Thursday, July 12, 2012

{Landon's Birth Story}

I wanted to get this down before I forgot the small details.  I figure if I have it written somewhere it will be cool to look back on down the road =)

So here it goes. {PS This is very long, so hopefully you have some time =)}

I left work Thursday {July 5th} planning on going home and resting.  It was a long busy week at work, not to mention, I was 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant.  Landon was showing no signs of wanting to come out, other than some lower back pain throughout the day that I kept complaining to my co-workers about.

When I got home my mom came over to bring me dinner but I wasn't hungry.  Mike was not off work yet and my back pain was getting worse.  My mom thought I should start timing when they would get worse.  I went to my room and changed, came into the living room and said "We're going to the hospital, I just want to go" - Part of me thought that maybe if I went I could have him that night! Because maybe they wouldn't let me leave if I was that far along.....well just FYI, they will send you home if you are 39 weeks 4 days pregnant and if you aren't progressing.....

Luckily, Mike was getting off work at the time, that I called him and he was able to meet us in the parking lot at Liberty Hospital at about 7:45pm.  Once we got there they asked us just a couple of questions because we had already done the pre-admission {Thank Goodness!!} and sent us on back to labor and delivery.  My mom and husband were both back there, the nurse hooked me up to some machines but wasn't picking up any contractions of any kind.  When I came in I was 2.5 cm dilated and 80% effaced {which is more dilated than I had been}

Smiling through the pain


Our first nurse Lori was so sweet! She had us walk around to see if I would dilate more.  We walked those halls for what seemed like hours. Came back in and I was still not dilating....UGH! They typically will watch you for about 4 hours and if you aren't progressing they will send you home.  In that four hours we walked the hallways twice and I went into the jacuzzi spa they had, she said that may calm my nerves and allow me to dilate.  I kept telling Mike and my mom that we were going to be sent home.  I just wanted my baby here!! I wanted to hold him, I knew he was ready but was against getting induced if I didn't need to be.


After that, she came in to check me.  I was laying in the hospital bed with my monitor on and Landon's on and as she was moving the bed lower, Landon's heart rate on the monitor did something crazy.  Every eye in the room was on that monitor because we knew it did not look right.  I immediately asked "What just happened?" "Is he ok?" I didn't really get a straight answer from her, she just looked very confused and said she was going to call the doctor.  My mind is wondering what was wrong - she said it could have just been the monitor lost track of him or it could be something more serious.  She did say the whole time before and after that that his heart rate looked "beautiful" she kept saying how awesome the baby looked.

At around 11 that night, she came in and said she wanted to monitor us for another hour. At that point, my mom left.  I was fine with staying, anything to figure out what was going on with our boy.  About 30 minutes later, she came in and said "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are going to have to stay the night.  We need to monitor him overnight." Mike and I were actually glad, because if anything did progress, where else better to be than the hospital?

At around midnight or 12:30, Mike fell asleep and I tried to but my contractions started showing on the screen.  They were up to the top and lasting longer than they had been.  They were pretty painful too.

It was about 2 in the morning or so and as Mike was resting on the couch, I had a really bad contraction and felt my water break.  I remember calmly saying to Mike, "My water just broke".  You could see the look of excitement on his face because he knew {and I did too} that we weren't leaving this hospital without our baby!  He went out and got nurse Lori to let her know and she came in and at first said "No, I don't think it did break." I looked at her like she had 12 eyes.  I said, "TRUST ME, IT BROKE!" She checked again, "Oh yes, it did break! Yeah, girl, you're doing this all on your own! See, you didn't want to be induced and you didn't!"

From that point, it became sort of a blur.  I got hooked up to an IV and had to sign some paperwork {I would LOVE to see those signatures...yikes} Because that "cushion" was gone my contractions {that were all in my back BTW} started getting worse.  I did not cry but came dangerously close to it.  It was almost so much pain that you couldn't cry.  I kept forgetting to breathe, and Mike would have to remind me and breathe with me, because if I wasn't getting oxygen, neither was Landon.  I just wanted the pain to stop.  I remember throwing up and moving around in the bed uncontrollably.  I also remember telling the nurse that I felt like I wasn't getting a break.  I said something like "They are coming one after another, when can I get an epidural?" and telling Mike that "I didn't know how much longer I could take the pain." I could tell he so wanted to do something but there was nothing anyone {but an anesthesiologist ;)} could do at this point.

We waited for the anesthesiologist for what seem like hours!! Lori kept saying he was on his way, I just needed to finish the bag of fluids and he would be here.

