[disclaimer: this contains Gabe's birth story- told by a nurse. So normal stuff like poop and throw up doesn't gross me out... so there may be more detail in here than other stories.]
Sunday, August 19th (his actual due date) as we
drove home from church I felt “wet” all of a sudden. Upon further investigation we came to the
conclusion my water had broken. This
surprised both of us. We were prepared to wait another week for the little guy
to make his entrance. Fortunately, the
hospital bag was mostly all ready. Once
we admitted to ourselves what was actually happening we told the family wouldn’t
be coming to dinner and called the doctor. I wasn’t having much in the way of
contractions so we chilled at home for a few hours, I tried to nap, ate a good
dinner, and made it to the hospital by 6 pm.
Since my water had been broken for 6 hours at this point, and labor hadn’t
begun on its own, I was started on pitocin.
Contractions started quickly, but they were not intense at first. We watched a movie and as it ended our doula met
us at the hospital. As the contractions
got stronger I walked around the halls with Bjorn, received massages, sat on a
yoga ball, threw up a couple times, and labored in the tub for a while. I was
progressing slowly, it was a very long night.
Our doula was awesome. I am so glad I had her there for support; especially
when Bjorn got too tired. Around 1:30 in
the morning he finally crashed from exhaustion and slept for the rest of the
night. A few hours later with worsening contractions
and fatigue setting in I happily opted for an epidural. I seemed to have gotten the best kind as
well- I could still move my legs and hips a bit. I felt the pressure of contractions, but not
the pain. I was able to sleep for a
couple hours. Around 6 am Bjorn woke up
and gave me a back rub in the quiet hours of the morning, our last few minutes
together as a couple. The nurses had
been great all night and kept me informed with the plan. Our doctor was on her
way to the hospital around 7 am, so they were going to have me start
pushing. I pushed for just over 2 hours-
with lots of encouragement and support.
Gabriel was born at 10:02 am on Monday, August 20th. What a relief to finally have him here! I loved holding him on my chest and in my
arms right after his birth. What a
miracle! Because my labor was so long
there was a concern for infection. Gabe
was given antibiotics for a couple days, but all was well. I am grateful for
this amazing experience that made me a mother, and for all the people (husband, nurses, techs, doula, doctors) who helped
bring him into the world.
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| 8 pm |
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| 10 pm |
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| 11 pm |
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| 2 am |
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| 6 am |
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| 7 am |
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| 10 am (!) |
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| 10:30 am |
2 comments:
He is so stinkin cute!! Thank you for sharing your birth story. As I'm getting closer, I especially enjoy hearing about them. I am sure you guys are amazing parents :) Congrats again on your cute boy!
And he is the cutest little guy ever! Such a darling baby he was worth all that labor and pushing! :)
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