Yesterday my baby had his one month birthday! I can not believe that one month has flown by already. We love this little baby so much, that it doesn't seem possible that he has only been in our lives for one month. I figure it is about time that I wrote down a little bit about his birth. I don't get much time these days, we are sort of living in multiple places at once, Kevin is finishing his dissertation, and I am trying to figure out how to get us organized to move home. The days fly by and it's tough to get a minute to do much else. So I thought I would put a brief overview of his birth on here for anyone who might be interested.
The week that William was due, I was feeling great. Too great actually. If I didn't have a giant belly (which I did), I would not have even realized that I was pregnant. It seemed like nothing was progressing. I went to my midwife appointment and was told that I should expect to go 2 weeks overdue, and then I would be scheduled for an induction. We began to get nervous, because we are in a very different living situation right now. We are living with some friends in their spare room, we have to move back to the states by mid-September. We could not move back to the states until we had William's U.S. Passport which was going to take a few weeks to process, and the list goes on. We really needed this little boy to be on time, or else we were going to be in a tough situation with getting him back to the states. On my due date, there was still no progress, I was not dialed at all. I still felt great, William wanted to take his time getting to us. My Mom called, and was also concerned about our situation. She was worried that going overdue by 2 weeks would put me at a higher risk of a c-section because William was expected to be a bigger baby. She asked me to call and ask to be seen by a doctor that day. We called the hospital and asked to be seen. When we went in they monitored William and again said that most likely we should expect to go overdue by two weeks. But after talking to the doctor, and having Will checked with some more tests, the doctor decided to induce me right then.
I was given some medicine that was meant to start the induction process. They explained to me that they give three different medications over a 48 hour period. So that we should expect the baby to be born in about 48+ hours.
About 2 hours after being given the first medication, I started to have contractions. Since William is my first, I wasn't 100 percent sure if I was feeling real contractions or if it was because of the medicine. I asked the midwife, and she said that I would not be having contractions already and that it was just from the medication. But I was sure they must have been contractions, because they kept getting worse and worse. Every time I would ask the midwives though, I was told that I wasn't having contractions. After another hour or so, they wanted to move me to another part of the hospital to sleep for the night and they were going to send Kevin home. By this time I was in a lot of pain, and could barely walk. I had to stop every 30 seconds on the way to the room they were taking me too. The aide that was walking with me could tell that the pain I was feeling had to be more than a side effect from the medication. Once she got me to my room, she went and got a midwife to check on me.
When the midwife came, she told me the same thing that the other midwives had told me. That I could not be in labor yet, and that I was just feeling side effects from the medication. We asked if she would please check me anyway before Kevin left for the night. When she checked me, I was 5 centimeters dilated, and in active labor!!!
They then got me back up the the delivery unit right away. for the next 5 hours I was able to make it through the contractions until I was dialed to a 10 and ready to push. I had wanted to try to have a natural birth, and I was really pleased with how well I was handling everything. By the time I was ready to push the midwife told me that it should only be a little bit longer to get him out. However, after pushing for over an hour, and William still not crowning, she went and got a doctor.
When the doctor came in, he kept saying that something was blocking the way for William to get out. A few more doctors then came in to check and give their opinions. In the end, the doctor decided to give me an epidural and let me push for one more hour, and then see what was happening. After another hour of pushing, William was still stuck.
At that point the doctor ordered that I be taken into the operating room. He prepped me for a c-section in case he still could not get William to come out. It turned out that Will was facing heads up, and was getting caught inside my pelvic bone. The doctor had to use forceps to get him out in the end. William was born weighing 8 pounds 12 ounces and was about 22 inches long. I can't imagine what would have happened if I would have had to wait 2 more weeks for him to arrive. The doctor said if it had gotten to that point, I would have more than likely had to have a c section. I was happy that we decided to go in and be checked, and not just wait the 2 weeks like we were being told by our midwife.
This was not the birth story that I imagined while pregnant. It was very difficult, and I do still remember the pain. In the end I was just happy that William got here. l was still able to hold him right away, which is what I really wanted. I was worried that since he was born in the operating room with forcepts they would take him away before letting me hold him. I think they might have for a second, but I didn't feel like I had to wait to long to hold him. The first thing that I noticed when he was born was his long eyelashes. He was so beautiful and perfect. I was overwhelmed.
In total I was in labor from about 9pm until William was born and 8:59am the next morning.
The first day with him was lovely. Kevin was wonderful, he surprised me and had our family all write me letters and he gave them to me that morning while we were in the recovery room. I cried reading them because it made me feel like my family was there with me even though we were so far away.
At one point during my labor I said to Kevin "I don't think that I can do this ever again". It was a lot more difficult than I imagined. But in the end having this beutiful little boy is incredible. The entire experiance of being pregnant and having this little baby has been amazing. I am sure I will be able to do it again someday, but right now, I feel like I can't miss a second of my time with William.
