Joseph’s Birth Story

Back in May, actually Mothers Day, two days before I found out I was pregnant, I had this dream, I dreamed that I had a baby (wasn’t expecting to be pregnant) at home because I had a fast labor… And that I was trying to wake Kevin to take me to the hospital, but he wouldn’t wake up. I kept that in mind through my pregnancy, not that my husband would ignore me, but I was so scared of a fast labor and unplanned home birth.

I had a LOT of false calls, as late as last Friday night. Sunday night, right before dinner I found myself throwing up without any warning or reason. This can be a sign of labor so instead of being disgusted I was hoping. A couple hours later I tried a Castor Oil concoction. I took two tablespoons of castor oil in a coupe of ounces of orange juice, and followed it down with a couple slices of fresh pineapple.

So Monday AM at about 4 I woke up to cramps. So I hopped into the shower to see what I could do to relax since Friday night I had similar cramps and was sent home, and the contractions eventually stopped. So I wanted to be absolutely sure that it was real before making another L&D trip. By 5 it was clear that these contractions, real or not, were more than I wanted to handle on my own. I got out of the shower and called to Kevin. I told him it was time to get dressed, he rolled over and fell into a deeper sleep. Wow! I had these crazy flashbacks of the dream, LOL! I had to moan through that contraction, and he then realized that this was probably it. I was sitting there thinking I wanted an epidural NOWWW! I got dressed and called the doc, I could barely talk to the answering service guy and within about 1 minute I got a call back from the doctor, but I couldn’t even talk, my contractions were one on top of each other…

Sunday Morning my cell died, and before I got up for the day Kevin went out to the car and got my bag with my charger in it, and went ahead and plugged it in for me, he’s always doing this kinds of sweet things for me. So my bags were all inside and Kevin and my Mom had to take the time to get them back out to the car. I walked as fast as I could out to the car and had to stop a few times, and try not to scream, as it was about 5:15 in the morning. Our ride to the hospital was smooth and uneventful. We pulled up to the valet parking and I got out of the car just as a hard contraction hit and I started to scream. I was a screamer this time… One of the valet guys grabbed me a wheel chair and wheeled me up as Kevin hauled our stuff up. That was such a nice thing to do…

I got into L&D at about 5:30 panting and moaning through a few more contractions, they were back to back at this point and I was barely able to catch my breath. We got straight back to a room, and I was still wondering how long until I’d get sent home again, gagging all the way. I was begging for the epidural but my nurse said “No, not until we get you admitted and your labs back.” After a few more contractions it became clear to my nurse that I was progressing to fast to wait for the resident to come in and check me. She checked me and I was 5-6 cm, -2 station, and 90% effaced, with waters bulging.  In the back of my mind I was still worried I’d get sent home, but I was glad to see some progress. The rest went so fast that they never really got another chance to check me. I was begging for an epidural, but I think by then they knew it would be useless, so they offered some nubane. I gladly accepted, I knew I was loosing control because it was coming so hard and fast. It immediately helped, I don’t know if it actually did anything to the pain, but it did help me relax enough between them to gain control and focus. As we’d headed out the door Kevin had grabbed Aiden’s freshly laundered Blanket, and I used this at this point to help me remember what this was all about. This was all coming so fast, I just remember shouting and moaning through every few contractions so that I could refocus and use the next one. It was an absolute adrenalin rush.

Finally the anesthesiologist came in and started my epidural, after he’d cleaned me and numbed me, I got the urge to push! Whoops! I couldn’t bring my thoughts together long enough to say stop, that I didn’t need it at this point. So I got my epidural, maybe 5 minutes before he was born.

I lay down and just as I rolled my back backwards against the bed, splat, my water broke. I’m REALLY glad I didn’t wait at home for my water to break… The nurse asked the doctor if I was fully dilated and he checked and said, “yup, she’s positive three” (meaning the baby was almost born). Kevin had been sent out of the room (standard epi procedure now) and fell asleep in the waiting room. I was at this point begging for him to return, luckily they found him and he walked in just as I panted through my third contraction waiting for him so he could be at the birth. He was a bit surprised to see the whole staff in the room with us when he returned. I told him to get over here, and he grabbed my camera and took a few pictures of the birth, since they didn’t have time to get me a mirror to watch the birth which I’d really wanted. I pushed through one contraction, without anyone counting this was about one and a half pushes, I actually stopped a couple times to give my body time to stretch, wow, they really aren’t kidding when they talk about a ring of fire. I felt a pop, and asked if his head was out, the doctor replied “he’s all the way out!” Wow! Really!!! So I guess I get to take a baby home this time!!! Yay! 😉 I had no tears, and no skid marks, no reason for even one stitch. He had Apgars of 8&9, is nursing well, and we decided upon Joseph Merlin as his name.

I feel great, even better than after Aiden’s birth, which I thought was impossible to beat. I had my loving husband by my side, and we rejoiced together at our sweet newest son. The big brothers are doing well and are excited about their new baby brother. Joey is having a little bit of a hard time with learning to latch, the hungrier he is the less likely to open his mouth big enough, but otherwise everything is just excellent. I only had time for one of the two doses of antibiotics required for a GBS+ birth, so they originally told us we’d have to stay 48 hours for observation of the little guy, but his pediatrician came in this morning and said as long as we bring him into the office on Thursday that we could go home today, so that’s the plan.