The Low Family: The birth story

I FINALLY finished writing my birth story. This is one of my favorite things to do after having a baby. Child birth is such an amazing thing, and each one is so different. All 3 of my babies have such different birth stories.

WARNING- Due to the graphic nature of this post, don't read it unless you aren't bothered by the details of child birth.
The short story- (because the other one is REALLY long)

My water broke at 5:45 am on Friday the 26th. I arrived at the hospital at 7:00 am, at 4+ cm. I asked not to get the pitocin until my mom could get up here, but then after I got it I still progressed really slowly. It turns out he was posterior, and that was keeping my cervix from progressing any further. Finally the Dr. came and I pushed for 30 minutes before he flipped into the proper position and came out the next push. Wouldn't it have been nice if he had been in that position right from the start?

The birth story as recorded in my journal-

The story begins on Thursday October 18th when I went into preterm labor, I guess. I felt really weird that day, and told Dave I was pretty scared. I tried to lay down as much as I could, but that just made me realize how much I do as a mother, because I was up doing stuff all day until Dave got home. When he got home, he had me lay down, but after a few hours the contractions got closer and closer- 7 minutes apart, 5 minutes, 3 minutes. I called labor and delivery, but I learned that they were just going to give me drugs to stop the labor, and I had these drugs in my possession. So I broke down and took the drugs which send my heart rate skyrocketing, give me a headache, and make me nauseaus. The labor stopped and the bed-rest began. For a few days I had to take the pills round the clock, and lay down, not sit or stand except to potty. After a few days, things settled down, and I had about 3 contractions an hour with or without the pills, so I stopped taking them. I was also able to sit, which helped my kinked back. At my 34 week appointment I was 3+ cm and 80% effaced. I figure after this labor incident, I was 4 cm and 90% effaced.

Exactly one week after my bedrest began, I started to feel weird again. This time I felt weird with hardly any contractions. I felt really jittery, anxious, hot, and my heart was racing- up in the 120's. I nearly went to labor and delivery to see if they could figure out what was wrong with me, but after an hour or so I started calming down and stayed home. Dave kept asking me if he thought it was my body telling me that it was done being pregnantThat night before I went to bed I told Dave that it was a full moon the next day. He asked me why I was telling him this, and I acted as though I always talk about the full moon. The truth is I think full moons encourage labor, and I just had a feeling. Not many contractions though.

I had the thought as I laid down that I should put plastic down on my mattress in case my water broke, but I didn't think it was too urgent. I had been sick since Sunday with a cold, and being pregnant, couldn't really take anything to clear out my nose and lungs and get some rest. So I was up for most of the night coughing and blowing my nose. At 5:00 am I got sick of my room, and came out to read in the family room and wait until 5:30 when Dave would wake up. I thought that if I took a shower with him, it might clear my lungs and nose a little bit. So I woke him up at 5:30, and started the shower. Our shower lights are on a timer, and I set them for 15 minutes so Dave would know when to get out and get dressed for work. He has to leave at 6:00 to teach the early morning class. I had one contraction in the shower, and the thought did cross my mind that my water could break from one of these contractions, but I always thought you felt/heard a big pop. So when the lights went out at 5:45 I got out of the shower, and Dave asked for an extra 5 minutes on the lights to stay in the shower. I dried off, but I was still dripping down my leg a little bit. I dried off again, same thing. I started to panic. I grabbed a white hand towel, and tried to figure out what was going on, but I could never see anything on it. I started pacing the bathroom, and finally went into my bedroom to try to think clearly. When Dave got out of the shower, I told him we had a problem. "I think my water broke." Then he started to panic. "You think it broke or it broke?" "I think it broke..... no it broke....I think." So he's scrambling around trying to get dressed telling me that I need to figure this out, that he has to get to work. And I'm still trying to figure out what happened, but I kept leaking. Finally I had him come look. I squatted over the tile, and watched what happened, a little puddle formed. I wiped it up and it was clear, so at that point I knew- Dave was still in denial. He kept telling me that I wasn't sure, but I told him whether or not I was sure I had to go to labor and delivery to find out. He told me that 50 students would be waiting at the seminary building for him to unlock it, and he had to go. So he called his parents, and they came up as he left for work.

I must say at this point I was furious. I huffed and groaned as I walked around the house thinking of what I needed to do, but was unable to think clearly at all. I felt like I had been in total control of this preterm labor because I had pills, but I had now lost my control. It was way too early, and I just wanted to go back to bed and pretend nothing happened. I was not excited, not happy, and frankly didn't feel mentally ready to have a baby at all. I was feeling very sick and very selfish. I called my Mom and warned her of her change in plans that day (The Biada's are up in Park City for the UEA holiday). I was SO grumpy. I felt like I had done something wrong, I did walk outside the night before, just out to the street to say hi to a friend. That's not in compliance with my bedrest. Maybe that's what did it. **Groan, huff.** I really didn't want a baby in the NICU, which at 35 weeks is very likely. **UGGGGGHHH** No offense Henry, but BAD timing. And to make matters worse, my Dr. was still out of town, and this brand new woman Dr. was on call who I had never met. I was terrified that if anything went wrong I would blame it on her. It did, and I did. So I wandered around the house trying to think of something productive to do, but I was totally unable to do so. I did manage to get clothes out for the kids. And I grabbed the cameras- our digital camera didn't have to card though... oops.

