Aiden's birth story

[sbastille]

I know it's taken me a while, but I've been busy.

At my weekly exam my doctor decided to send me to the birthing center for monitoring and some tests because of my blood pressure and EXTREME swelling. Seriously....I had the worst cankles ever. So, I go to the birthing center and they do their thing. After being there about an hour the doctor comes in and says that it's too risky to keep me pregnant any longer and they want to induce me in the morning.

So, I spent the night in the hospital on an IV for fluids and hooked up to a fetal monitor which just makes it so comfortable to sleep. Then at about 8:45 am the doctor comes in and starts the Pitocin and tells me I'm about 3 cm dilated. At this point neither Wes or my mother are there yet. They have me get up and walk back and forth down the hallway for an hour. They checked me again and I was still 3 cm. Wes and my mother get there. More time goes by.....still 3 cm. They tell me they can't give me any more Pitocin because the baby's heart rate is a little unstable so they're going to break my water to speed things along.

At about 1 pm the doctor comes in and breaks my water. They check me an hour later and I'm still 3 cm. Around 4 pm I start actually being able to feel my contractions. They told me I was having contractions since I got there, but I didn't feel them. They gave me a shot of Stadol, which I wish I didn't do because it made me sleepy and dopey on the most important day of my life. After that wore off they just gave me an epidural instead because I didn't want any more Stadol.

They checked me a few more times and still nothing. Around 7 pm the nurse came in to check me again and said it was getting to the point where I would have to have a c-section if nothing was happening. Well, luckily all of a sudden I went from 3 cm to 9 cm. At about 7:30 my epidural wore off. That was lovely. They checked my again and I was 9.5 cm. At this point I really wanted to start pushing, but I couldn't. Finally at 8 pm I was a full 10 cm and started pushing. I pushed for about half an hour and he was born at 8:28 pm. My blood pressure had gone way up so the doctor did an episiotomy to get him out. The nurse later told me that I had about twice as many stitches as a normal one. Woo hoo!

Wes stayed calm and held my hand the whole time. He cut the cord and didn't even cry!

And I just wanted to thank all of my friends with kids that didn't warn me about what your belly feels like the next day when you walk. Most disturbing thing ever!