Mommylogues by Work It Mommy

Happy Monday all! Today we're off to get Baby Fox assessed for Kindergarten, yikes! Then Friday we are finding out his teacher assignments and Monday we start school! Holy Cow!

Today I am over on Whitney's blog, Work It Mommy, talking about my experiences going through both an epidural and a natural (totally on accident, yes I screamed a lot and am fairly certain if someone in the hospital wanted a natural child birth, they were seriously reconsidering after listening to me), child birth. Click here to go check out what your birth plan really means!

First picture with Baby Fox

First picture with Mini Fox.

Linking up here

Mini Fox Birth Story

Okay here's the birth story, I know you were all holding your breath.

It started on the day before 38 weeks, it was Sunday, September 8th, we thought, this might be the last weekend as a family of three, so let's do something fun. I decided I really wanted to take advantage of the nice weather and go to the beach. I packed us up a nice lunch and off we headed. When we were done with the sand and playing Baby Fox wanted to walk around, we figure, hey maybe we can get labor started if I walk around a bit. I was getting contractions, but nothing that stopped me in my tracks and nothing that was time-able.

Monday morning I see some blood, so I call the doctor and he has me come in to do monitor baby. Everything was fine, baby was great and I was about 4cm dilated. Doc said he thought I would go into labor on Sept. 11th (the day that Mr. picked). For the rest of the day I felt mild contractions, but nothing to write home about. Figuring since I could walk and talk through them, they were probably Braxton Hicks.  We put Baby Fox to bed about 8:45 and just as I was walking out of his room I felt a contractions that made me stop for a second. Then about 5 minutes later I had another one. I told Mr, I think we should start timing them now. So time them we did, I started getting things ready, I wanted to charge the battery in my camera, and put the load of laundry in the dryer so that I could pack some of that stuff to go with us. We were sitting on the couch trying to decide what to watch, when Mr. decides, you know I think we should start heading to the hospital. I said what? It's only been 20 minutes, what happened contractions have to be 5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute for an hour? He said we needed to get a move on. He called my aunt who was going to be there with us to tell her that it was time (she lives about an hour away - her bags were already packed and in the car). Also called my parents telling them it was time. I told Mr. I wanted to take a shower first. He told me to hurry.

While in the shower the contractions were getting closer together, maybe every 3 minutes. It took so long to get anything done because I would have to stop and breathe through a contraction. Mr kept telling me, I don't want to deliver this baby at home! Hurry up. I really wanted to take off this nail polish that was worn and needed to be taken off, but Mr said that I didn't have time to do that. I told him to grab it an that I would do it when I got there. My parents finally got there around 10:20pm and Mr ran us out the door. Of course I had a contraction when I got to the bottom of the stairs, my parents said that they were certain that I was going to give birth right then and there.

*side note - the camera battery didn't charge fully, never got into the camera and my clothes were still in the dryer drying when we left.

The ride to the hospital was brutal! Man sitting still while going through intense pain like that was HARD! I kept having to tell Mr to slow down and to not drive so fast over ditches and stuff. Luckily the hospital is only 10 minutes away. We got there and had to go through the ER, while I was getting out of the car, a worker came up to us with a wheel chair, he told Mr to go get me checked in (hesitant, he did since he wanted to speed things along) and that he would wait there with me while I worked through my most recent contraction. I got into the wheel chair and then proceeded to have another contraction as soon as we got inside, and then had another one while they finished checking us in.