Gordon and Stevie came up, and Stevie insisted on driving me up to the hospital, so I grabbed a towel to sit on, a somewhat packed bag (something I had started before the bedrest), and wrote a quick post on my blog. We headed up to labor and delivery, which I wasn't completely sure how to get there even. We figured it out, and Stevie came up with me. I was placed in a delivery room with a GORGEOUS view of the mountains. Everyone was struggling trying to find things the whole day, no one knew where things were in this new women's center.

Dave came shortly after we got there, and was still questioning if my water had broken. The funny thing is they didn't check until around 8:30. But the fact that I was sitting in soaking wet towels made it so I was pretty sure! I sent Dave home to change, I really didn't want him in a suit for the birth of our baby. Dave called and asked me if I wanted our mothers to stay for the birth. We had never discussed this before, and very much DIDN'T want this with the other babies, but we both wanted to give it a try this time. So I told my Mom to hurry, and I told the nurse not to give me any pitocin until then. With Dawson I was complete within 15 minutes of the pitocin drip, so I thought it would probably go really fast after that. I was wrong!

By 9:30 I had gone from 4 to 6 cm, and I was worried that if I didn't get an epidural soon, I wouldn't be able to get one. I have no problem with contraction pain, but delivery pain is a totally different story. So I asked for an epidural whenever the anesthesiologist came available. He came shortly after, and boy do I love that feeling. And I was very pleased to be having my third pain-free labor. I believe in getting the epidural before I am in pain. For $1000 I am going to make that epi worth every penny. I was able to get some rest after that.

My Mom called and said she was close, so we started the pitocin at 11:00. Then came the waiting. My contractions were great, so I kept telling people it shouldn't be more than an hour. The progression was so slow after this! We waited and waited. Around 3:30 I was really close to complete, and the word "posterior" started getting thrown around. I delivered one baby posterior, and it wasn't pretty. I was getting pretty discouraged about it. The baby's heart rate was dropping a tad, so they made me wear the oxygen mask, which I didn't like too much. Maybe the fact that I hadn't been able to breathe through my nose for a week was lowering my oxygen level! But what did they give me? Saline Nose Spray. I felt like asking them if they had ever used Saline Nose Spray. Maybe patting my head and rubbing my tummy would help clear out my nose too? Honestly! I just wanted that Dr. to get over there, but she had patients to see, so she didn't come for awhile. When she finally came, I asked her if she could feel that he was posterior, and after checking she agreed that he was. I started crying! At that point I don't think I spoke another positive word until after he was delivered.

The next thing she discovered was that my water wasn't entirely broken yet. The membranes over his head were still intact, and they thought that might have slowed my progression as well. This means that the leak was up high, which is why I never had a big gush. I was really feeling the contractions at this point, but I didn't dare turn up my epidural because I knew how hard it would be to push him out this way. I wanted to have more feeling to push more effectively. After breaking the water, she tried unsuccessfully to flip him. I was really upset, I just didn't think I had the energy to push for a long time. I really don't like pushing. I begged for a c-section, but no one took me seriously. So I pushed. I started at 4:50. The progress on pushing was slow, and seemed non-existent to me. I asked Dave to go get the mirror, which I could see was in the closet. He went to get my makeup bag! I told him I didn't want a little mirror, I really didn't care what my makeup looked like at that point. I wanted the big mirror so I could see what I was doing! As he dropped further, he was putting so much pressure on my tailbone I started screaming and I really thought my tailbone would break. I said so many funny things, the video footage is hilarious. "I hate having kids" was my favorite. I was begging for them to just knock me out, but they told me it was too late for that. I screamed and moaned, and then I stopped. At that point he flipped. Suddenly I wasn't in a lot of pain. The Dr. said, "Lets have a baby!" ( Ha! Let's have a baby? Common, give me the credit here!) I pushed once and his head came out. I could totally feel the relief. The cord was around his neck, but not really tight. Then they told me I could push the rest of him out, and it felt SO good. In fact, I said that out loud. Then I said, "That was such a joke!" I really couldn't believe I made it through all that. He was born at 5:21 pm. So I got my wish of a pain-free labor, but the delivery was another story. It was definitely the most pain I've ever felt in my life, but after he flipped, the pain was minimal. I think I could do natural child birth if the baby was in the RIGHT DIRECTION!

At this point, all worries of premature lungs were gone, as he cried. He only cried for a minute, and quitely, but I could hear him whimpering as they cleaned him up, so I knew he was okay. They cleaned him off and put him on the scale. 6 lbs. 11 oz., 20 inches long. We had a good laugh about that. The Dr. cleaned me up, and I was thrilled when I learned that I hadn't even torn. Recovery is cake without tears. I felt great from there on out, and I shocked the nurses as I could walk right away. I walked myself to the bathroom and went, and they couldn't believe it. (They probably say that to everyone though :)

Henry nursed right away after birth, and did a great job. He was a perfect baby at the hospital, eating and sleeping like a dream. He had a few struggles to keep his body temperature up, but that is typical with early babies. He had a little bit of bruising on his head and nose- from being posterior.

Of course with his slightly bruised head, and being premature, he developed jaundice and was on the Bili-lights for a week. Henry has a round head, with brown hair. This is something I always wanted with my other kids. I love Dawson's blond hair, but I've always wanted my children to have brown hair.

We are so thrilled to have our third little boy here. He is such a joy, and the big boys love him. I wondered if this transition would be really crazy, especially having them so close, but it doesn't even seem any different. I think after 2, our house was so wild and crazy it couldn't get much worse.

Here I am loathing my oxygen mask