sapphire02's diary

sapphire02's Diaryland Diary

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Birth story

Hello all! I'm home at last. Thank you so much for all of the well wishes and prayers. It meant alot to me.

After posting my last post on LJ we headed for the drs. office. A mid-wife checked me and told me to go on over to the hospital. I was still 4cm dilated and 70% effaced. Not much had changed in a week other than my water breaking.
The wait in the admissions waiting room was bearable seeing how I had no contractions. We saw Brandon's mother and his sister come walking around the bend with Hannah. They had time to go shopping for a gift by the time we checked in. Debbie(Brandon's mother) was a little surprised that I hadn't gotten a room by then. The service was slow to say the least.. Thank God it got better from there.

Once they wheeled me down (I wanted to walk) to the room, I met the RN in the L&D room who was very sweet. She asked me the million questions and checked my progress. It turns out I was having contractions, though I didn't feel them, but they were only 10 min. apart. It was just like having my son Brandon all over again. She asked my pain level, and I laughed and said "None"

We had allowed Shayla to stay with us this time. I felt that not only would it be something very special, but it would also serve as a natural deterrent for teen-age sex. However, my body was not very convincing at this point, that labor was bad. My face barely registering any sort of clue that I was indeed in labor.

We decided to go and talk a walk, something that I didn't realize was not normal for women who's water had broken. I knew they would be concerned about infection, but it never occurred to me that it was policy to keep women in bed after such an event had occurred.

Shayla was funny, and we laughed and joked about nothing. It was about 2:00 in the afternoon by this time and still nothing. I was getting a little perturbed by my lack of progress, but I must admit I was happy not to be in any pain.

The nurse suggested they give me an enema, something I had never had done before. I was more than happy to oblige however, seeing how my daughter was going to be in the room and I didn't want this to be the one time that I made an accident during labor. Brandon's mother had bought them food(I couldn't eat or drink per the RN's orders) so they took that time to give me some privacy.

Not much there...thank God and that's all I'll say about that.

I had a different mid-wife than the one I had been originally been seeing, she kept suggesting that I have pitocin to get things moving. I begged her to wait just one more hour I was scared of pitocin because I had heard so many horror stories of wome having hard labor after being induced. I knew once I started, I would go fast...and it would be plenty hard enough.
She ended up agreeing with me, and asked to do another internal to see if my water had fully broken. It had not, so she went about breaking the rest, and sent me walking again.

Oh....this was it. That was what needed to happen. I walked for about 30 minutes, and chatted with Debbie and Brandon's sister Kirsten. I took notice of every contraction, and rather than keeping time, I kept the pain level in mind. Once I reached tip-toe level, I knew it was time to head back.
(Plus, my face was starting to screw up with the pain of the contraction and I could have that in public)

We walked back, I went pee, it hurt. I climbed into bed where I could comfortably grip the rail if I needed to. It was 5:00 p.m., my contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart now. No pitocin required. By 5:30 I was panting, no longer interested in the Food channel I had put on just a few minutes before. Each time a contraction hit, I visualized a wave and me on a surf-board. I would ride atop and stay aflot. It worked for a while. My daughter and Brandon were chatting while I breathed. The mid-wife came back and asked if I felt the baby moving down. I did indeed. It felt like someone was twisting my cervix. The waves were no longer pleasant and I couldn't get abreast of them. Instead they came crashing out of me...literally. I thought all the water had drained from me. So did they.
The baby's head reminded me of a ship hitting bottom and scraping along the ocean's floor. I don't why I kept thinking of the ocean, but I did.

Now I was gripping the rail, and Brandon's hand. I don't remember transition too well, other than I had to fight to keep going. I really wanted to just suck him back inside and just "wait a minute"
They asked me to tell them when I felt like pushing, well I did. So I told them. My mid-wife checked and said I was good to go... only I didn't want to push. I forced myself to anyway, reminding myself that I would be done in just a moment.

Push one...the head crowned. They told me to keep going. I stopped, no longer having a contaction. I almost laughed thinking how funny it would be to have my baby's head smashed by my vagina. It would be stuck there, unable to breathe until I pushed again.
So I did.

Push two, the head was delivered, and I took a breath, gathering strength to push out the shoulders.
That is more painful than the head, because they don't give.

I felt the burning inside and out. I said,

"Oh fuck!." and then "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." remembering that Shayla was in the room and I didn't want the drs. hearing me talk like that.

Push three, out he came. I was on fire. I think it was the first time I felt that uncomfortable after delivering a baby. However, I had no tears, no need to them to cut me. Just "a skid mark"

They laid the baby on my stomach and I looked, he looked just like lil' Brandon. Two more little pushes for the placenta and I was done.
My heart-rate stayed wonderful, something you all know that I was concerned about. My time was short. 1 hour and 40 minutes of actual labor. ( I do not count the time my water broke as I had nothing more than braxton-hick contractions)

Isaiah Aaron was 7 pounds and 7 ounces, smaller than Hannah's 8 pounds. He latched on and breast-fed like a pro. I was happy.

Later when the peditrician looked him over, he thought Isaiah wasn't breathing very well and kept him on a monitor.Apparently he was making weird noises. I was a nervous wreck. Here I was, alone in my room (Brandon had gone home to be with the kids and eat dinner) and I just gone through labor, with nothing to show for it. I kept praying and wishing to hold the baby. I kept all thoughts of dismay from my head. It was really hard. I flipped through stupid sitcoms on t.v. trying to keep occupied. Finally I called down at about 1:00 a.m. and asked to feed him. He ate really well for me, but I grew concern when his O2 blood saturation would drop below 90, even down into the 70's at one point. They didn't tell me that they machine wasn't registering too well. I went to bed, saying another prayer, and falling into a fitful sleep.

The dr. came in about 7:30 and told me to stay one more night, because they were going to run some blood tests on Isaiah. I called Brandon on the phone and told him the news. I almost started to cry when I got another phone call. This time it was from
Thank you by the way...you were a comforting voice in a tough situation.

Brandon stayed with me through the extra night, and we waited to hear more. Isaiah slept most of the day, so I didn't get to feed him. Not until 2:00 a.m. that night.

Today was a good day, we just had one last test to wait for until we were dismissed. (That was at about 6:00 p.m.) I was extremely happy to see all of your warm wishes. I quickly edited some of the pictures I took so I'll post a few.
You know I'll have plenty more later on.

Thank you all so much!

The Proud Fam: