First-Time-Mommy.Com Featured Birth Story: Josiah (C-Section)

 

 

 

 
 

Babies Name: Josiah

Babies Sex: Male

Due Date:  9/6/2012   

Babies Birth Date:  9/3/2013   

# of weeks pregnant: 39.4

Type of Birth: c-section    

Babies Stats: 8 lb 8 oz & 20.5 in   

Parents:   Rebecca and TJ

 

 

 

“I was four days away from my due date and extremely miserable. My husband and I went to church on Sunday (Sept 2nd). After the service was over, I told my husband that I wanted to go walking to see if that would get things started.  The only thing that walking accomplished was causing me to be exhausted. The rest of the day was rather uneventful. I had a few sporadic contractions but nothing that got me excited. I had done a ton of research on natural   ways to induce labor and had tried them all. That night I couldn’t sleep and didn’t get to sleep till after midnight.

 

I woke up at 4 am early Monday (Sept 3rd Labor Day) with a strong contraction. I grabbed my phone and started timing my contractions.  The first and second contractions were almost 4 minutes apart. A few more came and went and they were getting stronger and still staying about 4 minutes apart. I rolled over and woke my husband up and told him that this could be “”go time””.  When I rolled back over, husband heard a “”pop””. About that time, I felt a gush! My water just broke!  Holy crap!  My husband grabbed a towel and I waddled my way to the bathroom. I noticed on the towel that my water appeared to have meconium in it. Being a nurse that works with OB patients, that freaked me out! Luckily my bag and my son’s diaper bag had been packed for weeks and were already in the car. 

 

The hospital was only about 7 miles away but my husband felt the need to summon his inner Mario Andretti! He had  the emergency flashers on and was going what felt like a million miles per hour!  I remember, at one point, I screamed at him “”it’s my first baby, I’m not going to have him right this second!””  We finally got to Labor and Delivery and the triage nurse asked me if I thought I was in labor. As soon as she asked that, I was hit with a rather powerful contraction. I didn’t answer her question as I was too busy breathing through the pain.  My husband chimed in and told her that my water had broken at home.  Instead of taking me back to a triage room, I was admitted to room 1103.  I was asked to change into a gown and to have a seat on the bed so that I could be evaluated for dilation.  When the nurse checked me, I was a very stretchy 4 cm and 100% effaced. That was quite a change from 3 days earlier at my last OB visit.

 

The whole time, from my water breaking to being admitted, my husband was trying to get a hold of our family. My plan was to have my husband, my sister, and my mom as my support people. My mom lived approximately an hour and a half away from the hospital and my sister lived over 2 hours away.  And believe it or not, we had trouble getting in touch with them!  My husband finally got in touch and everyone was on their way.   We finally had a moment to let the emotions of the moment sink in!

 

About 7:30 am, my doctor came in and checked my progress.   The contractions were picking up in intensity but it’s wasn’t anything I couldn’t breathe through.   When she checked me, she found that the amniotic sac had sealed back and was bulging and that I was 6 cm.  She broke my water again.   (I absolutely hated the feeling of leaking fluid!) My sister arrived shortly after that.  She was AMAZING!  I remember being told in my childbirth classes, to try and empty your bladder often as it can help the baby to descend into the pelvis.  At this point the contractions were coming one on top of the other. I wasn’t getting a break between contractions. I had planned on a drug free birth but I couldn’t take it anymore, I was having 3 sometimes 4 contractions with no break. I called the nurse and told them I wanted an epidural.    At one point,  I was in the bathroom and I started having a contraction, I tried to sit on the toilet and couldn’t so I tried to stand back up and I couldn’t so I tried to sit back down. Nothing helped.  This was the moment, I heard the anesthesiologist come in, so I made my way back to the bed.  My poor husband couldn’t handle the sight of the epidural so my sister stayed with me.  The epidural to me, was just as painful as any contraction. I cried the whole time I was getting my epidural.  After he was done, I was slowly starting to get some relief.   By this time I had been in labor for over 6.5 hours.

 

About 30 minutes later, I finally found relief. My contractions had started to become erratic so I was started on a very small dose of Pitocin. I progressed pretty quickly after that.  At around 3:30 pm, my doctor came in and checked me and I was at 10 cm! Time to push!  I pushed with 3 contractions but his head never came down in the birth canal.  My doctor decided to let my contractions bring the baby down.  An hour later, I tried again pushing with several more contractions with no luck. At about 5 pm it was decided to proceed with a c-section. 

 

I don’t remember much after that.  I was in complete shock! I remember being wheeled into the OR, and breaking down.  It seemed like an eternity before they let my husband in.  He sat down beside me and started rubbing my head.  He told me what a great job I did and that I had nothing to be ashamed of. I remember saying over and over, “”I’m such a failure!””  I remember him saying to me that in just a few minutes, we are going to see our baby boy.  A few minutes later, the doctor asked my husband to look over the drape so he could see our baby being born. My husband looked at me and said, “”Honey, he’s beautiful!”” At that moment, I heard my doctor say, oh my goodness, he’s a mini TJ!  I finally got to meet the life I had carried inside of me for the last 9 months. I couldn’t hold the tears in. The doctor weighed him and that shocked us all!  He weighed in at 8 lbs 6 oz!  My husband escorted Josiah to the nursery while the doctor finished sewing me up.

 

 

After I was in the recovery room for what seemed like an eternity. I dozed off several times from mental and physical exhaustion. I was awakened by the recovery room nurse telling me that we were headed back to the room to go meet up with my husband and my baby boy.  As they wheeled me back to the room, I was met by my family and husband. We kicked everyone but my sister and husband out and immediately started working on breastfeeding.  He was a natural!   

 

The birth of my son didn’t go according to plan but my beautiful baby boy was safe and in my arms.  If we decide to have another baby, I’m definitely going to try for a VBAC. 

 


A big Thank-you to Rebecca for sharing her story with us!

 

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