the birth story

*disclaimer. detailed.

My due date was April 13, 2011... On April 17th I had a concern that my water had possibly broken but I wasn't sure. It was a Sunday so I called my doctor after lunch (the best OB in all of America) and too ease my concerns he said why don't I come in to be checked out he would be at the hospital all day. So after church and lunch Joey and I drove straight to the hospital because i did think we'd be going home. Well, my water hadn't broken BUT i was more dilated and as i was having to schedule to be induced later that week (b/c my doc doesn't like going longer than 41 weeks) the doctor said "how much longer do you want to be pregnant?" I answered. "not any longer" and he said, "well why don't we just induce you now?" They were pretty booked the rest of the week and he said they were not busy and he would be there all night. So after getting over the initial shock of "ok, this can happen now" Joey and I decided to go ahead with being induced and they admitted me. Right then and there. April 17th. Funny thing is, after i went past my due date, April 17th stood out in my mind for some reason. I wasn't sure why, and Ben wasn't born on the 17th, but that's when things got started. And i know that the Lord knew Ben's birth date and time all along. I had no control over it.

So they let me pick my room- i was the only patient - and got started with the whole breaking the water thing and pitocin. Speaking of the breaking water thing... NOW i know what that is like and IF (hah) i ever have a child again... i will know if my water has broken for sure. Then the contractions started... now i know what those feel like too. I mean how are you supposed to know all this stuff with your first? I was planning on getting an epidural but there was no "time line" to that, and the nurses/doctor's didn't push it. It was "my decision". Again- how was I supposed to know when to get it? So i put it off for a bit, mainly because I was scared to get it done, but eventually got it... and after that started working it was great... although it did take awhile to work fully on both sides.

When the doctor came in to check on me he wanted me to lay a little on one side. Partially because of the epidural and partially b/c baby was on his side. I was not told this until after baby moved into the correct position (Thank you doc.). So for a bit after that it was smooth sailing just waiting for the contractions to increase, etc. But then my epidural started wearing off and i was in a lot of pain. I asked for the anesthesiologist to come in but because it was the middle of the night i think they had to call him in from home so it took a bit. So for awhile i felt the bad contractions... this made me very impressed with people who do natural births- good job people, good job. So after that issue was fixed, back to smooth sailing until it was about time to push.

So at 2:45am on the 18th it was push time. I was feeling some contractions on one side of my body. They were slightly painful, but really helped to know when i needed to push. So Joey and the nurse were the only ones in there for a bit until it got closer. At about 3:30am the doctor said we "might have a baby at 3:45", although the nurse slightly disagreed. 3:45 came and went and the nurse estimated 4:15... welp finally at 4:13am, Ben arrived. [notice that? 4:13. Ben was due at 4:13 - just the time, not the date :)].

The doctor was very surprised at the size of Ben because of my measurements/how i looked. He said he thought maybe 3:45 because he thought the baby was about 1 lbs smaller. I was okay with his estimation of 3:45 because i knew even if it wasn't exactly then it couldn't be too much longer. And it wasn't - surprisingly that hour and 1/2 went by really fast. You are constantly pushing and it is hard work, but makes time fly (ha).

They immediately put Ben on my chest and cleaned him off, then weighed/measured him and did all the checks, etc. 8 lbs 9.7 oz and 22 inches. A long, big baby... but healthy, and that's all that mattered. So during recovery I asked the doctor "how many stitches?" His reply makes me laugh now because of what i know. He said "well, technically, it's one long continuous stitch". Later joey told me that he asked the doctor and he said it was about 30 stitches but "mama doesn't need to know that now". haha again, good call doc. So due to that, recovery has been hard and has taken a while. But, worth it in the end, i know.

So i think a total of about 13ish hours of labor (including the 1.5 of pushing). I think it was a perfect labor regardless of the pain during/after. Part of this is because of my amazing OB and the amazing nurses i had. They were literally like cheerleaders and moms, they were fantastic. I can't say enough good things about them all. I truly was blessed with great doctors, nurses, and hospital. Joey also did very well :) I am sure he has a whole other version of the story. You'll have to ask him.

In the meantime. I love this child.