My somewhat traumatic yet happy ending birth story

I always liked reading birth stories that included time ranges to give me an idea of how long everything takes... so I kept notes of everything leading up to and after my first son’s birth on 8-20-19!

8/19/19 - induction scheduled 8pm, baby 40+1

11am-back pain starts and becomes worse while shopping at Petco

12:30-take bath, the. Lay down. Pain eases up slightly

1:30-lost mucus plug and maybe bloody show?

2:00-pain keeps coming and going

3:00-kept losing mucus plug/very light amt of blood

3:45-parents came over, i bounced on ball

4-5:30- back pain kept coming and going... bounced on ball and ate dinner

(Also kept seeing small amounts of pink blood/mucus and lots of discharge)

5:45-left for hospital.. pains 3-5 mins apart

6:25-arrived at hospital... they were confused as to why I showed up to my induction early. I could hardly explain myself because my pain was so bad

7:00-checked into room

7:30-diated 4cm, consistent contractions... *I only experience back pain and hardly noticed the front of my belly tightening. I never felt relief in between contractions as I’ve heard is the norm... my pain just varied from BAD to SEVERE. I had to be monitored for 20 mins every 40 mins in the bed and this is when I was the most in pain since I couldn’t bounce on the ball or walk around

10:45-intense pain, asked for epidural

11:30-got epidural... 5cm dilated *literally experienced 100/10 pain in my back for the last 20 minutes leading up to the epidural

8/20/19

1:30am-ruptured my water

3:00am-7cm dilated

6:15am-9cm dilated, +1 station

7:15am-fully dilated, only +1

7:45am-changed position to encourage baby’s descent

8:30am-tried practice pushes... epidural reduced to improve pushes. This resulted in intense back pain; eventually it is turned back up slightly for the perfect balance

9:00am to 11:00am-pushed using many different positions with nurse and midwife. Midwife believes baby is “sunny side up” and angled in a way that he won’t come out easily

11:00am-doctor comes in and gives option of vacuum and need for c-section if it fails 3 times or takes longer than 20 mins. Doctor also used hand in attempt to rotate baby’s head 3x (terribly uncomfortable!! Crying out in agony during the deepest parts)

11:30-12:30- continues pushing with baby coming down to +2 station. Something happened with epidural and I was unbelievably uncomfortable and very upset about outlook... epidural increased and given bolus

12:30-1:00pm-doctor uses vacuum without success... believes that because of baby’s position, c section is needed. I am terrified but so exhausted and just want to meet my son. Doctor stitches up my second degree tears from pushing while I sob to my husband

1:18pm-Bennett is born... so much medication is in me that I am in and out and can hardly keep focus when my eyes are open. Husband holds baby first after baby is cleaned and I cry out watching the monitor of him being cleaned because I want someone to tell me he is okay. Very upset that I could not do skin to skin immediately (I was just too out to hold him safely, but he did lay safely by my head while stitches are being done)

**He weighs 9lbs 8oz... while doctor was attempting that painful head turning method, he guess he was only 7lbs. Crazy!

~2:00pm-leave operating room to temporary room; I am completely out of it, but lactation consultant is there and forcing Benny to feed and giving me advice. I told her multiple times that I could not focus because of pain medications. (I learned much more from my nurse later on) At this point I am very thirsty but for some reason am not given anything but continuously offered ice chips

4:00pm- brought to labor recovery room... still without food or water for about 24 hours (other than occasional ice). Baby is breastfeeding well with help of awesome nurse.

5:00pm-finally husband gets us food from cafeteria! And I get water/juice that I wanted so bad

6:00pm on-I rest with my foley cather still placed and good amount of pain meds in my system. I am unable to sit up and lean over to pick up baby from bassinet, so husband has to do each time. I feed baby every two hours and have difficulty sleeping at all, as I cannot change position in bed and of course worrying about baby

8/21/19

2am-wake up to body shaking and very cold... call nurse and she comes to give me medicine that helps almost instantly

4am-nurse assists me out of bed for the first time... Catheter comes out and able to pee on my own with little pain 2-3 hrs later

7am-start off day feeling decent, but given less medication today and encouraged to be more active.. becomes very painful to sit or stand up. Entire body feels achy the rest of the day

This whole experience was one that I did not expect... but my baby boy makes me forget all about it. I’m hoping my little story shows people that sometimes contractions can only be felt in the back and the pains never fully subsides! And that no matter what Hell you go through, the end product is worth it all ❤️