feeling really, really weak. I think this is because I hadn't eaten now for almost 12 hours. There was a lot of crying, moaning, me crying "I can't" (I think I say that during every labor as illogical as it is) The pain isn't letting up, between contractions I have a lot of back pain and pelvic pressure.

I think I must have said that I felt like pushing enough to convince the nurse, so she grabbed the doctor back in FINALLY. I don't think I'd dilated any more at this point but he tells me to try and push anyway. I get about half a push in and he tells me to relax and STOP PUSHING. He says baby's head is out and I need to relax and let the rest of him just slide out so I won't tear. UMMM, have you ever tried to NOT PUSH? So, so hard. Seconds later baby was placed up on my chest and oh what a GREAT feeling that is!!!!

The contractions are gone and all eyes are looking at this little miracle. :)




Rough, rough, super painful....but SOOOO worth it!