TeresaGarvey: Wyatt's Birth story

Posted Wednesday, March 04, 2009 5:37 PM

"My husband was by my side the whole labor and at one point, he was even trying to eat breakfast!"

The pregnancy

My pregnancy was a total surprise. I found out after I made a doctor's appointment for cramps. While I know many of you are saying, "Cramps?" Yes, I've never had them and they wouldn't go away (for about a week). I had a pregnancy test done, but that was nothing new. I've been fighting with my stomach for years, so a PT was always part of my appointment. It was quite a shock when I got a call about 45 minutes later saying my test came back positive!

Fast forward a bit. I had a very easy pregnancy -- nothing to complain about. At 22 weeks, we found out we were having a boy, and wasted no time telling the family, and buying blue! My due date was March 9, 2008, and on March 5, we were supposed to be flying out to Hawaii to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday (3/8/08). Oops! I stopped working on February 29, so that I would have a good week off to get some last things done around the house. But our little boy decided that wasn't going to happen!

Labor pains

On Monday, March 3, I woke up with some cramping. And while this had happened before, it was only at night after I seemed to have over-done it during that day. So I had a feeling we were headed to the hospital. My husband went off to work and I started my usual morning routine of having breakfast, playing with the dogs, putzing around the house, and then taking a shower. When I finally got to the shower, it was about 10 a.m. I was now contracting. I got my digital watch and started tracking as I was getting ready. By 10:45 a.m., my contractions had been five minutes apart for the past 45 minutes, so I called my husband and said, "20 minute warning!"  -- Meaning, you have 20 minutes to get your stuff together and get home. Instead, he was home in 20 minutes! So, we packed up the dogs and ourselves and headed out. On the way to the hospital, we dropped the dogs off at the kennel.

Getting to the hospital

Once we were at the hospital, I went into triage. At this point I was 1 centimeter dilated and completely effaced. I was told to go walk around for a bit, so we went to get my husband Ian some lunch. After returning, I was up to 2 or 3 cm., so they decided to admit me. Once in the room, I was hooked up to an IV and then the epidural. By the end of the night, the doctor decided to let me sleep and thought that they'd push Pitocin in the morning. I was checked throughout the night, and turned from side to side since I couldn't feel anything from the stomach down (with the exception of my toes)!

Wyatt's delivery

Then all of a sudden at 5 a.m., the nurse checked me and said, "It's time!" The whole room woke up! We were given some time to ourselves, to brush our teeth, wash my face, etc., and in came the nurses. By this time, it was 8:30 a.m. and I was pushing. The nurse turned down my epidural so that I would feel the contractions a bit and push better -- I wasn't so happy about that one. My husband was by my side the whole time and at one point, he was even trying to eat breakfast! My doctor was called a couple times, and arrived just as my baby was crowning. At 10:32 a.m., our little Wyatt Thomas was born! 6 lbs., 6 oz., 10 toes, 10 fingers, and perfect! I was lucky -- I didn't tear, or need an episiotomy, so all that was left to do was sit on an ice bag and enjoy my son.

I was taught how to breastfeed about 20 minutes after Wyatt was born, and he took to it perfectly! We were moved into a postpartum room and were left to relax and eat lunch. Wyatt was, and is, such a relaxed baby! He spent most of his first day and a half in the hospital sleeping between feedings. We returned home the next night, and he continued his sleeping and eating pattern - much to my luck, awake more during the day, and asleep at night!

> Read more about TeresaGarvey!

> Want to share your birth story? Email it to kstanford@theknot.com.