Newziemom: Gavin's Birth Story
Posted
Monday, April 28, 2008 11:51 AM
"I pushed four times to hear the words we'd been waiting to hear for months...'It's a boy!'"
Pains in the night
I was scheduled for an induction by Pitocin for Monday, March 31st, at 6 a.m. -- something I had really been stressing about. So we went to bed that night with he alarms set to go off at 4 a.m. the next morning so that we could be at the hospital on time. Well at 2 a.m. I woke up feeling very crampy, or maybe just a little constipated. So I attempted to go to the bathroom, which didn't help all that much. So I woke DH up asking what to do -- if I should just try a heating pad or get in the bath for awhile to see if it went away. He said to try a heating pad. (Later I found out he said this because he didn't want to go fill the tub, thinking he had to be up in another two hours.) So I tried that for about five minutes and then started feeling like something was just different. Off to the bathroom I went again. This time, I knew something was going on because there it was -- the bloody show.
Perfect timing
I woke DH back up and told him I was in labor. He finished packing up the bags and I was just kind of taking my time. I really wanted to labor at home as much as possible since the hospital is only five minutes away. Plus I still wasn't completely sure this was the real thing. The only reason I even decided to go to the hospital was because we were going in a few hours anyway, so it's not like I was going to be turned away.
At the hospital
We got to the hospital at 3 a.m. and the nurse asked how far apart my contractions were. I estimated about two minutes, but I wasn't even sure if they were contractions, since it was more of a constant pain with a little extra every now and then. So they hooked me up to the monitor and checked me. I was contracting every one to two minutes and was six centimeters dilated. I was in complete shock. The nurse left to go call my doctor and let her know what was going on and she showed up about 45 minutes later. She had asked me to call her if I ever even thought I was in labor, because she thought I was going to go really fast, but I didn't believe her! Maybe she was right -- when she checked me I was at eight centimeters.
The waiting game...
So for the next hour and a half I labored, while DH rubbed my back. The doctor checked me to find that the baby was sunny-side-up. (Big surprise, my first son was also). We tried the hands and knees position, which was by far more painful than anything else. The only thing that gave me any sort of comfort was sitting straight up in bed, legs apart and hanging over the side. I told the nurse at about 5 a.m. that I needed to go to the bathroom, which she took as a sign that I was ready to push. Wrong! So for the next 45 minutes I was holding in going to the bathroom while they continuously checked me, only to find out I had a little lip of cervix left. Finally I said, "No, I really need to go to the bathroom!" So with instructions not to push, I was allowed to go to the bathroom.
Here he comes!
After that, things got even more intense. I think holding in going to the bathroom was stopping me from completely dilating. At about 6 a.m. I was involuntarily pushing and the doctor checked me and said I was ready to go. We did a "practice" push and guess what -- he started crowning! (I tried to tell them that with my other son, I pushed for five minutes). They broke down the bed and I seriously pushed four times to hear the words we'd been waiting to hear for months... "It's a boy!"
Meeting baby Gavin
Gavin Christopher was born at 6:17 a.m. on Monday, March 31st. He weight in at 8lbs. 5 oz. and was 21 inches long. He has taken to breastfeeding like a champ and over all is doing great. Luckily, I had no tearing and managed to go med-free for the whole thing. The last hour was pretty hard, though; without DH I never could have done it. The after-cramping was far worse than with our first son, but it was all well-worth it.
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