Baby Benjamin is here

Benjamin was born on Sunday night

My Birth Story aka a Short Novel of Benjamin's Birth

Baby's Name: Benjamin Robert
Due Date: April 1, 2011
Birth Date: April 3, 2011
Gestational Age: 40 weeks and 2 days
Weight: 8lbs ½ oz
Length: 19 ¾ inches

I had my DA on Wednesday March 30. The Doctor checked me and I was 2 cm dialated so she stripped my membranes. The first reading of my blood pressure was a bit high although the second reading was normal. She wanted me to get it checked so I was supposed to go on Saturday afternoon to the Maternity Ward to have a BP and NST. Thursday I started to loose my mucous plug and had bloody show. Thursday night I started to have contractions pretty regularly so we went in, but they were not strong ones. When that nurse checked me, she said I was only 1 and the baby was still really high. She did not think I was going to go into labour any time soon. So she sent me home.

Friday night my blood pressure was very high 133/102 as we were using a home monitor to check it as we were worried about it being too high. So another trip into Maternity. Again a stress test and a BP check. It stabilized a bit, and the baby was moving well so they did not think I needed to stay. I didn't need to go to my appt on Saturday as we left around midnight.

I didn't feel too hot Saturday, but I tried to relax and sleep alot. I started reading The Girl Who Played with Fire and stayed up till about 1:30 am as I was really enjoying the book. I was a bit uncomfortable with back pain, but didn't think much of it. At 3:30, I woke up to a contraction and as I was getting out of bed to go pee, I felt of gush of fluid. I went into the bathroom and my underwear was all wet as was the pad I was wearing as I was leaking a lot of mucous and kept getting it on my underwear. I still had to pee so I did that. I smelt my underwear and it did not smell like pee, so I was thinking my water broke. I looked up quickly how to double check if your water broke which involved putting on a clean pair of underwear and a pad and lying down for half an hour. I got up about 20 minutes later and it was a bit wet, but not soaked like the article said it would be. I told my husband I thought my water had broken. He asked if we had to leave right then, but I said I was not sure if it had.

I started to have contractions so I timed them. They were about 6 minutes apart, but then went to 9. I was pretty exhausted by this point so around 5 am I feel asleep. I kept getting woken up with intermittent contractions, but knew I needed to rest so I kept sleeping. At 8 Mark woke up and told me to call in to find out what to do. When I checked my underwear again, it was dry so I thought I must have been mucousy or something. I bucked at calling as I just wanted to go back to bed, but I called in. The nurse told me to go to the local hospital to get the swab done to see if it was my water that had broke rather than driving an hour in again ( for essentially the third day in a row). So I showered and we went to the local hospital. Contractions were still about every 6-10 minutes.

When we went to the local hospital around 9:15, they did not do the swab, but another test for preterm labour. Anyway, they did exam me and my water was broken according to the doctor. I was still not trickling out fluid though. So off we went to Tim Horton's for breakfast ( I got a bagel with Jam and Apple juice). The local hospital called the mat ward to let them know my water had broken and we left.

I was still having contractions. On the car ride over they went to every 3-5 minutes. They were painful, but nothing I couldn't handle. When we got to the hospital at 11:00, I got put into a gown and onto the NST machine. Contractions were every 3-5 minutes, stronger than the ones Thursday, but not that strong. The nurse checked to see if my water broke from what was on my underwear from when I sneezed on the way over. It made the swab turn purple which meant that it had. She checked me and I was 3 cm dilated, 70% effaced, but the baby was still really up high. Although the baby's heart rate was good, it was not very active. The nurse had to really prod it to get it moving around so I could get off the machine.

I got moved over to a labour and delivery room. I was pretty nervous as it was a quite big and quiet. I was the only person in labour at the time so I was pretty much the only person in that area other than the nurse and my husband. It was noonish by this time, so I got a lunch of chicken broth, jello, juice and tea. My contractions stayed pretty constant at 4-5 minutes apart. I sat in the rocking chair and rocked through some of them. I also go put on an IV for antibiotics as I was GBS positive. I was tired so I tried to sleep, but I couldn't get very comfortable. I had a really bad headache as I barely slept the night before, but sleep was not happening for me. Also with the IV, it made me pee a lot.

