birth story

I need to write down Drake's birth story before I forget it all... I guess I should start with my appointment on the 2nd of May. I had my regular visit for my appointment and the previous three weeks I had not been dilated at all I sort of figured I still wouldn't be, mostly because I didn't want to get my hopes up only for the Dr to tell me I had gone no where.  But on Wednesday when the dr checked me I was at a three!!! I almost started crying with relief. He stripped my membranes and told me that he would probably see me within the next 24 to 48 hours so I called my parents who were so excited and of course let Kevin know then I went home and had a million things to do.  last minute grocery shopping and a few other errands, laundry, vacuuming, cleaning up etc.  Then I just waited, and waited.  I started having contractions but nothing that was painful and nothing that was consistent.  My Dr scheduled me for a non stress test for monday morning if I hadn't gone into labor by then and also scheduled me to be induced Monday night after midnight.  I thought for sure I would go into labor over the weekend, but no it was not meant to be.  I guess he was just way too comfortable in there.

 At my Dr's office there are a series of three doctors and one midwife which you rotate through and when you go into labor whoever is on call is who you get. Dr. Winch is in my opinion the best of all of them I would  choose him hands down over any Dr at the clinic but I knew that it wasn't in my control however my appointment on the second was with Dr. Winch and he informed me that the other two Dr.'s were out on vacation all of the following week so he would be on call all weekend and through the next week. Meaning that pretty much guaranteed that Dr. Winch would deliver my baby. What an answer to prayer! I knew that Heavenly Father knew my worries and concerns and was watching out for me, I felt so blessed. 

After waiting all weekend with nothing happening and getting discouraged a few times Monday morning came around and I went in for my NST I was having pretty regular contractions throughout it all and they were more painful than any others I had had all along.  they told me they would see me that night so Monday I did a few more last minute things to make sure we were as ready as could be for baby went out to dinner one last time just the two of us and came home and went to bed for a few hours.

I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to get a few good hours of sleep and we set our alarm for 12:30, got up loaded everything in the car and off we were to the hospital.  We arrived around 1:30 and by 2 we were all checked in and I was hooked up to my IV however they didn't start me on pitocin right away they wanted to see if the fluids would get me going, and they did.  At about 3 I was to a 4 so they started the pitocin on the smallest drip and told me they would up in every half hour.  As 4:30 rolled around my nurse was no where to be found and  needless to say they never upped my dosage. By 5 I was really feeling the contractions, they were super painful and I was having a hard time breathing through them. I had planned on getting an epidural all along and do not regret that decision one bit. 

By five thirty I was crying so hard that tears wouldn't come and Kevin said my whole body would shake through the contraction.  I hadn't seen my nurse for like an hour at this point and I was getting pretty frustrated with her.  I finally paged someone in and asked them for something for my pain she told me she would get the nurse and asked what my pain level was at I told her a 9 out of 10.  It still took my nurse like fifteen minutes to even come see me she checked me again and I was to a 7 so she said she would get the consent forms for my epidural.  She left and I knew it would be a while before I saw her again and I was getting upset.  Because we live in a pretty rural area the anesthesiologist lives about forty five minutes away so I knew if I hadn't even signed my consent forms that they hadn't even paged him and I didn't know if I could take the pain much longer.  After suffering through a few more contractions Kevin went out and was like did you page the anesthesiologist, she is in a lot of pain.  My nurse finally came in and said she had contacted the midwife about giving me something before the epidural.  The midwife told her not to give me anything.  Why? I have no idea.  So they said if I wanted something then they would give it to me after finding out that the anesthesiologist was still about thirty minutes out I asked for the drug.  I forget what it was called... neprin or something?  She put it in my IV and I immediately felt super drowsy.  The nurse was talking to me and I kept dosing off I asked if I should feel funny and she said it was normal for me to feel drowsy.  When she left I passed out.  Finally some sleep! I was exhausted.  A few contractions woke me up from my slumber but other than that I slept until the anesthesiologist got there.  I was pretty much asleep when they gave me the epidural and I don't remember it being bad at all.  It was something I was pretty worried about before I went into labor.  After the epidural I passed out again and was pretty much asleep until shift changes at 7, thank goodness! My second nurse was SO much better than my first! I was still at a 7 when she checked me and they took me of the pitocin and figured they would let my body do the rest.  Dr Winch came in around 8:30 to do his rounds and asked me how I was feeling I told him good, I was just still so sleepy.  He said I was doing great that an induction like this is exactly what is hoped for, you couldn't have a better induction and he told me we would probably have the baby by 1 or 2 instead of 3 or 4 that afternoon like they had originally thought.  While he was talking to me my hip started to kill, I tried to massage it and move it around as best I could because I figured it was maybe a little stiff from sitting in weird positions after the epidural or something.  After Dr Winch left my nurse came in to check on me and asked how I was feeling I told her I was good except that my hip was really hurting so she said she would check me because sometimes that means that baby is right there.  I expected it to be nothing and was completely shocked when she said she had broken my water and that baby was right there ready to go and I was ready to push!! She finished setting up and told another nurse to make sure they grabbed Dr. Winch because we were going to have a baby shortly.  I started to push around 9:15 and pushed through maybe 5 contractions and then he was here!! He arrived at 9:43 am on Tuesday May 8th 2012 and he was perfect.  I was still so sleepy that it seemed like it was all a dream of some sort.  He is perfect and we are so in love! 

My birth story is nothing like I thought it would be but it worked out pretty perfectly.  We are loving having baby home and getting in all our cuddle time.  He fits so perfectly into our family it's like he has always been here.