Brady's Birth Story Part 2

You can read the beginning of Brady's birth story here. I left off our story with going to bed on my due date, June 27, 2008.

I slept great that night, a full 8 hours at least. Of course I got up to use the restroom every few hours but I had learned how to almost sleep though that. I woke up around 8:30ish to what I thought was a powerful kick. Now looking back it may have been my water breaking. I used the restroom, and tried to go back to sleep, thinking that I was going to sleep in as much as I could before Brady came. Unfortunately my body had other plans.

*Warning, this is where is starts to get gross. If you are worried about that, you may want to stop reading.*

I had a series of very violent bowel movements. (Sorry, see warning above.) So bad that I asked Jeremy to go look on the internet and see what the symptoms of salmonella poisoning were. I thought that maybe the delicious tomato I had the afternoon before was causing this. Then I felt it. My first real contraction. It hurt, Bad! I then told Jerm he did not need to read up on salmonella, and that we might possibly have a baby that day.

By now the bowel movements had slowed down but the contractions had started. I had planned on having Brady naturally, so I was quite surprised with how much they hurt. I also thought we would labor at home for as long as possible. I remember trying make our bed, but I think I was only able to take the sheets off of the bed. As my contractions increased I got in the shower. The only thing that brought me relief from the pain was the warm shower. I washed sitting in the shower, and tried to relax while Jeremy got things ready and called family.

While I was in the shower, Jeremy talked to his older sister Jennifer, who is a nurse, and has birthed 3 kids. She asked a very valid point: had we timed contractions yet? At this point it had maybe been 30 minutes since I woke up, so we were feeling like this was moving at a little faster pace than we expected. After timing the contractions there was less than 4 minutes in between them. We started getting ready to go and Jeremy called the nurse at the birth center to get her opinion if we should come in or wait a bit. While he was on the phone with her, I got in the car, and they figured out that I was ready to go no matter what they thought.

The short drive to the hospital was terrible. Every bump in the road was worse and worse pain. After getting to the hospital and getting to the triage room, I started to get sick. I started vomiting, and it was not good due to the lack of food in my system, because I had no time to eat. I barely got my gown on and set up on a monitor, all while vomiting. The nurse checked me and I was still only at 4cm, but she was sure I was in real labor. At around 10:30 a.m. they admitted me and I was put in room #16.

Right before giving birth, after epidural. This picture is my motivation to watch my weight gain closely!

In my room, I thought I could not handle the pain. I could barely breathe, and the whole time I was still vomiting. My nurse tried to calm me down, and get me to breathe. Sadly I just could not handle the pain. She offered to give me something for the pain in my IV, and it helped a little. I stopped vomiting, and was able to calm down a little. We then had to talk about pain control options since what she gave me was not going to last for long. Although I really did not want an epidural, I was still in a ton of pain, and when contractions came I had a hard time controlling my breathing. 

To help me decide on whether or not to get the epidural my nurse checked me again. Turns out I was at 9 1/2 cm. No wonder I could not breathe, I had progressed 5 1/2 cm in thirty minutes! She reassured me that the worst was not over and it would be much more painful pushing. I was still deciding, (thankfully it was not a busy birthing day) when Jeremy asked who the Anesthesiologist on was. Turns out it was the head anesthesiologist, and personal friend of Jeremy's, Joe Slavaski. Because of Jeremy's job he sees, and knows the anesthesiologists well. We had tailgated with Joe, and Jeremy has been to his football meat fest each year, and he also gave Jennifer, Jeremy's older sister her epidural. I trusted him, and Jennifer turned out just fine, so I decided to go ahead with the epidural. 

Can I just tell you what an amazing difference that made! (We have already informed him to be on around May 23rd.) One second I felt like I was dying, the next I was perfect. I asked Jeremy to get my make up out of the car, and I put some on. Jeremy's parents came in and talked to us for a little while, and we got all cameras ready. It was like nothing was going on, you would never know I was going to have a baby in just a few minutes. After about 20 minutes the nurse came in and said it was time to start pushing. Jeremy's parents waited outside the room, and we got ready to push.

I was supposed to push when I felt like I needed to, but I got impatient and would just push when I wanted. My doctor was not on call, so I had the only male in her call group, Dr. Shelton. I think I might have pushed twice, the doctor came in, and I may have pushed another two or three times. Seriously, I think we may have been boring the doctor. He was so layed back and it seemed like it was no big deal. (which really I guess he does this all the time, so it makes sense) I used a mirror while pushing, otherwise I could not feel anything and did not know if I was making any progress. In the end, the epidural made the painful experience really enjoyable, and kinda cool. Next time I will be much more open to an epidural, but only if I am in true pain.   

After a little pushing, Brady came out and was amazing and perfect. He was born at 12:09 p.m., (less than 4 hours from waking up that morning) and he was 7 pounds and 12 ounces; 19 1/2 inches long; and his head was 14 inches around. Just perfect. We were able to nurse and snuggle right away, just what I wanted, and then Daddy took him to get his first bath.

It was an amazing birth. It was painful, but really quick and pretty easy. I had no side effects from the epidural, and minimal tearing. I really could not of asked for a better birth. I really have high expectations for this next time around.

Next post I will share about our lives right after Brady was born.