The Thursday before he arrived when I went to my Dr's appointment, she told me I was 50% effaced and dilated to a 2. I had been 50% for a few weeks and my dilation had been increasing and changing each time. Cooper was also sitting really low which I could tell when I was walking. She asked me if I was ready to have a baby and I told her I was so she stripped my membranes which has a good chance of jump starting labor if your body is already about too. We talked a bit and decided that at 39 weeks (5 days later), if he hadn't come on his own, we would induce because I was favorable for it, and quite honestly, since I had been induced with Devin, that was what I was comfortable with if my Dr was as well.
So the next Tuesday when I was still pregnant, we arrived at the hospital at 6 AM. We got all checked in and by around 7:40 they started the pitocin and I was still at a 2. They had put me on the monitors as soon as we got into the room about an hour earlier and I was already contracting on my own, but it wasn't strong nor was it regular. I had a good contraction pattern starting and at about 8:30 my Dr arrived. I had some issues with my epidural working properly when I had Devin that we were concerned about but felt was most likely a kink in the catheter since we had gotten it to work. We discussed 3 different options, and I chose to have her go ahead and break my water, even though I knew it would make the contractions far more painful and I could still potentially be in labor for awhile since we just started. She told me I was in control and that I could ask for the epidural whenever I was ready. She checked me and I was already dilated to a 4 so she broke my water around 8:50 and as expected, it made the contractions feel much worse. I labored really hard for about an hour and a half when I finally asked for an epidural.
If you are planning on getting an epidural and don't want to read my horror story, then just skip this paragraph but be forewarned. So around 10:30 the anesthesiologist arrived. We told her about the issues I had when I had one with Devin. I had a far worse experience this time. In a nutshell they poked me 6 times before I had a working epidural. They got it in successfully one other time and tested it and everything came back fine, but when they turned me in bed and tested it again before they put the medicine in, they got blood back which meant it was in my vein. The other times I could feel it going down my back as if it was hitting every vertebra. They hit a nerve in each of my legs on different times and the first time they did that it made my leg shoot out and I screamed because it scared me so bad. They ended up giving me some Stadol to help take the edge off and some Zofran to keep me from being nauseous since the Stadol is a lot like drinking 6 margaritas really fast. I apparently said some pretty funny things after this. At around 11:45, after and hour and 15 minutes of trying this, they had finally gotten it to work and it was working well. There was more than once that I thought the anesthesiologist was going to say she couldn't do it.
So at about 12:15 they checked me again and I was at a 5. At 12:45 they checked again and I was a 6. Chris and I had invited my cousin Alison to be there for the birth this time if she wanted to be and she was coming to town to help us with Devin anyway so she was super excited to be there. I remember the nurse saying at this we should probably call my cousin to head to the hospital just to be sure but that she could take her time. We had originally planned to call her when I got to about a 6 so this seemed reasonable. Within about 15 minutes of this is started feeling really strong pressure and told Chris I really thought the epidural was about to wear off like it did with Devin because it was what I remembered it feeling like. When my nurse came in at 1:15, and I told her this, she said she wanted to check me again and when she did she said "I knew it! Your a 10!" So within 30 minutes I had gone from a 6 to a 10! Cooper was really low and was ready to come out and this is why I was feeling so much pressure. She called Dr. B to tell her and we called Awol and told her to hurry now! She was almost there and we had to wait about 30 minutes for Dr. B to arrive. Thank God for the epidural because I would have never made it otherwise. My cousin came running in the room and asked if she made it in time, and probably 10-15 minutes later Dr. B arrived.
So when Dr. B arrived it was time to start pushing. It was 1:50 PM when we started with a few. She said after a few pushes to hold on, she was going to go get dressed for delivery, and I also asked for a mirror at this point. A few minutes later, she had me start pushing again. Because they had given me Zofran with the Stadol, I felt really good the whole time I was pushing and didn't feel super sick like I did with Devin. I am happy about this because I really enjoyed the birth experience with Cooper. I was very calm and layed back and I watched most of it in the mirror. I pushed for about 15 minutes on and off and at 2:06 PM on 6/28/11 Cooper Jones M. was born. He weighed 6 pounds 14 ozs and was a little over 19 inches long.
Unlike my delivery with Devin, I had a small episiotomy that was nothing, but I did have a horrible headache that lasted a week and we have yet to figure out if it was a spinal headache or tension headache from being hunched over while contracting for so long while I got the epidural. The next weekend, my Dr put me on 48 hours of bed rest and that seemed to resolve it. I did have to also make a trip to the chiropractor for my neck and back.
We are so happy to have him here and I feel like our family is complete. Devin has adjusted well to him and absolutely adores him and Chris and I are figuring out our new normals.
That is one proud daddy to finally have his son!
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| From July 11 |
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| From July 11 |
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| From July 11 |
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| From July 11 |
Such a sweet little guy!
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| From July 11 |
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