Jaden's Birth Story Part 3...

Jaden’s Birth Story Part 3:
If you’re keeping track, at this point I had already been in labor for over 24hrs and hadn’t really slept in a couple of days other than a cat nap here and there between contractions the previous night. Anyway…when we got to the hospital, I was re-examined, and had only made little progress but my contractions were definitely coming stronger, more regular and lasting longer. So I was once again told to walk the halls. As you can probably imagine at this point all three of us were hating this hallway. I remember telling my mom that “if Jaden doesn’t come tonight I don’t care how bad I’m contracting, I’m making myself homemade Enchiladas!!!” As I said in a previous post, my son gets his temper when he’s hungry from me, lol. I love food…end of story ;)
So we walked for an hour and waited for the midwife to come in to re-examine me once again…Josh and I were so nervous and anxious. To be honest I was feeling a bit bummed because I figured at this point if I hadn’t made much progress since the day before even after all the walking we did, I didn’t think much would have changed in an hour and we’d yet again be sent home. I’d have another “false alarm” to add to my track record.
To our surprise, the midwife came in and re-examined us and….WE WERE STAYING!!! Then all of a sudden I thought to myself, “Oh crap this is really happening….oh no I have a midterm tomorrow….I’m going to be a mommy! Oh boy!” Among a few other things that were running through my head!
Here are some pics of us after we were told we would be staying to have a baby!!! Can you tell we were happy?!





…and so the waiting continued.







He sure was taking his sweet time. Our little prince has pretty much been stubborn and done things his way on his time from the very beginning, so why would his birth be any different, right?! The hours dragged by, the contractions were getting worse and worse but for whatever reason I was barely dilating. I was starting to get nervous because I assumed that at this rate we’d be heading back for a C-section for sure. Not that I was afraid of the C-section, but it certainly wasn’t my first option and knowing the recovery time tends to be much longer I just didn’t want to do it unless absolutely necessary.
Thankfully by the time the midwife was finally able to check me again (they were quite busy…one after the next was giving birth…I believe she was in and out of 3 C-sections that night) I had dilated to 5 cm… and I think 90% effaced (man I wish I had written all of this down) and his head was REALLY low. While we wanted to do things as naturally as possible for as long as possible, at this point we decided to have her break my water in a few hours if it hadn’t broken on its own in effort to move things along. I want to say this was sometime around 7 or 8 pm…
….I believe it was around midnight Thursday morning when the midwife came in to break my water because we still hadn’t made any more progress. She broke my water and very shortly after, the contractions really started getting fierce! They had been getting pretty tough before this point and I’m telling you on zero sleep and an empty stomach it was taking everything I had to hold it together through the contractions. I remember being in so much pain through some of them that I couldn’t talk at all even to tell my mom to please stop rubbing my leg so I just yanked it away ( I still feel bad about that…after the contraction I apologized but holy moly all I knew at that moment is it was bothering me and I needed it to stop…)it’s strange the things that become incredibly uncomfortable during labor. Normally I’d be all for a rub…who wouldn’t, right?!
I was so tired at this point, I think I was making no sense at all when I would speak, I was probably slurring my words…mostly I was just trying to make it through the contractions breathing and squeezing poor Josh’s hand to death. They were back to back and very intense and as time went on my pain tolerance had just completely disappeared. I didn’t have any energy left in me. By 2:00am (41 hrs into labor) Josh looked at me and said “if you need to get some pain relief, you really should”. I think at that point I started to tear up because I didn’t want any medication…I was determined to do it naturally but my body was just done. I had always said “I’ll never say I’d never get an epidural, but I don’t really want one, I at least want to give it my best girl scout effort”…and I really think I did... at that point if I was going to be able to muster the strength to push this boy out that was the only option I had left. By 2:30 or so the Anesthesiologist was in my room putting in the Epidural. So I made it through 41 hrs without it but ended up caving…I felt terribly guilty at first but to be honest even though I wasn’t able to sleep, my body was able to get a little bit of rest which really helped.
I believe sometime around 5-7am or so (I think it was before shift change) I had progressed to 9 centimeters and I was getting pretty close. The nurse and midwife told us that they think I wasn't progressing because my body was so exhausted because as soon as I got the epidural it all went relatively quickly. I tried to get some rest but the nerves were just too much and my mind was racing …knowing what was just around the corner, epidural or no epidural is just way too much to sleep through!!!
By about 8:30 am I was feeling some major pressure and I remember rambling on and on telling the nurse I needed to push…she kept telling me to try and breathe through the contractions (honestly I don’t know if that was protocol or if she was stalling waiting for the new midwife…) but a short while later I insisted I couldn’t wait any longer…he was coming !!!
Sure enough when they checked me his little head was right there and I started pushing. Here’s the funny part…I remember being in so much pain thinking to myself “well geez this stupid Epidural didn’t do anything…why did I bother?!” as I am lying there watching the Nurse push the button to add more meds and try and make me feel better …NOTHING…it felt the exact same. I kept going….barely at times..but I was determined. There were a couple of times where I honestly felt I was going to pass out I was so exhausted, but I knew he obviously wasn’t coming out unless I get him out…so crying about it or “giving up” wasn’t an option. It probably only took about 25 minutes or so of pushing…it couldn’t have been much longer than that…and out came that little boy with a head full of hair in all his naked, screaming glory! What a sight! No sooner than they pulled him out and took him to the warmer to get him cleaned up did he pee pee all over the nurse, lol! That’s our boy! From the moment he was conceived he's been our little trouble maker, keeping us on our toes! :)
The midwife and nurse did what they had to do, got me stitched up (oh yeah…I tore alright and I wasn’t able to sit for nearly a week without agony but whatever…my boy was out...so worth it! ). Anyway, they finished stitching me up and cleaning up and when the nurse had me sit up she had a funny look on her face and said to the midwife, “the epidural came out!!”. Hmm well no wonder then! That explains it! Lol…so basically I pushed him out without pain meds anyway, huh?! :P
Here we are after the little man made his grand entrance into the world and changed our lives!!! Can you tell I was completely exhausted!?! I honestly didn't think anyone would be in labor for 48 hrs...I remember thinking 18, 19, 20 hrs was long when people would tell me how long their labor was but apparently I was wrong!! ;)












So that's it for today...tomorrow (I'll try) to post about our hospital stay...and then our first few weeks at home the following day. :)