Birth Story

For those of you who are interested in knowing how Judah made his appearance: here you go!

I went to the midwife on Tuesday (2 posts ago) and she told me I was dilated and effacement had begun. I had been feeling a little shaky that morning and came home from my app. and took a really long nap. I woke up feeling really achy, like I had the flu, and felt like I was running a fever. This went on through the evening and around 9:30 I took my temp. It was a little higher than normal but still not a fever and we called the midwife. She said to just try and get rest and call her if it gets worse. We went to bed around midnight and I was up again at 2:30 and this time my fever was 100.4. We called the midwife and she asked us to meet her at St. Joe.

We we taken to Triage where they did blood, UA, and monitoring. My blood and UA were totally normal, but mine and Judah's heart rate was really fast. Couple that with running a fever and they were worried that there might be an infection in the amniotic fluid and that is why I was having the fever. They told me they were going to admit me and needed to induce the labor. Since we had planned on doing a home birth with a midwife, I was pretty nervous about being admitted to the hospital, but we knew it was the right thing. They were pretty adimate about breaking my water, Drew and I did not feel that it was necessary to put the baby under that much added stress, given that I was not dilated very much. They put me on pitocin to begin the induction (7:44 a.m.) and my water ended up breaking on its own about 4 hours later.

After my water broke, the labor really intensified. My contractions were really hard, lasting well over a minute, and coming about every minute. I was getting really exhausted. I was hooked up to so many monitors that it was hard to move, let alone get out of bed, they wouldn't let me get in the tub, my birthing ball was too little for how tall I am...it was not fun. I had kind of reached my last limb, and finally gave into how miserable I felt and started crying. (hysterically) I told Drew I couldn't do it anymore, that I was miserable, and I wanted an Epidural. NOTE: I had told him before hand, no matter what I say or do, he is to just encourage me to keep going and tell me that I don't need one etc. Well that was before I knew how awful pitocin was. So after 6 1/2 hours of pain, I got the epidural.

After my body was able to calm down, I was actually able to doze off and on throughout the remainder of the labor. They had to re-do the epidural towards the end because it has worn off too soon. While on the epidural, my body dilated 5 cm, effaced fully, and became +1 station, in about 5 hours. When my water had broken we realized that there was Maconium in the water so the neo natal team was in the room during delivery. I pushed for about 40 minutes and he was born and whisked away before I got a chance to look at him. They worked on him in the room then took him to the NICU when I had only seen a foot and some hair. It was miserable. I didn't have a clue what was going on.

The maconium aspiration plus the possible infection is what has landed him in the NICU. We are waiting for his labs to get back (hopefully Saturday) so we know if he does have an infection. If he doesn't, he should be able to come home on Sunday or Monday. If he doesnt have an infection, he will probably need to stay for an additional 5 days. So please pray with us that his labs will come back clear and that there would be no infection.

Other than the possible infection is doing great. He is a healthy size and weight and really responsive. Drew and I are being discharged this evening, so hopefully it wont be too much longer and he will be home with us. Thanks for praying and for sending all the encouragement. We need it!