The week that William was due, I was feeling great. Too great actually. If I didn't have a giant belly (which I did), I would not have even realized that I was pregnant. It seemed like nothing was progressing. I went to my midwife appointment and was told that I should expect to go 2 weeks overdue, and then I would be scheduled for an induction. We began to get nervous, because we are in a very different living situation right now. We are living with some friends in their spare room, we have to move back to the states by mid-September. We could not move back to the states until we had William's U.S. Passport which was going to take a few weeks to process, and the list goes on. We really needed this little boy to be on time, or else we were going to be in a tough situation with getting him back to the states. On my due date, there was still no progress, I was not dialed at all. I still felt great, William wanted to take his time getting to us. My Mom called, and was also concerned about our situation. She was worried that going overdue by 2 weeks would put me at a higher risk of a c-section because William was expected to be a bigger baby. She asked me to call and ask to be seen by a doctor that day. We called the hospital and asked to be seen. When we went in they monitored William and again said that most likely we should expect to go overdue by two weeks. But after talking to the doctor, and having Will checked with some more tests, the doctor decided to induce me right then.
I was given some medicine that was meant to start the induction process. They explained to me that they give three different medications over a 48 hour period. So that we should expect the baby to be born in about 48+ hours.
About 2 hours after being given the first medication, I started to have contractions. Since William is my first, I wasn't 100 percent sure if I was feeling real contractions or if it was because of the medicine. I asked the midwife, and she said that I would not be having contractions already and that it was just from the medication. But I was sure they must have been contractions, because they kept getting worse and worse. Every time I would ask the midwives though, I was told that I wasn't having contractions. After another hour or so, they wanted to move me to another part of the hospital to sleep for the night and they were going to send Kevin home. By this time I was in a lot of pain, and could barely walk. I had to stop every 30 seconds on the way to the room they were taking me too. The aide that was walking with me could tell that the pain I was feeling had to be more than a side effect from the medication. Once she got me to my room, she went and got a midwife to check on me.
When the midwife came, she told me the same thing that the other midwives had told me. That I could not be in labor yet, and that I was just feeling side effects from the medication. We asked if she would please check me anyway before Kevin left for the night. When she checked me, I was 5 centimeters dilated, and in active labor!!!
They then got me back up the the delivery unit right away. for the next 5 hours I was able to make it through the contractions until I was dialed to a 10 and ready to push. I had wanted to try to have a natural birth, and I was really pleased with how well I was handling everything. By the time I was ready to push the midwife told me that it should only be a little bit longer to get him out. However, after pushing for over an hour, and William still not crowning, she went and got a doctor.
When the doctor came in, he kept saying that something was blocking the way for William to get out. A few more doctors then came in to check and give their opinions. In the end, the doctor decided to give me an epidural and let me push for one more hour, and then see what was happening. After another hour of pushing, William was still stuck.
At that point the doctor ordered that I be taken into the operating room. He prepped me for a c-section in case he still could not get William to come out. It turned out that Will was facing heads up, and was getting caught inside my pelvic bone. The doctor had to use forceps to get him out in the end. William was born weighing 8 pounds 12 ounces and was about 22 inches long. I can't imagine what would have happened if I would have had to wait 2 more weeks for him to arrive. The doctor said if it had gotten to that point, I would have more than likely had to have a c section. I was happy that we decided to go in and be checked, and not just wait the 2 weeks like we were being told by our midwife.
This was not the birth story that I imagined while pregnant. It was very difficult, and I do still remember the pain. In the end I was just happy that William got here. l was still able to hold him right away, which is what I really wanted. I was worried that since he was born in the operating room with forcepts they would take him away before letting me hold him. I think they might have for a second, but I didn't feel like I had to wait to long to hold him. The first thing that I noticed when he was born was his long eyelashes. He was so beautiful and perfect. I was overwhelmed.
In total I was in labor from about 9pm until William was born and 8:59am the next morning.
The first day with him was lovely. Kevin was wonderful, he surprised me and had our family all write me letters and he gave them to me that morning while we were in the recovery room. I cried reading them because it made me feel like my family was there with me even though we were so far away.
At one point during my labor I said to Kevin "I don't think that I can do this ever again". It was a lot more difficult than I imagined. But in the end having this beutiful little boy is incredible. The entire experiance of being pregnant and having this little baby has been amazing. I am sure I will be able to do it again someday, but right now, I feel like I can't miss a second of my time with William.
3 comments:
he is so precious! i am so happy for you, way to go getting him here mama!
Welcome to motherhood! I'm glad to finally get some sort of story regarding his birth!! I'm sorry you have been so busy, I hope the rest of the 10 days you are in England are enjoyable! Can't wait to see you or William!!
Thanks for sharing the birth story, I can't wait to hear more about it when you get home!
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