An 8th Birthday! {and a birth story}

Today we are celebrating our second child, Sam.  

 

He is 8 today!

 

 

 

Sam is a lego-building, hockey-playing, strong-willed kid!  As much as he can push my buttons some days, he can also be a sweet boy who just wants to snuggle with his mommy.  He is quite the comic around here and is always saying things that just make me giggle and shake my head.  He is a quick learner and lately has been amazing me with his math skills.

He has truly blessed our lives!

 

 

When each of my kids’ birthdays roll around, I have decided to share their birth story on their birthday post.  So here is Sam’s birth story, as a wrote it 8 years ago:

 

We had a doctor’s appointment on Monday, November 8^th(our due date), and it was then that we decided to go ahead and schedule an induction.  It was a pretty tough decision to make because I was hoping to go naturally and I kept reminding myself about how long and frustrating the induction process was with Luke.  This isn’t the route I had initially wanted to go, but I was so ready to not be pregnant anymore and to meet this little guy inside me.  So, we went ahead and scheduled to be induced.  We were scheduled Wednesday, November 10^th at 8:30am to start the process by getting a few doses of prostaglandin gel applied to my cervix to soften it and then returning to the hospital the next morning at 5:30 am to start the pitocin.

 

I got up early Wednesday morning because I couldn’t sleep.  I was anxious and nervous, so I just decided I might as well get up.  I went to the grocery store and got a few things that Luke needed and then got in the shower.  When I got out of the shower and all dressed my MIL told me the hospital had called and left a message.  I played the message and the nurse told me that my induction was “on hold” because they were so busy and didn’t have a bed for us.  I was soooooo upset.  I was in tears and my emotions were just going crazy.  I stayed in my room for a few hours after that because I didn’t want to see or talk to anyone (except Jorge).  Now it was just a waiting game again; waiting for the hospital to call, or waiting to go into labor on my own.  After a few hours I decided I wanted to get out of the house and occupy my mind, so Jorge and I went to the grand opening of IKEA and went to the mall to walk around.

 

Thursday morning at 4:00am, the phone rang.  I knew it had to be the hospital calling because who else would be calling at that hour.  Sure enough, it was the hospital.  They were calling to tell me not to come in at 5:30am for my induction.  No kidding; thanks for the tease.  Apparently, the nurse who called the day before didn’t communicate to this nurse that she had already told me not to come in at all until they called to tell me to come in.

 

We ended up going into OB triage that afternoon anyway because I had noticed a significant decrease in the baby’s movement.  We ended up waiting 2 hours just to be seen in triage and they monitored the baby and me and did an ultrasound.  The baby looked good and the ultrasound showed that the fluid level was a 9.2.  If it were 8 or less they would have kept me.  Jorge and I were a little worried about the fluid level since on Monday it was a 17 and now it was so much lower only 3 days later.  The doctor told us everything was fine, but that if we wanted to, we could come back the next day or over the weekend to have it checked again.

 

After some research, frustration, desperation and a lot of thinking, I decided to go to the store and buy some castor oil.  I took a dose at 8pm (Thursday evening), and it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.  At 11pm the castor oil started working.  And when I say working I don’t mean in the sense that I was desiring (uterine contractions), but rather what it’s real purpose is, a laxative!  I ended up going to the bathroom several times during the night and my system surely got cleaned out.  I did start feeling some crampiness from about midnight until 4am, but I’m not sure if it was my intestines or my uterus.

 

 I ended up taking the castor oil for nothing because at 3am the hospital called and asked if I wanted to come in and have my baby.  I was like, “Yes, yes!”  When the phone rang, I jumped on it because I just knew it had to be the hospital.  After eating a light breakfast and showering, we arrived at the hospital at 4:30am.

 

Before the first dose of gel, the nurse checked me and I was 2cm and 50% effaced.  I got the first dose at 5:45am and than had to lie down for an hour and than walk for about 40 minutes and than come back and be monitored for 20 minutes.  At 8:15am I was still 2 cm and 50% and received the second dose of gel and repeated the whole process.  At 10:30am she checked me again and I was still the same, so now we had to sit and wait until the doctor got out of surgery to decide what the next step was.  He decided to do two more doses of the gel before we went to the pitocin, so at 1:00pm the nurse checked me again and still no change and she gave me the third dose of gel.  At 4:00pm, still no change and in goes the fourth dose of gel.  Talk about a long process.  I was starting to feel just a little bit frustrated and was beginning to think this was going to be like Luke’s labor all over again.