We FINALLY made it to labor and delivery and I told the nurse that my contractions were about 2 minute apart. She said okay, let's get you checked and settled in. She later told me that because I was smiling and not screaming my head off she didn't think I was that close. I changed into my gown and as I was getting into bed, literally, one foot on the floor the other on the bed, my water broke. I told Mr, I think my water just broke, either that or I am peeing myself. The latter would have been so embarrassing. The nurse checked my progress and she told me that I was 5-6 cm dilated. I told her that I wanted an epidural. She was very responsive and got someone in to give me the iv, so I could start fluids and get my blood work done. Pain is all I can describe, I kept thinking, just get these fluids in me, I had to keep my left arm still for the iv, I felt like I was going to break the bed rails I was gripping them so hard, trying not to move my arm. My contractions are practically on top of each other now, and the nurse finally gets the iv fluids going. I ask how long for me to get a bag of fluids, they said 20 minutes. I kept thinking, okay 20 minutes, I just have to do this for 20 minutes, I really hope the doctor can get the epidural in me fast! The nurse then says, let's check to see if you've progressed at all. She informs me that I'm now at 9cm. What?! Wasn't I just at 5-6cm like 10 minutes ago?! I say, does that mean no epidural? She says, at this point that is very unlikely. I could hear in the background that they called my doctor and the on call doctor and they'd see who made it there first. Suddenly one leg is in a stirrup that appeared out of no where. I was laying on my side so they said I had to rotate and put the other leg in the stirrup, I said that I was more comfortable the way I was. All of a sudden I felt the need to push, so mid contraction I scream I have to push! And I start doing so, simultaneously they put my leg in the other stirrup. They told me to stop and that I was going too fast. They asked me are you pushing to push or are you having a contraction. It made me stop and think and I said pushing to push.  I didn't have to wait long another was coming and strong. I started screaming and pushing with everything I had. I felt her come out, and then the doctor (some random doctor that happened to be there? I have no idea who it was), and she said to push one more time and she was out. Just like that, I had a natural labor with no epidural. I didn't sign up for it, but wouldn't change it for the world. Quite frankly I don't think I could have handled that much pain for longer then I did. I don't think I could have waited for the epidural to relieve the pain, that would have been another hour or so. I'm also certain that anyone in the hospital who wanted no epidural was now changing their mind after listening to me. She was born at 11:08pm, 25 minutes or so after getting to labor and delivery. Yep it happened that fast.

My aunt arrived about 15 minutes later and my doctor arrived about 10 minutes after that.

Me and Mini Fox minutes after birth.

In the baby warmer trying to raise body temperature.

All warmed up and cuddling mommy.

Notice the orange nail polish that I wanted to take off, but happy I didn't cause Mr might have had to deliver her in the ER parking lot.

 

 

And that's it, Mini Fox's birth story. Unfortunately things happened so fast we didn't get any before pictures...darn.

 

 Linking up with Faith, Sarah and Megan



 

Baby Fox Birth Story

I figure with Mini Fox coming soon, I should tell you how Baby Fox got here -  Warning, it's going to get wordy.

It all started on the day before Christmas Eve day. I had gone to bed with high blood pressure and a headache. I figured that if I woke up with the same headache that I would call the doctor. So off to bed we went. I woke up around 7 with the same headache and with really high blood pressure. I woke up Mr. and we called the on call doctor. She said that I should head off to L & D,  I was just monitored, and had some blood work done. All the results came back great and baby was doing well, heartbeat was strong. Made both Mr. and I feel better, knowing that Baby Fox was okay. They sent me home a couple of hours later, about 10am. About an hour after getting home I was laying down trying to take a nap and I started to feel contractions, but they weren't regular, so I went about my day, mostly taking it easy. We had already decided since we weren't going to my parents for Christmas, that my family was going to come to us for Christmas Eve and have our traditional tacos, and then they would spend the night and we would open presents on Christmas morning and then they would take off to go to family's. We called Nana and Grandpa to let them know what was going on, and since they were already on their way, we told them not to rush, they did anyway. 

They arrived at our place about 12:30, ready to start making tacos, yum! As soon as they got there, my contractions were getting a little closer together. While Nana made dinner, I was breathing through many contractions. We ate and around 4pm, it was delicious! We thought, maybe we should do gifts right after dinner instead of tomorrow morning like planned, so we opened gifts until maybe 6.  We watched a little tv, all the  while I'm breathing through lots of contractions. They were getting stronger and closer together. Around 7 my contractions were about 5-6 minutes apart, and I wanted to stay home as long as possible, so I said I was going to take a bath and shower and get cleaned up in case this was the real deal (in my head it was fake labor, haha!). While in the bath, we called my aunt, who works in an Ob/Gyn office and asked her what she thought. She said to take my blood pressure to see what it was and if it was high to head to L & D. After my bath I jumped into the shower to wash my hair.



