Hi ladies-
I thought I'd finally get around to posting my birth story and some pictures. Life has been busy since Travis arrived a little ahead of schedule last Wed! I feel like a milk machine as it seems like all I do is feed him or pump (my poor nipples!!) So this is my first opportunity.
Travis' birth story
Wed. morning I woke up at 6:30 with a little trickle running down my thigh. I hightailed it to the bathroom where it turned into a bit more. I thought maybe I was completely incontinent but knew that really it must be my waters because I couldn't control the flow at all. Well of course I go wake up DH and immediately we start getting excited/freaked. We made sure the bags were packed, I called my mom who immediately booked a flight and then I just kept waiting for contractions... and waiting, and waiting. No pains, no real contractions just some minor ones.
I didn't want to go to the hospital too early for fear of having to be induced so I tried taking a long walk, walking the stairs, vacuuming, bouncing/swiveling on the exercise ball- nothing worked and I was still leaking. Finally I called the doctor's office around 11:30 or 12 and they said I needed to go to the hospital right away. We stopped on the way to get DH some lunch so we got there closer to 1. The nurse was not happy that I waited so long after having my water break to go in. At first they thought maybe it wasn't my water breaking, so she decided to check my cervix (dilated to only 1!) and sure enough a ton of amniotic fluid came pouring out.
So, next came the induction with pitocin. I had heard that pitocin made contractions harder and worse. Now, I have nothing to compare it to, but after a few hours the pain was no longer bearable for me. So I caved and got an epidural around 9 pm. I was still only 1 or 1 1/2 cm dilated! The doctor said to settle in for a LONG labor.
A few minutes after the epidural was administered and I had just started to feel the contractions less, the baby's heart rate started to slow. Out comes the oxygen and in comes the doctor. She lets me know that we'll keep an eye on things and if the oxygen and changing positions doesn't help then we'll have to revisit the option of a c section. About 3 minutes later she's back in the room because now baby's heart rate is getting really slow with every contraction. So no more choice, we're off to the OR for a c section.
It all happened really fast, DH has to change into scrubs, I'm wheeled into the room and my epidural is now a spinal block. I'll admit that I was terrified, but that's mostly because I'm not much of a hospital or surgery person to begin with. DH was able to sit right next to me while they got our little guy out. Turns out the cord was wrapped twice around his neck. God Bless modern medicine and the opportunity for c sections!!
Travis Connor was born at 9:40 pm and weighed 6 lbs 11 oz. He was soooo perfect! They wrapped him and brought him to me for a couple of minutes while I was still on the operating table. Then DH had to take him into the recovery room to wait for me. It took about 40 minutes, but I was pretty out of it.
The best feeling in the world was being rolled into the recovery room and seeing my DH beaming whilst holding our adorable son and saying, "There's mommy!" We were able to have skin to skin in and try breastfeeding while in recovery.
I'm still recovering from the surgery, but it's honestly not as bad as I thought it would be and I have the most perfect little boy because of it.
Hope it wasn't too long! It was an amazing, overwhelming, emotional day that I'll never forget. I wish you all a safe delivery when your time comes!