 

The pitocin started at 6:30pm and at that time I was 2.5cm, and still was at 10:30pm.  I think the nurse increased the pitocin about 9 times before my contractions were finally strong enough and frequent enough. 

 

At midnight I got up to use the bathroom and at this point I was feeling more frustrated and started to cry.  I was sitting on the toilet and I blew my nose and a pretty big blood clot came out (not from my nose).  I thought it was my mucous plug, but the nurse said it was a blood clot, so she decided to check me.  I was now 3cm and 80% effaced.  At this point my contractions were getting stronger and I had to start breathing through them.  During contractions I would tell myself that the contraction would be over soon and to just keep breathing through them and that I could do this.  Then I got to the point where I was telling myself, “okay, the contraction is almost over, but then another one is going to start, and another, and another………”  Needless to say, I was beginning to think about pain medication.  My original plan was to see how I would do without (ha, what was I thinking?), and then to wait until at least 4cm before I took anything for pain and to wait until at least 6cm before getting an epidural.  Of course things didn’t go quite as planned. 

 

So at 3cm we decided to try a dose of stadol.  Talk about feeling high or drunk!  I couldn’t believe how strong the effect of this drug was, and I only had half a dose.  At 1:00am I got a second dose of the stadol.  The stadol didn’t take away the pain of the contractions, but it made them feel less intense and made me more relaxed.  During my “stadol state” I just laid in bed humming/moaning through the contractions while Jorge slept in one chair and my sister in another.  The glow from the TV was all that was lighting the room and it was actually quite peaceful during those couple hours.

 

At 2:30am I was 4cm and 90% effaced.  The stadol had worn off and I was beginning to shake/shiver uncontrollably from the pain, so we decided it was time for the epidural.  At 3:00am, the epidural was in place and I was feeling much better.  I could still tell when I was having a contraction though, which I was happy about because I couldn’t tell with Luke, and this time I wanted to be able to feel when I should push.  The contractions weren’t painful; I could just feel tightening and pressure. 

 

After the epidural was put in, the nurse noticed that the baby’s heart rate would decrease with contractions, so she put me on oxygen.  She thought it was due to the fact that my BP was so low, so they increased my fluids too.  I was a little nervous about the heart rate, but something was telling me everything was going to be fine.  The charge nurse came in at 4:00am because of the heart rate issue and I told her the foley catheter was hurting me with every contraction.  She said it was probably pressure from the baby, so she checked me and I was 7cm, 90%, -1 station and my bag of water was bulging.  I figured they would call the doctor at this point and maybe he would break my water, but the nurse said they wouldn’t call him until I was complete. 

 

I didn’t need the doctor to break my water anyway because at 4:30am it broke on its own.  I felt what I thought was a sudden movement/kick from the baby (which was actually the popping of my water) and then another sudden movement which must have been the baby dropping down/becoming engaged and then I felt the fluid coming out (which felt kind of weird since I had an epidural).  So I called the nurse and told her my water broke and she came in and checked me and I was complete!  She had me start pushing a little before the doctor arrived.  I pushed 3 times and then she told me to stop because we needed to wait for the doctor.  When the doctor arrived, I pushed 3 more times and Samuel Edward was born.  His head came out, followed by a little hand, which was always up by his face during the ultrasounds.  He was born at 5:13am, weighing 8lbs. 150z., 21.5 in. long, and his apgar scores were 9 & 9.  When he came out the doctor said he was a pretty solid baby.  I ended up with a pretty good tear; a 3^rd degree.  But it actually hasn’t hurt as bad as I expected.  I did have trouble urinating after the epidural (I actually couldn’t even move those muscles to go), so I was straight-cathed twice and then they ended up putting in another foley until the next day.  It was nice not having to get up and use the bathroom, but I was so paranoid I was going pull the catheter out, so it was kind of difficult to move around.

 

Samuel is a natural at breastfeeding.  He is already a pro.  Our first attempt at it he latched right on and we haven’t had any problems.  He eats often, but I don’t mind.  I really enjoy it!  He is also a pretty good sleeper and I’ve already given in and he sleeps with Mommy (that started in the hospital).  During the first 24 hours after his birth, there were times when it felt like he was still inside me moving around (it was probably gas), so that was a little sad.  Surprisingly, I haven’t been very emotional/hormonal.  Of course I’m so happy and overjoyed, but with Luke, I would cry all the time.  I have a lot more peace and calmness this time around.  

 

 

Wow, it’s amazing how much changes in 8 years.  There are so many things I would have done different if I knew then what I know now.  But we live and learn and trust in God.

 

Hoping the next birth story that I post will be for the little one that is kicking my bladder right now!