Birth Story

Congratulations flowers and balloon from my parents :)

When I first found out I was pregnant, I read TONS of birth stories online- I just found them so interesting. So I am posting my birth story online for those who are interested.

My whole pregnancy, I really thought I was going to have my baby early. At my 36 week appointment, I was 1cm dilated and 70% effaced so then I was really convinced the baby was going to come early. But days kept going by and I was still pregnant- and I was becoming a very unhappy pregnant woman.
A week before my due date I was 3cm dilated and 90% effaced. Then, 5 days before my due date I started having regular contractions. They weren't very painful but they were 5 minutes apart for over an hour so I called my doctor and he told me to go into the hospital since I was already at 3cm. Marcus and I were so excited! We called my Mom and headed over to the hospital. However, I was still only 3cm and 90% effaced so they said they would watch me for an hour and see if I progressed any. I had contractions 1-3 minutes apart for the whole hour I was there but when they checked me again, I hadn't progressed at all. The nurse told me they were sending me home and it was AWFUL!! That was probably the worst point in the pregnancy. I was super upset and depressed. It is a terrible experience to go to the hospital thinking the next time you go home you'll have your baby only to be told a couple hours later that nothing is going on and you just have to go home alone.
By the time I hit 40 weeks, Marcus was just as ready for me to have John as I was-- he was pretty sick of having a wife that cried constantly to deal with everyday. On May 16th, the day after I hit 40 weeks, I had a doctor's appointment. I was at 3.5cm and 90% effaced- so pretty much the same as I had been for over a week even though I was having contractions daily. We decided to have me be induced and I asked my doctor if they could induce me that day. (I told you- I was very ready to have this baby!) Thankfully, the hospital had some openings and could induce me later in the evening. We got to the hospital at 6pm and I was finally all hooked up to the IV and getting pitocin at 7pm. They increase pitocin by 4ml every half hour until you get to 20ml. I got up to 16ml of pitocin and my contractions still weren't painful to me. (Marcus and I think I have a high pain tolerance and I'm going to see how far I can go with the next baby before I get an epidural). It was 10pm by this time and I decided to get my epidural because my doctor was coming at 11pm to break my water and I didn't want to feel that. The epidural was great and it made it so I never actually experienced pain during my labor experience. While I'm glad I wasn't ever in severe pain, sometimes I feel like I didn't really experience labor since I didn't really have pain.
After the doctor broke my water, Marcus and I decided to try and get some sleep since it was going to be several hours before anything would really happen. The nurse came in to check me every hour and every hour I progressed 1cm. We were able to get some pretty good sleep from 1am-4am. At 4am, the nurse came in to check me and told me I was 9cm dilated and 100% effaced so I was thinking it would be another hour before we would start pushing. Almost immediately after she checked me, the baby's heartbeat dropped. The doctor came in and said that it's common for the baby's heartbeat to drop when the mom hits 10cm. He checked me again and I had indeed reached 10cm and it was time to start pushing! Hallelujah! I pushed for an hour and 15 minutes and John was born! It was so amazing! I was able to watch the delivery with the mirror and because I had the epidural, I felt no pain and I was just able to enjoy the miracle of watching John be born.
The cord was wrapped around Johnny's neck, not too tight, but enough that the doctor send him right over to the nursery people instead of putting him right on me after he was born. He cried for about a minute and then he was just very alert and content to hang out for about 2 hours.

He's an awesome baby and I feel so lucky to be his mom.