Birth Story

Okay, I'm still not adjusted to life as a new mom yet, but here's the short (as possible) version of Isaac's birth story.

My mom came over on Thursday the 6th to help get my mind off of things (things being my still being pregnant 2 days past my due date). She took me to lunch, we went on a few errands, got pedicures. Then we came back to the house and my dad came after work to help Aaron pick up a closet rail from Lowe's.

While my dad and Aaron were gone at Lowe's, my mom and I waited here at the house to go get dinner with them after. As we were sitting there watching a TV, I felt the strangest sensation... like I peed my pants a little.

Well, I realized this was either my water breaking or I really was losing my uh, control. So after I went to the restroom to try and ascertain which of the two it was, I calmly came out and told my mom I think this might be it. She offered to call back my dad (they had just called from Lowe's), and I told her to wait because I didn't want Aaron to get too worked up - especially considering I wasn't sure if my water had actually broken or not.

My mom helped me gather up the last minute items on the packing list and we started loading the suitcases and pillows into my car.

When Aaron and my dad got back to the house, Aaron was pretty heated because Lowe's seems to have screwed up our custom order. I'm standing there in the hallway, with a rolling suitcase behind me, and Aaron is going on and on about this closet rail! Hilarious! Finally he stops for a second and I tell him I think my water has broken.

So we head to the hospital, my parents following behind. The intention is to go find out whether or not it's my water and if not to go get some dinner (I was starving!).

After a couple of rather uncomfortable tests, we get the great news that it was indeed amniotic fluid and I was being admitted to the hospital. I knew Isaac was not more than 24 hours away. :)

I got into one of the "big rooms" - the really nice first come first serve rooms where you get to have the whole shabang: labor, delivery, recovery, and post-partum. I send Aaron off with my parents to get food while they get me started with paperwork and my IV, and I wait to start pitocin until he gets back. I was having contractions, but nothing strong enough to get any dilation happening.

Aaron gets back and we start pitocin around 10pm. I'm still hoping to go epidural free at this point.

They didn't have to give me very much pitocin, the nurse sounded surprised when she only had to turn it up once. I was thankful my doc wasn't present because she said he would probably have her turn it up, but she thought the dose I was on was just fine. :)

I did alright with my breathing until around 5am. I was shaking and thought I might be 6-7 cms. I hadn't yet been checked, so I asked to be checked, thinking if the news wasn't great about my progress I would go ahead with the epidural as I was shaking and really starting to have a lot of pain. Well, I was only FOUR CENTIMETERS. Yeah, NOT cool. So I requested my new best friend the anesthesiologist to come into the room. He did and after a little bit of struggle to stick out my lower back through painful contractions, I had my epidural.

I'll spare you the details about my catheter and my baby's propensity for resting his head right on my bladder, but let's say I had a few issues there.

By this time it was around 7 and my doctor had arrived. As he was checking my catheter for problems, my water had another nice little rupture. Apparently there was "a lot" of meconium. And unbenownst to me, little Isaac had been having some troubling heart-rate issues on his monitor. The combination of those two issues made the doc start talking to me about the possibility of a c-section. He wanted to keep an eye on it, but we were still trying for a vaginal delivery.

At this point I was 6cm and 100% effaced. However, Isaac had not moved down at all from his -2 station which was exactly where he was 2 weeks prior at my check up, and the night before when I was admitted.

By around 8:00am I was 8cm, and the doc came back and said it could be another couple of hours before I was ready to push. He thought by that point Isaac might be in more distress. At this point it wasn't an emergency, and he wasn't terribly worried about the meconium, but he didn't feel comfortable letting me hang out and labor for another couple hours and possibly put my little guy into danger.

Off he went to gather the team for the operating room, and around 8:15 I started feeling the urge to push. The nurse checked me and sure enough I was 10cm. She had me push a couple times, hoping that she would be calling the doc back in to do a vaginal delivery. However my stubborn baby boy was not moving. Apparently Aaron overheard them talking in the hallway after my attempts to push and the doc seemed to think it would still be a couple hours before my contractions moved Isaac further down.

I was then whisked off on quite a scary little ride through the halls and rolled into the operating room, which looked like something out of a science fiction movie. My little team of doctors and nurses was filing into the room and when I heard them asking for a person from the NICU I asked if Dawn Verlangieri was available, since I know her from church. I wasn't panicked about the NICU nurse, I know that's standard thanks to my prepared childbirth class. ;) Another nurse asked me if I knew Dawn and I said yes, and she asked me if I went to Flipside. Turns out this lady was someone who I hadn't met, but my pastor had told me a lot about. I felt very comforted in this scary moment knowing that God had put someone familiar in there just to make me feel better!

I was crying pretty much the whole time. I had such mixed feelings. I was so scared and disappointed by having to go ahead with the c-section. I felt somehow robbed of the chance to deliver my son naturally. However, I was also very excited because in a matter of minutes I would be seeing his beautiful face for the first time.

At 8:54am, on Friday May 7th, Isaac Xavier was born. He was 8 pounds 14 ounces (no wonder he wasn't moving down!), and 20 inches long.

I got to see him only briefly before he and Aaron went to the nursery, and I was sewn (stapled) up and taken to recovery. Around 11am I was taken out of recovery and into my room. I expected to get to see my baby right away, but unfortunately he had some breathing trouble due to the meconium and they were monitoring him pretty closely. FINALLY around 1:15pm I got to actually hold my little guy for the first time.

I could not take my eyes off of him, of course. And sorry, friends, but he is the most beautiful baby ever. ;) We're getting the hang of things like breastfeeding and diaper changes and burping and swaddling, and while I am completely and utterly exhausted I am also completely and utterly overjoyed every time I look at my son. I love watching Aaron with him, I love the silly faces he makes, I love comforting him when he cries. He is my baby, the one I've been waiting for all this time.

And he is so worth every single tear I cried for want of him.