At about 3:30 am, he finally came up.  I was in so much pain at this point, I felt like I couldn't function, talk, or sit still. Sitting still is necessary when getting an epidural - FYI. When he first came in he asked how I was doing and I said "Dying".  I got a little chuckle from Mike, the nurse and doctor.  But I was SERIOUS.

The anesthesiologist, bless his heart was cracking jokes with the nurse and me.  He wanted to practice how I needed to sit and how Mike would need to hold me forward.  I remember whispering to Mike "I am going to choke this guy out if he doesn't hurry up" HOLY MOLY! I was mad! I wanted some relief!!I know it's his job but I remember he had a clipboard with a bunch of papers and was describing to me the different layers in my back and how thin the layers are and what exactly the epidural would do.  He did all of this in the middle of a contraction.  I totally was not paying the least bit of attention.  And as Jessica my 2nd {amazing} nurse and mother of 3, said "If they had told me there was a 100% chance I would be paralyzed, I would have said bring it on!" That's how much it hurts.

The anesthesiologist said it would take 15 minutes to see if it worked or not.  I vividly remember thinking "IF IT WORKED OR NOT!!???" and that "Fifteen minutes is not going to be soon enough, I will not make it...."

Finally, the pain started to wear off, ahh some relief.  I actually fell asleep and Mike says he was watching my contractions go up on the monitor while I was sleeping, thinking how amazing that was.  At about 6:30 a new group came in and we said goodbye to our other nurse.  In walks Jessica, she is my cousins best friend since high school and I really wanted her to be my nurse but didn't want to bother her or have her come in on her day off.  She is a busy mother of 3!  When she walked in I was so happy! She said "It worked out!!" Thank goodness!

At that point I think it was about 6:30am, The doctor came in and checked to see if I was dilated.  I remember thinking "Pleeeeasse be dilated to at least a 5 or something!"  Dr. Kramer said "Oh my, you are dilated to a 9! His head is right there!" What a miracle! All of this happened as I was sleeping! Jessica told me I was going to start to push and I remember not feeling any pain at all and chatting with Mike and her.  It had been about 45 minutes of solid pushing and I asked Jessica how long they would let me push before they would look at a C-Section.  She said typically 2-3 hours.  After 3 hours, the mother's are just exhausted!  I was determined to get this baby out!! I pushed for a solid 2 hours from exactly 7am-9am.  It was frustrating pushing and I said numerous times "Landon, we are ready to meet you, please come out."  I was making progress and Jessica and Mike were the best motivators!

At about 8:55, Jessica called Dr. Kramer in and told me to stop pushing.  She also called the nursery nurse down and another nurse.  I remember thinking, "After all this hard work and 9 months I get to see my baby in less than 5 minutes! This is really happening."  Dr. Kramer came in and I pushed about 3 more contractions through, and out he came.  Her first words were "Ohhh, that's a big baby!" He was purple and the doctor said "Don't worry about his color"  One of the nurses said "Look at his cheeks!!!" The nurse cleaned out his lungs and nose and we heard a big cry! Mike and I both started uncontrollably crying and I started clapping out of excitement! He, went over and watched Landon being cleaned up.  I was so chatty and excited and I just wanted to hold him! They weighed him 9 pounds!!  I remember the nursery nurse saying "Where did you hide a 9 pound baby???" I was in shock at his weight! But he was a healthy looking boy.







Mike would later tell me that he was freaking out at the time because he thought that there was something wrong with him.  His head was totally cone shaped, bulging eyes, swollen all over.  He said he was thinking "Oh no, we have an ugly baby!" I know what newborn babies look like because I'm a woman - but he apparently didn't.....

Overall, labor and delivery was an amazing experience.  I'm ready to do it again ;)!! The worst part by far was the contractions even only being dilated to a 3.5.  I kept wondering how all the women in history have done this without medication and 13 or more times!! Ouch!

The most amazing nurse Jessica! 


The follow-up nurse came to the house on Tuesday and she said I am recovering wonderfully.  I stopped taking pain pills the day after he as born and have not taken any medication or had much pain since.  I feel really blessed to not have to deal with much pain while on maternity leave and just get to enjoy my baby.  She also said Landon looks perfect, {I may be biased, but I think so too}, is gaining the right amount of weight, and it looks like we are doing great and right on track as parents!


2 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness...great story!! He is absolutely precious! Aren't big babies the best!? Congratulations! :)

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  2. What a beautiful story! Congratulations on your baby boy and thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete