December 5, 2007
I would like to introduce my son, William Nathaniel Paul. He made his grand entrance at 1:28am on Sunday, December 2, 2007. He weighed 6 pounds and 13 ounces and was 19 inches long.
William’s Birth Story
On Saturday at 8:30am I turned over in bed and felt a “gush” of liquid. I wasn’t quite for sure what it was, but since I haven’t had any problems with leakage of urine or anything, I suspected it might be my water breaking. I woke Jason up and he helped me out of bed. As soon as I stood up, I was soaked down both of my legs. I made it to the restroom and the fluid looked clear. I paged my doctor and she called me back at 9:20am. She asked how long it would take me to get the hospital (its about 30+ minutes away from where I live). I explained that I still was not even packed yet and so she hoped that I could be at the hospital in 1.5 hours. In between packing and running to the restroom (due to more and more leaking of amniotic fluid) it took us 3 hours to pack.
We got to the hospital and Jason dropped me off at the door, parked the car, and we slowly made our way up to the 4th floor to Labor and Delivery. When I got to the nurse’s station, they checked my temperature, weighed me (I had lost 2 pounds since my weigh in at the doctor’s office the previous Wednesday) then sent me to the triage area to assess me. My Mom also came to the hospital (drove separately). Due to the “open area” in triage, only one person was allowed to be in there with me, so Jason stayed, and Mom went to go get something to eat.
Once in the triage area, they had me empty my bladder and then change into a hospital gown. Then they had me get into bed with the right side of my bottom propped up on a blanket so I wouldn’t be fully laying on my back. They then checked me and I was 1.5 centimeters and thinned out and 80% effaced. They then did an “amniture (sp)” test to check to see if the liquid was amniotic fluid or not. It was amniotic fluid and so we knew they were going to keep me, and that today was “baby day”. They then stuck to monitors on me. One to monitor William’s heart rate (which he was having good decels and accels) as well as to monitor my contractions. Up until this time I hadn’t felt any contractions. By the time they put the monitors on me, it was after 4pm. At that time, I started to feel the “minor” contractions, and felt excited, as well as, I thought these contractions were manageable and I could do this.
I ended up only having 30 minutes of those types of contractions, before skipping for those type of contractions to going to the final type of contractions and skipping the transition contractions all together (due to my water breaking, no cushion for transition) .
During that time, I was taken to my Labor and Delivery room, and told to go and take a shower and wash my front and backside with this special soap due to my bag of waters breaking, for trying to avoid any infections and such. I then was put back into bed to have a few minutes on the monitors. At this time, Jason ran down and got two of our bags (but forgot our camera or camcorder. )
I tried playing relaxation music, and changing positions, such as birthing ball, rocking chair, walking, laboring in the shower, laboring on the bed, holding and swaying with Jason, etc.
The labor was really intense and at there are several moments that are memorable.
I have a gap between my teeth and I would try breathing through the contractions and concentrating on Jason’s face. Well, as I breathed real fast the gap would create this “Whistling” sound. Needless to say, our first nurse was quite taken back that she had a “Whistler” during labor, and that in all her 7 years, she had never had a lady whistle through her labor. LOL
Anyways, this same lady also forwarned Jason that there is a point in labor that you really don’t want to get too close to a laboring woman. Well during labor at some points I would grab the middle of Jason’s shirt and pull it to me (at one point I also grabbed one of his nipples), at other times I grabbed his fingers in such a way he thought I was going to break them, and a couple times I ended up pulling his hair. Needless to say the next day, the same nurse came by to meet William and said to Jason “I hear you got too close”. LOL
Anyways, at one point the labor was soo severe and the contractions were coming hard and long (back to front to back again) without a break inbetween. I had back labor the whole entire time I was in labor. I was definitely not myself during labor, but as my doctor puts its “What happens in delivery, stays in delivery”.
At one point I was laboring in the shower and Jason was putting the stream of water from the shower head and aiming it at my lower back where I told him to put it. Well, this one time he didn’t have it in the right place and I told him “Left NOW!!” and he started to try to explain that he can’t see too well and blah blah blah blah blah.. I told him “No explanations, just shut up and do it”. LOL
Another time when I was laboring in the bed, Jason was trying to help by saying “just breathe through it”, I looked at him and retorted “YOU BREATHE THROUGH IT”. LOL
Anyways, with all the back labor and excruciating pain, I was at my max, so doc checked me (right in the middle of a contraction… ugh!!) and (I thought I would be 9.5 or better) I was only at 6 centimeters. Only 6 centimeters????? This is when my reasoning took over. If I was only 6 centimeters then that meant there were 4 more centimeters to go, plus that meant there was worse pain down the road and he wasn’t even down the birth canal, crowning etc. At this point I was positive that I couldn’t make it. That I had had enough and I was done. I then proceeded to reason that I needed the C-section with general anesthesia. I proceeded to inform my doctor that I was done and we needed to do a C-section. That I was at my max as far as pain. She proceeded to tell me just to breath through the contractions, which of course we got into a huge shouting match, and I kept on yelling at her to listen to me etc. (I’m glad she didn’t… she knew what I really wanted and kept me on track). I did try a shot of Nubain (sp) but after the initial shot of that, the rest of them really didn’t seem to phase the pain at all.
Anyways, The contractions were soo intense that I was yelling at the top of my lungs for a quite a while. At one point my MIL and SIL came to the hospital and went to the nurse’s station and my SIL was like “my SIL is in labor” and the nurse asked the name of her SIL, and then about that time I guess I screamed and the nurse then told them “That’s her”. LOL
So at 11pm, I was finally at 10 centimeters and started the pushing process. Mom and Jason held my legs. I pushed for almost 2.5 hours. I pushed during contractions and whenever my back was hurting. It was the only way to deal with the pain of it all. They put William on my tummy briefly. Jason cut the cord (which he is soo proud of) then they whisked him away to the warmer.
His heart rate was a bit high (64.. should be under 60) and he was having a small issue with keeping his temperature regulated. They also did heel sticks to check his glucose (due to my gestational diabetes) levels. Anyways, William was fussing across the room, and doc was still having me deliver the placenta and then stitch me up (no episiotomy, I just had a minor tear that required 5 stitches). So I started talking to William and calling out his name. He then quieted down and then his head arched back (it was like he knew my voice and was looking for it). It was such a precious moment.
Anyways, they got a NICU nurse in there to evaluate him to see if he needed to go the NICU. His apgar was 7 and 8 (anything above 6 is good). So they said he didn’t hafta go to the NICU.
We then gathered our stuff and they put me in the wheelchair with William in my arms and we were then wheeled to our room in the “Mother and Baby” section. While staying there he has developed Jaundice (highest reading is 12.1) and so he has to where a “Billy Blanket” until that clears up (he was just in the up 75th percentile of Jaundice which is in the “treatable” range).
Anyways, Since I delivered on Sunday, the hospital hear has Mom and Baby stay for 48 hours after delivery. My doctor wanted to keep monitoring his glucose and jaundice levels and so we were not released from the hospital until last night.
This morning we hafta go back and get an outpatient blood draw to check his jaundice again. Hope it comes back alright. Thursday we have a home visit with a nurse from our doctor’s office.
Jason is great with William. He changes all his diapers and is quite the proud Papa. Due to William’s prematurity, he is still having latching issues, but hopefully that will all right itself out within the next week or so.
