Beau's Birth Story

It's been 4 days since Beau was born, and I need to write the story down before I forget what happened.  I am a little fuzzy on my time frames since I was in quite a bit of pain for awhile, but I'm writing this to the best of my ability. 

As most of you know, I was super concerned about how much Beau was going to weigh since an ultrasound on Thursday 1/27/11 estimated 8 lbs 9 oz.  I asked for advice here on my blog about how to get things rolling, and I sought advice from a doctor that Jereld works with at the hospital. 

Thursday night, I drank some Red Raspberry herbal tea, I ordered pizza in (from our favorite place none-the-less), I did some squats, and other things.  But, what I believe the key for me was accupuncture. 

You see--the doctor Jereld works with is a pain management/chiropractic doctor, and he claims that accupuncture can put a woman into labor.  He showed Jereld 2 spots on the leg (one by the ankle and one by the knee) to do some accupuncture on.  Jereld and I watched some TV, and I let Jereld stick me with a (sterile) needle. He first did my ankle and left that in for about 20 minutes, and then did my knee area and left that in for 20 minutes. 

A little while later, Jereld and I went to bed, disappointed that absolutely nothing was happening. We were just sure that we had failed.

Then, around 12:20am I woke up because I was having painful contractions.  I tried to ignore them because I just knew it had to be a false alarm.  But, they kept coming, and they were getting closer and closer together.  So, I got up and took a bath, drank a large glass of water, walked around for a couple of minutes, and then laid back down thinking that they would stop.  They still kept coming.  When I timed them at this point, they were about 1-2 minutes apart and pretty painful.

Finally, I woke up Jereld and told him that I needed to go to the hospital.  He grabbed our hospital bag, and we left.  On the way to the hospital, Jereld said, "I feel so nervous.  I think this is it!"  I told him that it probably wasn't and that they were just going to send us home.  He told me that he never felt nervous on any of the other trips, so he really thought it might be it.  I told him not to jinx it.

At the hospital, they got me in a triage room pretty quickly.  They hooked me up to monitors and checked me.  You'll recall that I was only dialated to a 2 at the doctors office.  When I was first checked at the hospital, I was at a 2 1/2.  That number was so disappointing to me because it was SO LOW!  They decided to watch me for an hour.  During that hour (I was in pain might I add), I just knew they were sending me home.  When the nurse checked me again, I was at a 3.  Half a centimeter an hour is not quick progress, but it's still progress, and they decided to keep me another hour for observation.  After the next hour, I was at a 3 1/2.  Once again, not in quick quick labor.  The nurse said she would call Dr. L and stepped out of the room.  I just knew I was going home. 

In triage, the rooms are only divided by curtains, so we could hear the nurse on the phone with Dr. L.  And, it sounded like they were ADMITTING ME! YAY! Just when we overheard that, I felt a gush of water and felt very wet.  I told Jereld and asked him to tell the nurse that I thought my water had broken.  Once he told her, she came in to check.  She seemed pretty skeptical because I wasn't sopping wet, but she decided to check anyways.  After looking at the fluid through here microscope thingee, she came back and told us it was in fact my water.  (So there, crabby nurse!)

Things seemed to go somewhat faster after that point.  I didn't have to ask for my epidural.  They knew I wanted on and just came to give it to me immediately.  They also came to give me an IV (which they tried 4 different spots to find a good place for it--I'm a human pincushion).   Then, they took me to Labor & Delivery room number 10.

This all occured a little before 7:00am on Friday because it was almost shift change.  I don't even remember my first nurse's name.  Then, the best nurse I've had came (she was an angel).  Her name was Cherie.  She was probably about my mom's age.  She was so nice.  I was between a 4 and 5 when she first checked me. 

During the time between when I got my epidural and transferred to the new room, I realized that my right side was numb, but I could still feel everything on the left.  I was sure the epidural would kick in, so I didn't say anything. 
Finally, when Cherie came.  I told her.  She called the anesthesiologist and had them check my epidural.  And, it wasn't working. They redid my epidural.  While they redid the epidural, I had to deal with the contractions which were SUPER painful.  Luckily, the 2nd epidural worked, and I was feeling very numb afterwards.  Dr. L came and checked me around the same time.  He said he was going to be leaving at 12:30 to go with his son on a field trip and probably wouldn't be there to deliver Beau but that one of his partners would. 

Somewhere between 11:00am and 12:00pm, Cherie checked me again because I was feeling a lot more pressure.  She pronounced me at an 8.  Yay! 

About 20-30 minutes later, I asked her to check me again because of even more pressure.  I was at a 9 1/2.  At this point, Cherie said she would be back in 10 minutes to check me again because I would probably be at a 10.  And about 10 minutes later, she was right.

I started pushing around 12:45 (if I remember right).  About 10 minutes before Beau was born, Dr. M (from the same office as Dr. L) came and introduced herself.  At 2:22 (after about 1 1/2 hours of hard pushing), Beau was born. 

He weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 21 inches long. 

And he's all ours!

Enjoy the 5 day old pictures!