Mother's Day Mania at Mama M's Little Life - Birth Stories

Thursday: Birth stories!! I know I've done it before...but, honestly...I can't get enough birth stories! I'm gonna do this particular birth story on my oldest...since he made me a mama for the very first time! This is an easy one...so many people already have birth stories written, just link up that post!


TOOK This pretty much straight off my family blog - added  a few things to help you understand better....I loved re-reading this.

After Mike dropped off BIL, Derek at 11:45pm Saturday, November 29, 2008, we had about an hour together then my water broke at 12:47am, Sunday November 30, while we were lying on the bed watching National Treasure. (My husband was still in college and so was his brother. Since we had non-school housing, BIL stayed with us the whole Thanksgiving Break- Now that I look back on that; I'm annoyed Mike and I only had an hour of alone time...the last time we were alone to spend quality time together was before Thanksgiving Break - probably more so annoyed that my husband played computer games with his brother most of the week)

Picture taken earlier that day-little did we know...

Anyway continuing on....My water breaking felt almost like a contraction but just on my left side. It did feel like a pop and then suddenly it felt like I wet the bed...not a lot came out, but by the time we went out to the car....a lot came out and I was dripping, at least I was outside. The whole time Mike was like are you sure we have to go to the hospital you're not having any contractions. I told him yes either my contractions had to be close enough or my water had to break. After your water breaks, you have about 24 hours to get the baby out. He was probably surprised since baby wasn't due until December 12th. I had a feeling he'd be coming early.

So we go to the hospital and get admitted. First they have to check me out and make sure my water really did break. They have a little test strip that turns bright blue when your water is broken...yup my water did break! Then she checked to see how dilated I was...not a fan of this. I was dilated to a 3 which surprised me because on Friday I was only a 1 at the doctor's office. I hadn't had very many contractions since that time either. From that point, my water never stop coming out in sporadic times. I thought it would all come out at once, but I got some here and some there. I felt bad when water came out as I was switching rooms.

First room: checking if my water broke
Man I'm huge! HORRIBLE PIC (I had gained 42 pounds)

The nurse suggested walking around to start more contractions...didn't work...probably because my feet hurt too much since I didn't have my nice slippers with me yet. Mike thought it would be fun to take my picture with an IV. He said it reminded him of old people.

Man was I really that big! FREAK

At 6am, the next nurse said they would be starting me on Pitocin to get my contractions going more. I was nervous about this because friends had said that labor is harder when they do this and I really wanted to do this without pain meds. Well it definitely got harder! The nurse said people have still gone without the epidural with Pitocin. I think I reached level 5 on the Pitocin. The nurse said I kept doing well with breathing. By this point though Mike had fallen asleep which did not help. I tried calling for him, but that didn't work. My breathing started turning into "he he ahhhhh!" or "he he owwwww!" I had to yell out. Finally Mike woke up and I asked the nurse to try the birthing ball. Since it seemed that my contractions were easier standing up. If my legs weren't so weak, I would have tried doing it standing up. The birthing ball helped some, with Mike rubbing my back and me leaning my head against him, but boy it was still hard. By 9am they checked me again and I was only at a 4! I was like give me the epidural, no way would I make it to a 10 without it. The doctor and nurse said "Good girl"

Before epidural

The epidural took forever to get...about 30 minutes before they arrived. The nurse tried to get me some other medicine to put with my IV until then but that took long too! When the epidural guy came, he had me sit up (all the videos I'd seen had women lying on their side). Sitting up was hard! Then I had 2 contractions while he was doing the epidural. Mike held onto me and I held on to Mike so I wouldn't shake or jump with the contraction. The epidural guy said I had a lot of blood vessels back there so I better not move. Scary!



Me after the epidural. It was so amazing that I could actually take a nap and not have to go to the bathroom for 2-3 hours....this was very nice especially since I haven't experienced that in several months while being pregnant. I thought I had to go to the bathroom, but the nurse said that those were the contractions. I was like really; I hardly felt them.

At about 10:30am or so the nurse checked me again for dilation and I was at an 8 (I was amazed that I was already at an 8...I guess I really needed the epidural to relax) so she had me wake up and start pushing as I reached a 10. 4 pushes for 10 seconds each, during each contraction. It was hard to feel the contractions at first but eventually I could. Mike and the nurse would each hold a leg and I would push...didn't hurt at all. The baby would move down but then move back up. The nurse was a little worried because during each contraction the baby's heart rate would go down so she gave me an oxygen mask. That was interesting. Since she couldn't see him crowning, we tried me pushing on my side...that was supposed to help the baby's heart rate too. She left Mike to hold my leg with each contraction. This was the part that was the hardest for Mike because it was the grossest part. I felt so bad, but I had no idea what was happening until Mike told me. The doctor came in around 12:30pm and said that the baby was far down enough to get him out, but he would have to use a vacuum. I didn't really want him to do that but oh well. A couple more pushes and the doctor yelled at me to stop because I was about to tear. He said he would cut me instead so I'm like okay. Mike coudn't see him cut but he saw the scissors. I was like whatever because I couldn't feel anything. Then suddenly James was out like that at 12:58pm. I was awed that very moment, how could that come out of me?

So I guess I was in labor for about 6 hours, just counting after they gave me Pitocin.
The doctor handed Mike the scissors to cut the umbilical cord... I watch Mike to see what he would do because he said he didn't want to cut the cord. Mike did cut and I heard him telling his brother Jacob and our friend Ryan several days later that it was pretty cool, but it was hard to cut...you couldn't just make one cut. He told our friends Ryan and Megan that Ryan should cut the cord because it was a pretty cool experience.

While I was holding James, the doctor stitched me up. Mike said he used a needle shaped like a fishing hook. Then the doctor just pulled the placenta out which I thought was weird. I thought I would have to push that out. Oh well whatever. Then the nurse pushed down on my stomach, that kinda hurt and I'm guessing that pushed out more blood.


James weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 inches long. His head was 13 cm round. I overheard them saying his APGAR scores were 8 and 9. I was like that's it, only 6 lbs! I worried then that I really had gained too much weight!


James getting his first bath. I loved hearing his cry. It was so cute!



Love at first sight. Amazing feeling!


Mike didn't want to hold him yet, but the nurses just handed him over so he had no choice. I loved seeing Mike hold James the best! That's probably the moment I got really teary-eyed.



All cute and cozy. I swaddled him myself. I've definitely gotten better at it. Isn't he precious?


*In case you're wondering what I look like now. Check out some of my Fashionable Fridays posts. I've learned how to hide the baby belly some.