Around 4, the doctor put me on oxytocin to get the contractions more regular as nothing was happening. I really didn't want any interventions, but I knew with my water breaking, the baby needed to come sooner than later. I also didn't want pain meds. I have never been in so much pain in my life. My back felt like it was on fire. The contractions started coming on much stronger. I got hooked up to a machine to monitor the baby so I couldn't rock through the contractions like I had been.

I sent Mark to go eat a snack with his mom and during that time,the doctor came in and checked me at 5. I was 4-5 cms. He didn't like that we couldn't get a great reading on the baby's heart beat so he put in an internal monitor on the baby. His hands were huge, and the exam alone hurt. The internal monitor was not even explained to me by him and then it was in. The nurse told me what it was for after he left. The baby was still up pretty high and had not dropped down. The doctor said at that time there was a possibility for a c-section as the baby was not moving.

At first, I could handle the extra strong contractions, but when they came on for 90 seconds and then stopped for 60, I was pretty much crying through every contraction. Around 6 I asked for an epidural. Although I wanted to go natural, I figured since I was getting the pitocin I hadn't really wanted, an epidural was okay. My husband asked me if I was sure as I was so adamant about pain meds, but I couldn't function at all. The nurse knew that I didn't really want an epi either so she checked me before she sent the order out. I was still only 4-5, with the baby high. The nurse was pretty impressed with the way I was handling the pain. I wasn't screaming, just silently crying.

Around 6 I asked for the epidural and got it around 6:45ish. I was in so much pain and so nervous, I puked after I got it put in, even though he hadn't put anything in. I have to say that the anaesthesiologist was one of the nicest people ever. Not just because he gave me pain relief, but he was just very friendly and explained everything he was doing. After I got the epidural, I relaxed so much. That is when Mark noticed the baby's heart rate going down in the 70s. At this time I lost all notion of privacy of my lady parts. The nurse started to massage the babies head, while the anaesthesiologist went and got another nurse. He also stayed to make sure the baby's heartrate came back up. It took about 30 minutes, but it did. Although I was worried, I was so relieved to have pain relief and was so tired that I was out of it for most of what was going on. When we did get the babies heart rate back up, it went way up in the 160/ 170s which was not good either.

The doctor came in towards the end of this around 7:30ish. Checked me again and said I was having a c-section as the baby was not moving down and appeared to be stuck. I started crying as that is the last thing in the world that I wanted. Mark knew how I felt, but reminded me regardless of how the baby got here, we would have a baby in the end.

After that things moved very very quickly. They stopped the pitocin, pulled out the internal monitor, put in an catheter. Anaesthesiologist came back and topped up the epideral and pretty much explained to me what was going to happen in the C-section and told me what they were doing as they were operating ( This is why he was awesome).

So went to the OR, had the Csection which did not hurt, but I could feel the catheter in my bladder so that was rather uncomfortable. I was on the verge of tears the whole time as I was terrified, tired, and feeling a huge mix of emotions. Mark was there with me. When they announced it was a boy, I let out of laugh, and said to Mark, told you so, and both Mark and I started crying when we heard him let out his first cry. Mark got to hold the baby and sat next to me with him so I could see him. Then Mark got to carry the baby to the nursery where they weighed, measured, bathed and what all there, while I was being stitched up. I stayed in the operating room for about an hour after the baby was born recovering. The two nurses there were awesome. They could see I was upset so they chatted with me about the baby and life in general. It helped to calm me down, as other ise I probably would have cried the whole time.

So around 9:30ish, I got wheeled into my room and got to hold my son for the first time. He had a good latch so I breast fed him pretty constantly from that time till they had to clean me up from surgery. Then I nursed him till 12:30 or so when I sent him to the nursery for the night so I could sleep. He slept more than I did, lol.

Benjamin had quite the cone head. As much as I did not want a c-section, I don't think there was any other way he was coming out. The reason why I did not have really any fluid after my water broke was because his head was being a cork. He was stuck in there.

So my birth did not turn out the way I wanted it to, but I still have my son to hold in my arms. My Csection seems to be healing nicely. I am still in pain and rather stiff, but I think that will go away wit time. Although the doctor ( which was not my own, but one on-call) did not have the best bedside manner, he did a great job on the Csection and when it is healed you will barely even be able to notice the scar.