Cole's Birth Story!

Please excuse all the typos! I am doing well by just getting this up! I have been writing it all morning. :)

On Friday, I went to my 38 week appointment and was 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. I knew it could be any day or Cole could take his time and actually make it to my induction on the 8th.

On Sat, I woke up feeling pretty good. I had a few contractions that morning but it was one here and there. Nothing regular. About 11:00am, I was doing some laundry and went to bend over to get some clothes out of the dryer and it really hurt to bend over. So I called Joe to help and told him what was going on. It felt like a period cramp. I had been having lots of braxton hicks but they were all in the top part of my stomach and this pain was in my pelvic area. I decided to go ahead and jump in the shower to see if it would go away. The pain continued while I was in the shower and I had to get out and sit down. While I was sitting, I noticed the pain got strong again. Kinda like it was coming in waves. I told Joe to start to time these pains to see if they were regular. I really did not think they were contractions. They felt so low and more like a cramp or maybe even gas pains. I did not feel any pain in my stomach at all. Joe began to time them and they were coming regularly at 2 mins apart. I asked Joe if he could put a call into the Dr while I got dressed. As I was getting dressed I thought I felt a small trickle of water and wondered if my water had broke but I was not 100% sure. I told Joe and we both started to get anxious. I began to think that this was it. The on call answering service told us that the Dr would get back with me within 30 mins, but I decided we should start making our way to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital (about 12pm) the nurse checked me I was 3 cm dilated and he then checked to see if my water had broken and he said, "Well how does June 2nd sound for a birthday?" Joe and I smiled at each other and said it sounded good! We soon got settled into the labor and delivery room at about 12:30 pm.

By then the contraction pains were starting to get harder and harder. I told the nurse that I wanted to get the epidural for pain management and I needed it as soon as I hit 4 cm because my first labor went so fast. I don't think they took me to seriously. The nurse told me I needed 2 bags of iv in me before they could administer the epidural and he would get that and the blood work going as soon as possible. I got my 1st bag of fluid at about 2:10. Everything from here on out was a blur because I was in so much pain. I am having to rely on Joe. LOL! At this point I was having to breathe through each contraction to get through them. The Dr came in to check on me at about 2:45. He said that they kept loosing the baby's heart rate on the monitor so he was going to put an internal monitor on the baby's head. While he was doing that he checked me and said I was at 4 cm dilated and he would go ahead and order the epideral but he said that it would probably make my contraction fizzle out and he would then start me on pitocin. As he was putting the monitor in and checking he must have finished breaking my bag of waters because I felt a big gush and felt Cole slide down lower.

At about 3:20 I began to feel some slight pressure and told my new nurse. She told me that she was not going to check me until after I got my epidural because she felt like I was way too close to complete and she was nervous that they would not even give it to me at this point. She said she was upset at the Dr for breaking my water before he gave me the epidural. She told me if I ever had another baby to DEMAND the epidural because of my history of fast labors. I told her I had no idea that was what he was doing. I really liked her. She said she was pushing to get the epidural STAT!

4pm the anesthetist came in! He worked as fast as he could. My legs started to feel warm and tingly very quick but I was still having the same pains. It did not help at all. He then gave me an extra shot into my iv. Still was not working. The nurse checked me and I was an 8. He waited about 10 mins and came back in. The nurse asked if he could give me one more extra shot and he looked a bit nervous and told me it might make my blood pressure drop but he wanted to try to make me as comfortable as he could. Still did not work. I was panicking at this point. I had no idea how I was going to push on top of all of the pain. It was really unbearable. The worst pain I have ever felt in my life. My blood pressure never did drop. Epidural never worked!

The nurse checked me about 5 mins later at about 4:20 and I was a 9 and she told me the next contraction I needed to begin pushing. She said it might actually help with the pain. While it helped a bit it was still so painful. She said not to push on the next contraction and hopefully that would help the baby move the rest of the way down. I tried but I just could not do it. The urge to push was just too great. She called the Dr in and everyone started to get set up. It would be very soon. As I was pushing the Dr noticed that Cole's heart rate dropped dramatically during every contraction. I remember hearing him yell for the nurse to get the NICU team in with a vacuum to help get the baby out. A few mins later I remember hearing him yell louder that they were not coming fast enough and they needed to get in there ASAP! Finally a team of nurses showed up and the Dr used the vacuum to get Cole out. He had his cord wrapped around his neck really tight. He let out a small cry and then stopped. It took a few seconds to get him to cry again but as soon as he did he just cried and cried.

He was born at 5:03pm. His apgar scores were both 9s. He was 7 lbs 9 oz and 21 1/2 inches. He is doing well and such a content baby.