Birth Story part 2

Wednesday the 28th, I went to my doctor's appointment. I was crocheting a hat for Thomas, thinking this is the last thing I want to finish before he comes, even though everything that counts got finished on Monday. Again the doctor comes in to check me, knowing that I've still been having contractions for the past week, getting more intense just nothing consistent enough to say lets go to the hospital. While checking me he's repeating you were a 3 last week, and now you're 5 no almost 6. So the nurse asks to make sure what he wants her to put down, he says a 6. Then looks at me and says I'm sending you in, we can't chance you not getting the antibiotics.

After that was over, I wait in the hallway to talk with my mom, and while waiting call Tim telling him to head up. He questions whether he can stay and finish up the day so he can have two days of work instead of just one and a partial day. I tell him I rather not risk it, secretly hoping that I'm not being mean making him come and wait forever like we did with Kenneth (14 hour labor from the start of pitocin and water breaking). Once mom finally comes out, from seeing a patient I explain what's happening. She asks if I would like my dad to come sit with me at the hospital until she can get there and I of course say yes. I don't want to just be there alone waiting.

We go call dad and plan on me, meeting him at the house, since I still had to go get my bag and pack the last minute items in it. He gets there and after he eats lunch we head on up. I was so torn at wanting to go see Kenneth one last time, but knew it was best to leave him at daycare, like it was a normal day of me going to my internship.

We got up to the hospital and the first while was actually quite boring. I got hooked up to an IV to get the antibiotics started and then just waited. Dr. Cannon wanted me to get the full four hours of antibiotics in before he did anything to encourage Thomas to come. Even though I was at the hospital for those four hours I don't count it as being in labor, yes I was having contractions but nothing different than the ones I had been having. At one point my Aunt and Uncle messaged my dad wanting to stop by and see them. So they came to the hospital, just after Tim arrived! It was nice, but weird to get to visit with them.

Between 4 and 4:30 the nurse came in to start pitocin. Didn't really bug me, except making the contractions a little more noticeable. Mom arrived shortly after that, and helped keep Thomas on the monitor, as he kept moving every way but where the monitor was, but mom holding it kept him on there and he kept a great heart rate. The nurse checked me again at one point and said I was at a 7, but a very floppy 7, just needed to get baby boy to get on that cervix.

Dr. Cannon came in around 6 to break my water. Dad had left by this point to go get Kenneth from Daycare and take care of him. Once my water broke things got a lot more intense quickly. Mom helped me a lot though and I was able to breath through the contractions for quite a while. Until the back labor got really intense. I was also having a hard time actually breathing, from the nasty cold I had developed the week before and had hoped to kick before going into labor. Mom tried to help me find a position that would help get Thomas in a good position to hopefully ease up the back pain. But during one really painful contraction, I yelled for Tim to go tell them I wanted an epidural. Let's just say coughing and having a contraction is really hard.

It was a good thing in some ways that I decided to get one at that moment because the Anesthesiologist was moments away from putting a patient to sleep for a surgery that was to last two hours, with Dr. Cannon no less. The nurses even made a comment that he better check with them before he goes into the surgery since they were positive I was close to having Thomas.

Around 7 is when I received the epidural and it felt great to have release from the back labor. I had been so tired too that I was wanting to just sleep for a little bit. They checked me and noticed I was an 8 but again very stretchy. Dr. Cannon came in to check how things were going and told me to try and push, wanting to see if we could get Thomas to come down and get to complete. At this point he said I just had an anterior lip. So he wanted to wait 15 mins and then would come back to see how things were going and if Thomas had come down some. The epidural I had was great I couldn't feel the back labor, my legs weren't dead, and I could still feel like I had to push. I kept telling my mom I felt like I needed to poop, she kept saying that good, I also felt like I had to pee, which with the epidural I had is common.

Dr Cannon got back and check me again, having me try pushing a couple times and then they quickly got everything ready for the delivery. Dad called right around then first to mom's phone which she couldn't find in her purse, and then to Tim's. He wanted to see how things were going and if he should just take Kenneth home to bed or come to the hospital. Dad had an appreciation dinner from H&R Block that him and Kenneth went too. Tim told him I was just about to push, so he said they would head up. This was at 8:02 pm. I pushed and it was so weird, I could feel the ring of fire, people talk about. I remember telling mom it hurt to push, and she said to just keep pushing through. I even remember the nurse from the mother/baby unit coming to see if she was needed and being told yes, we're crowning. Then I felt the shoulders come and everything else of course slide out after that. His official time of birth was 8:05 pm. So by the time dad got up to the hospital, the placenta was delivered and they were finishing up checking on Thomas. They were nervous about him being 37 weeks and having breathing problems but he did amazing!!!

Kenneth was so excited to see his baby brother, when he got there. It was so fun for me to see him hold his baby brother and love on him.

 Thomas weighed in at 7 lb 11 oz and length was 20 inches.

It's still so weird to me that I have Thomas here when with Kenneth I was still pregnant. I had hoped that I would get done with my internship before Thomas came. I trusted Dr. Cannon completely and knew he wouldn't have me get induced that early if he hadn't felt it was the best outcome. Going to him and having mom work with him helps that. She has told me many things about him. Like how he stays on top of current research because Burley is such a rural town and doesn't want to harm any patients un-intentionally.