Birth Story

Planned birth story
I really tried to do everything to have a healthy vaginal birth: exercise, healthy diet, take all medications, take classes, read up on delivery pain and management, etc. However, most of all of my planning had to be tossed out the window. Because the term of pregnancy lasted longer than the full 40 weeks, we had to consider induction.

Actual Birth story
Baby boy was supposed to be induced last Thursday, May 10 as he was running "late." So last week, we had our last ob/gyn appointment Tuesday (by this time I was only 1 cm dilated despite having experienced Braxton hicks contractions for 2 or more weeks). According to our doctor, the baby was healthy and we discussed the planned induction. However, Jason seemed to have different ideas. That evening, the water broke and I was admitted into the hospital 2 days prior to the scheduled induction.  

After being admitted, the staff administered Cervidil a drug used to ripen the cervix. While waiting for the drug to do its work, we enjoyed our last evening as parents-to-be. We ate food, watched TV, and slept. Then, after 6 am the next morning everything is somewhat of a blur. Cervidil did work rather well; in fact, my dilation went from 3 to 4 cm in about one hour. By 7 a.m., I was having serious contractions that the staff didn't think the next drug (Pitocin or oxytocin) to be necessary. Instead, they administered the epidural... which seemed to help manage the pain, but only after what seemed to be an eternity of pain.

Although I responded well to the epidural, our baby did not. His heart rate dropped almost 100bpm. Even after switching positions multiple times, his heart rate would not go up. That's when the staff and our ob/gyn, who just happened to have been checking up on me, decided that an emergency caesarean would have to happen. We were quickly ushered into the operating room and 15 minutes later Jason was born. I stayed behind to get stitched up and ushered into the recovery room. To be quite honest, I was on such strong drugs I couldn't really feel much of the surgery. All of the nurses and doctors were wonderful. After spending a couple of hours in the recovery room, we were moved to the new mom and baby unit, where we stayed until last Saturday.