your birth story

Jude Liam's birth story

I went into labor on friday the 22nd, right before midnight, with some cramping. Witnin an hour the pains were coming and going at intervals, and i was thinking- this is it!

by 4:30 am i called my parents in and told them to come up from florida. by that time i was having contractions that were jumping between 3-7 minutes apart since 1 am. i called the midwife and she said to wait to come in until the contradctions were 5 minutes apart for 2 hours.

by 10 am the contractions had died down to 8-12 minutes apart, but were more painful and longer. when my parents arrived at noon they were 12-15 apart, and i thought it might be going away.

tom and i started natural induction methods then- old wives tales and remedies that are supposed to bring lon labor. we went on one walk for 45 minutes and i had one 4-5 minute long contraction in a park. although, at that time, i thought i was just in pain, i didn't think it was a contraction because they aren't supposed to last that long.

then my parents arrived at 1:30 and my sister leslie also came which was a great surprise! but by that time the contractions had died down to 8-10 minutes apart, and weren't that painful. i started to worry that the baby wasn't coming and they had come up rom florida for nothing. we all had tea together, and then decided to do another walk. everyone wanted to go, but they it started pouring, so tom and i went alone. it was some of the worst rain i have ever seen. we walked for an hour in it. i peed in an alley and tom had to help me up from squatting position. it was funny. when we came home we were completely soaked, and tom put our shoes in the drir to we could go out and walk later.

we decided to go out for dinner. by dinner time the contractions were 6 minutes apart for
2 hours. then they went away to 7-12 minutes apart for the rest of the evenining. we called the midwife and she advised taking a certain combination of over the counter drugs, wine, etc so that i would become tired enough to sleep.

that was the second night in a row that i did not sleep. by morning, the contrations were still there, but not getting any rhythm to them. i was so exhausted an frustrated. tom and i spent the day in the bath, walking, and all sort of other things to get labor going that i am not going to mention. was there anything we did not try? (actually- i did not eat castor oil).

by 6pm that day i was becoming worried. the baby had still not dropped. i had been in labor for 40 hours, and the midwives kept not taking my phone calls very seriously. i was crying on the phone, telling her that my contractions were also getting very strange. they were getting longer, it became normal for them to last 3-4 minutes each. when i told the midwife that, she thought i must have been timing them wrong. she advised me to take the sleeping drug mix one more time and try to get some sleep. she said if could not sleep through the pain to come in. I KNEW i would not be able to sleep thru it.

i took the drugs at 6, and by 8 i was screaming in pain, but the contractions were 6-10 minutes apart. tom was also worried because he said i was getting dillusional. we went into the hospital. they hooked me up to the monitor. i was 4 cm dialated and 80 effaced. my first contraction on the monitor was 5 minutes long! the midwive looked at me and said "you cannot have natural childbirth. you have to be induced with pitocin." i was so ahppy she finally was taking me seriosuly and that i was not crazy- i really was having loooong contractions. the look on her face worried me a little.

they took me up to l & d and i got the epidural before the pitocin. it was bliss for about 10 mintues. all the pain went away. tom went out of the room while they did the epi, he was not allowed in the room. when he got back, he arrived to see 7 people shouting around me, rolling me from side to side, pressing on my stomach, yelling for someone to "get here now!!!" the epidural had shocked my system and my blood pressure had dropped, and the baby's heart rate was way down. they were shouting to prep the OR for a c-section & told me i would be wheeled into th OR for an emergency C-section. i felt ok, it felt like it wasn't really happening. but looking at tom was terrible, he was so scared.
just then, my blood pressure went back up from shots they gave me, and they decided i no longer needed the c section. that was a relief!

they let the epidural wear off, and started a new drug. this one did not work as well. i could feel the contractions down my right side. they could not fix that.

they started pitocin again, and told me they would give the baby 2 hours to drop before they would order a c section. 15 minutes later they were back in my room, telling me the pitocin was not progressing me, and i would have to have a c section. i was just happy there was an end in sight after 56 hours of labor at this point!
tom was nervous.

i was literally so tired at this point, i nearly fell asleep on the operating table. i hated it when they strapped both of my arms down like i was going to be crucified. and my mouth was so dry i kept begging for ice chips or a wet cloth for tom to just drip drops of water into my mouth with. the anethesiologist would not allow it. i kept insisting on it, i said "look- i am not going to throw up. i have to moisten my mouth or i am going to choke on my own spit! i am not fuc*ing with you!" anyway, i got my ice chips :) i was freaking out because my mouth was so dry i was having trouble swallowing my own spit, it seems so silly, but it was terrifying to think i was going to choke.

they told us when his head was out. then they told us it was a boy and tom and i both smiled because we knew it was. he screamed the whole time they cleaned him up. i heard tom say to the nurses "when do you know if a baby has colic?" that was so cute to me that he said that... even the nurses were laughing because he would not stop screaming.... until they brought him over to me to look at him- i talked to him and he just stopped crying. he knew my voice. it was amazing.

he was 9 lbs 3 oz, 22 inches, skinny and big!! and had a huge head of black hair. we named him Jude Liam. DOB Sept 25, 2006 at 4:26 am

they wheeled me into recovery and my whole family had held him before me. when they gave him to me he nursed right away. he had a very strong suck! and would "root" for the nipple, which amazed the nurses.

i spent 3-4 days in the hospital. now i am home trying to get a in-uterine timed baby into a daytime routine. the first night home with him i literally did not sleep all night because he didn't.

they found that i needed the c section because my pelvis is rotated a little to the right because one of my legs is a little longer than the other. my pelvis is also rotated back. also, one of the baby's legs was in a strange position. my midwife says i could try natural childbirth again, but i don't think i will.

jude is a happy baby and we are so lucky to have him. he only cries when his diaper is changed or he is hungry. he does a smile reflex in his sleep and i can't wait to make him smile because his is happy.