the birth story

The birth story... aka, How my world turned upside down!

I have to get this all down before it becomes a distant memory... the details are already getting a little fuzzy.

I can't promise that this will make sense... I'm a new mama with sleep deprivation after all!

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Tuesday October 20th, 2009

11:45am - 40 week doctor appointment, one day before my scheduled due date. Dr. S was out of the office so I saw Dr. P. She checked my progress. I was 4cm, and about 80%. Definitely making some progress from last week. She told me to start walking & having sex. If I wasn't walking, I should be having sex, and if I wasn't having sex, I should be walking! She wants to see me on Thursday morning for a biophysical profile ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid and the size of my little guy. Since I would be passed my due date at that time I would also need a NST. And one every other day until I finally delivered.

For curiosity sake, I asked her to estimate the size of the baby. Like Dr. S, she said he'd be no bigger than mid 7's. Ha! I left my appointment still thinking I was going to end up with a November baby. We discussed induction, and again said it was up to me about waiting until Nov. As long as there was no medical reason to induce, he could keep cookin'.

After my appointment I headed to my mom's for lunch. Then went to pick my little brother up from school so we could walk at the park. Mom said I couldn't go alone... in case something happened! At this point I was still having very sporadic contractions. I had to stop a few times during our walk to breath through a few strong contrax.

Headed home, and Joe was just getting home too. He showered and we got down to business... sex and more walking!

Around 6:30 we headed to dinner at Longhorn. At this point I was having contractions every 12 minutes, but didn't really think anything of it because I could easily walk & talk through these ones. During dinner the contrax continued, and got closer - down to 10 minutes apart now. We had to stop at Lowe's on the way home - I broke the shower that morning. I pulled the little puller-upper thing that turns a bath to a shower right off!

We got home from dinner and Lowe's around 9:30. I told Joe to get to sleep... it could be a long night. I rolled the yoga ball over to the computer and check my email, balanced my checkbook, and caught up with my Google reader. All the while clicking back and forth to ContractionMaster.com

By 11:30pm my contractions were 5 minutes apart. I woke Joe up and told him to get in the shower to help wake him up. I gathered all our stuff and we were out the door by midnight. At that point my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart. I was surprised at how bearable they were. We had to stop at Quick Check so Joe could get an energy drink... he was really beat from a long day at work!

Wednesday October 21st, 2009 We checked into Labor & Delivery at 12:30am on October 21st, my due date. And wouldn't you know I did not have one single contraction for 20 minutes. I thought for sure they were going to send me home. The nurse check me... 5cm and 100%, with bulging membranes. Nice to know those contractions were doing something :)

I was finally able to convince the nurse to let me walk the halls. That started the contractions back up again... a consistent 3 minutes again. But when I had to go back to bed for fetal monitoring they would fall back to 5-6 minutes apart. At 5am I was checked again. Still at 5cm, 100% & bulging. They offered Nubain, and I took it. I was told it would take the edge off the pain and hopefully relax me enough to make some more progress. They lied... it did not take the edge off. It did nothing for the pain. But it did make me groggy... enough to let me take a mini cat-nap between each contraction. They checked me again at 6am, and sure enough - progress. I was at 8cm. Dr. L came in to break my water. What a gross feeling! I regressed back to 6cm, because there the pressure on my cervix wasn't as strong anymore. I was pretty uneventful until 7:30am when Dr. R came in. My contrax were extremely inconsistent again. He offered the epi, I declined. But did ask for some more Nubain :) At 8:15am he put me on the lowest dose of Pitocin. Within minutes the contrax were one on top of the other... and they SUCKED. At one point I remember thinking "shit - should've got the freakin' epi!" The urge to push came on quick & strong. I kept telling the nurse I had to push, but I was only 9cm and they told me to breathe through. Breathe my ass. I started to push. At 9:05 I expereienced that infamous "ring of fire" - holy hell! Dr. R was in the ER performing emergency surgery... they had to call in the Nurse Midwife to deliver. She barely had her gloves on when Trevor was born at 9:15am. Joe was so awesome throughout the whole labor. He knew when to talk, and when to shut the hell up. When to brush the hair out of my face, and when to leave me alone. He cut the cord, and they put Trevor on my chest. I was so overwhelmed. Joe was crying... I was crying. He was finally here. We created awesomeness! The nurses took him away to clean him up and check him out. The anticipation was killing us... how much did he weigh? Nine pounds! Nine pounds on the dot. Holy shit.. nine pounds. My little "no more than mid 7's" baby was nine freaking pounds.

Trevor Allen October 21, 2009 9:15 am 9 pounds 21 inches Blonde peach fuzz, dark grey eyes & full lips pure awesomeness!

** I had a 1st degree tear - required two stitches. Trevor came out with his left hand by his face. So not only did I have to deliver his big head, but his hand too.