One last picture of just us two

Drying my hair

                                                                                                         

Around 8:30 my blood pressure was really high, and Mr. wanted me to go in, the contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart, I still didn't want to go, but Mr. insisted, so around 9pm off to the hospital we went, me fighting it all the way there.  We actually had a "bet" as to whether they would send me home or not, I lost.

When we first got there, they said that sometimes these sort of contractions could go for days and they might send me home, but once they hooked me up to all of the monitors and checked to see how far along I was, I was 4cm and 80% effaced, and that my water bag was bulging they decided to keep me. Since my water bag hadn't broken on it's own the doctor said she would come and break my water in the morning. At this point Nana, Grandpa and Aunt G arrived to see what was up. 

Everyone staring at me in labor. We sent people home shortly after this

 

They asked if I wanted an epidural at this point, I said I wanted to go as long as possible, since after that you can't get up at all. Knowing that my water bag hadn't broken and that the doctor wasn't going to come until the morning to break it, I wanted to be able to get around. My parents left at our request because this was going to take awhile. We walked the halls, when ever I would feel a contraction I stopped walking put my head on Mr.'s chest and just breathed through it. 

 

All smiles

Around 3am the contractions were two minutes apart and were strong, I couldn't take it any more so I finally asked for an epidural. The nurses gave me my bag of IV fluids while we waited for the epidural doctor to come. 

My IV and all the bracelets they gave me

(ID, allergy, blood type bracelets)

I couldn't wait for that epidural, the contractions were close together and painful. I won't go into details about the epidural, but it was painful and not done correctly the first 3 times!

Once I was numb they checked me and I was at 7 cm! Fantastic I had labored on my own until 7cm, exactly what I wanted to do! I tried to get some sleep, but about an hour later I open my eyes and three nurses are charging at me, with a concerned look on their face. I'm confused, they asked me if my water has broken, I told her I didn't think so. Another nurse checked to see how far along I was, and she said that was about 9.5cm! So I guess the epidural helped me with my labor! They said that my water breaking made baby's heart rate drop so they put me on an oxygen mask. Which was somewhat annoying, because of my claustrophobic issues, but I did it for him. They asked me if I wanted to push and I said that I wanted to rest for a bit before pushing. We called my parents at this point, which was about 4:45, told them that we still had a little time, and they didn't need to rush over. Around 5:45 Nana walked into the room and told me the nurse wanted me to start pushing, I said okay, so Nana told the nurse that I was awake and ready. I guess the contractions were now on top of each other...while the nurse got everything ready to start pushing, I prepared myself for pushing, I had no idea what it was going to be like. At first the nurse said she wanted me to do a few practice runs. She said that was good, and then went about getting everything ready.  About 6:15 I really started pushing for real. Luckily the epidural didn't really affect my feeling the pressure, so I could tell the nurses when a contraction was coming. I still had control over my legs and could move them when I wanted.  Baby's heart rate kept dropping with every push, so I only had to push about every other or every third contraction. We just had to wait for baby's heart rate to go back up before I could push again.  Mr. was a great help too, he was there for me and was very supportive, telling me I was doing a good job. They told me if I delivered in the next 30 or so minutes that we would have the first Christmas baby. Motivation, I wanted to be first! So I kept pushing away. Around 7:10 they said that I was close enough and that they were going to get the doctor. Yay, Baby Fox was going to be the first Christmas baby! He was perfect in every way, the labor was great and we got a little Christmas miracle.

First Family photo

 

If you got through that, then congrats! I couldn't get it any shorter and I didn't want to break it up into several posts. Hoping I can tell Mini Fox's birth story soon...I'm ready!

Linking up with Faith, Sarah and Megan