Colin's birth story

[VillainV]

My due date (March 29) came and went. We had an appointment with our midwife on Monday afternoon (the 31st). At that point I was 4 cm and 80% effaced, and she stripped my membranes. Sure enough, I started having contractions in the car on the way home! We timed them at home for about a hour, then went back to the hospital. By the time we got there (about 7 pm) they were 1 min long and about 3 min apart, and I was at 5 cm.

Our doula met us as the hospital, and I labored naturally until about 2 am with very little discomfort. Still 5-6 cm and 80%. At that point the doctor wanted to break my water to move things along. The contractions picked pretty steadily at that point, and I had to focus a lot more to breath through them. At 5 am I got the shakes and threw up, so we figured I was getting pretty close, but they checked me again and I was still only 5-6cm. After a few more contractions, I decided to get the epidural. If I had been at 8 or 9 I would have powered through, but by 5:30 am, after 12 hours of contractions and only 1cm further than when I started, I needed to rest.

The epidural was great and allowed me to get some sleep. At about 7am I was still only 5-6cm and my contractions had slowed down, so they started me on pitocin. We slowly stepped up the pitocin throughout the day, but by about 3pm I was still only about 7 cm. Throughout the whole process, our doula was amazing. She kept us very calm, we had the lights down in the room with soothing music playing and aromatherapy, and she just generally kept my husband and I very calm and centered, and very comfortable with what was going on. The baby did great all day, with a good heart rate, and stayed in great shape throughout the pitocin, which I credit to the calm atmosphere we had going on all day. I mean, we were exhausted, and it was a very long day, but it wasn't stressful at all.

By 9pm I was fully dilated except for a small lip, but they agreed to let me start pushing while they tried to reduce the lip and get him down past it. He was also facing sideways,so they tried to turn him face down. Neither worked. By 10pm, the doctor suggested a c-section. She strongly felt that I was not going to dilate enough to get rid of the lip, and that she wasn't going to be able to get him past it, and with his head sideways she thought we could push for another few hours and end up putting baby in distress and needing an emergency c-section. So we decided to go with the non-emergency c-section. At that point I felt like we had tried everything, and this was baby's way of telling us that he just wasn't going to make it out on his own. We felt pretty good about the decision (and still do).

He was born at 11:29pm, after I had been in labor for just over 31 hours. The doctors first response was "holy cow, you just gave birth to a toddler, this kid is huge!" Turns out he was 9lb 14oz and 21.5 inches long. My meds started wearing off as they were putting me back together, and it was easily the most pain I have ever been in in my entire life (including when the contractions were really bad).

We've been sleeping on and off all day, and he's been a good eater. He's a very solidly built kiddo, and is going to be a bruiser:-)

[katinthehat]

what a sweet boy! Congrats!

[mrssandro]

You do great Mama! Great story. You are a strong one to make it that many hours.

[picksthemusic]

What a story! You did a great job, mama. He's adorable - congratulations!

[bowies]

Congrats! And, yes, holy cow!

[amy726]

Congratulations!

[mannah]

Wow! Awesome job and thanks for all the details! Soooo cute!!

[dana2006]

You were a trooper! Glad to hear everything worked out well. He's a sweetie!

[MrsDarcy]

Thanks for sharing your story! Congrats!

[pinotgrig]

Wow - what a birth story! Glad your (not so little) guy is doing so well and congrats!

[shekels1222]

My jaw dropped at 9lbs 14oz! What a big boy mama! Congrats and hope you have an easy recovery!

[Deleted]

Congrats again! Wow, that is def a big boy!

[JakJak]

Congrats! He is so precious

[curbsideprophet]

Congrats! Too cute!

[anna7602]

Congratulations!

[irish]

Congrats again! I laughed at the dr's comment - very funny! Glad you are doing well.

[melsamoony]

Congratulations, what a marathon! Your baby is absolutely gorgeous.

[bananapancakes]

Way to go, mama! Big congrats to you!

[scribellesam]

Congratulations! Impressive birth story and I love a big chunky boy! Nicely done.

[adcobe]

Congrats! Beautiful baby!

[aqualuv]

Wow! What a amazing birth story. You are a trooper. I'm glad you were able to labor stress-free and come to the decision that was right for you and Colin. Congrats!

[D2M]

Way to go! Even though it was a long labor, I'm so glad everything turned out well in the end. Your doctor is funny. You did give birth to a really big boy, though!

[purrbox]

Congrats! Hope your recovery goes well!

[chicago]

Congrats on your adorable little guy!