matson has finally arrived! a friend suggested that i write down matson's birth story before i forget the details, so i figured i'd take advantage of my blog for that.
our due date of march 22 came and went with no sign that mats was interested in joining us, and other than the occasional light contraction, the trend continued as we hit 41 weeks and moved closer to 42 weeks. my doctor's practice doesn't deliver babies post-42 weeks and doesn't schedule inductions for the weekend, so they initially set us up to induce at 41 weeks and 2 days, which was a thursday night. we'd been planning on a natural labor all along and were really hoping to avoid induction if at all possible, and thankfully my doctor was willing to work with us to get the induction date moved back to sunday night, 41 weeks and 5 days. (i know that pitocin makes contractions a lot stronger and harder than normal, which makes it all that much more likely that you'll need an epidural; i was hoping to avoid an epidural because it seems as though it's better for your body to be able to work naturally through labor and delivery - better success with breastfeeding, easier pushing, etc.)
the friday before our induction, we had a non-stress test where i was hooked up to an external fetal monitor to check contractions, heartrate, and movement just to make sure things were still looking okay for matson. he was super active, i had all of one contraction in the thirty minutes i was hooked up, and as the doctor said, baby was just too comfortable in my womb to want to come out on his own! i wasn't quite a centimeter dilated and my cervix was still pretty far posterior, so they decided that when i came in sunday night, they'd do a cervical ripening gel (turned out they used a tablet) overnight to get my cervix in motion, then start pitocin in the morning if it was needed - about 30-60% of women who have the cervical ripening treatment end up having it jump-start their labor.
we spent all weekend hoping and praying to be in active labor by the time sunday night rolled around for us to head into the hospital, but while the irregular light contractions continued, they never morphed into anything more. as we were finishing packing up our bags, the full weight of the situation - heading to the hospital knowing that we were absolutely going to have a baby in the next day or so - hit us, and while we were so excited knowing that matson was coming, we also found ourselves grieving the end of the first part of our marriage. not that life with kids isn't good, but we've had a really awesome first five and a half years of marriage, and have so much fun together just the two of us. even if the change is good, having a baby is still a huge change for our relationship, and change is hard.
we still went to small group that night, then headed up to the hospital in snow flurries, to be there at 9pm. by the time we got checked in, monitored, and had the first tablet inserted, it was close to 11pm. they offered me an ambien to help me sleep through the night, and while i refused at first, i called the nurse in for it by 12:30 as i realized i was getting no sleep which wouldn't be very helpful for labor the next day. i slept soundly til 3am when they came back to check me and insert the second tablet - pretty shortly after that tablet started to work, contractions started coming on more strongly and quickly, and i dozed off and on until around 7am when i decided sleep was a lost cause and woke up scott to start our day. i had had grand intentions of taking a shower, fixing my hair, and putting on a bit of makeup before the induction started since i had to have it at all - the shower was as far as i got, though, and even at that, i had serious thoughts of sitting down in the tub to finish my shower as contractions continued. they started pitocin around 9, but by 8:30 i told scott to call our doula, liberty, to come in - i was already in such pain from the contractions that i figured we'd have our 10 hours of laboring with her, then just go ahead and get the epidural. (i think scott made the call just after i ate a grape popsicle and promptly threw it up.) she arrived by 9:30 to me sitting on the birth ball next to our bed, moaning, with my head propped up on some pillows on our bed and scott sitting behind me rubbing my back.
from there, everything is kind of a blur to me. i had my eyes open for maybe a cumulative grand total of 2 minutes in the next seven hours, and spent a bit of time sitting on the birth ball or leaning against it while kneeling on all fours on the bed, but most of it laying on my side in bed clutching at either scott or liberty's hands while the other one rubbed my back or my feet. at one point, since i was having crazy contractions but wasn't dilating, the doctor (dr. moore) came in and inserted a balloon to force my cervix to dilate - it would fall out naturally once i hit 4cm. i have no idea how long it was in there, but while it was still in, my water broke on its own - which was awesome news, since it meant that my body was starting to take over labor and things should be progressing faster. liberty left the room to tell the nurse that my water had broken, which i assumed (correctly) meant that there was meconium in my amniotic fluid.
one memory i do have is, as they came back to remove the balloon for me since my water had broken, was scott saying, "woah, is that her mucus plug?!" (apparently it came out attached to the balloon.) i think around this time, after a few hours (scott thought maybe 2?) of pitocin, they stopped pitocin since my body had taken over - hooray! i was relieved to hear it, but when someone said that i could now labor away from my bed and liberty was running through my options - walk around, birth ball, tub, etc - all i could say was "tub". (scott said that i only spoke in verbs and nouns the whole time.) i was in there for maybe 40 minutes (again, per scott, who wasn't positive) when i started feeling like i needed to push, so they made me get out. i was very sad about this, because my legs were shaky and i was super cold in the room, having just been relatively cozy in a warm tub. i was only at a 7, so they let me back in the tub for a while more. i think i felt the urge to push again, so i had to get out maybe a half hour later, and didn't get back in again. i did some pushing on the bed, got checked a few times, and after approximately an eternity, was finally at a 10 - again, hooray! i was super cranky, because while i was able to continue pushing for a while, when they were able to see the head, they made me stop pushing until dr. moore made it to the room.
finally dr. moore came in, and i was able to commence pushing again. i know i'd been falling asleep between contractions throughout the day (probably because i'd only gotten about 3.5 hours of sleep the night before), and while i feel fairly certain i was awake throughout the final pushing, i can't be sure. scott thinks i was only pushing for about 10 minutes after dr. moore arrived, and it felt like each time i pushed people were saying, "just one more push and his head will be out!" so i'd push, then, "just one more push!", etc. about two minutes before matson came out, i felt my leg on scott's side being shifted, and realized that a nurse was taking my leg as he was being led to a chair - he said later that he was pretty sure he could have made it, but was starting to feel woozy and didn't want to be that dad who passes out in the delivery room. his head was finally fully out after an enormous pushing contraction, and then i think just one more push and his body followed. i'd been in intense pain all day, and it was suddenly just ... gone! someone told me to open my eyes, and i saw a gray-ish baby being taken to the warmer in the corner so that mats could be checked out by a nicu nurse for the meconium in my fluid. he was in great form, though, and checked out wonderfully other than a pinched nerve in his neck so that his head was pulling to the left and his left arm was sticking out at a wonky angle.
matson is a fabulous baby. his neck thing was fine by the time we got to our room, he started nursing right away and is a champion feeder (he only lost about 5.6% of his birth weight in the hospital, and was up 2oz from that at his 4-day pediatrician checkup today, which she said is pretty remarkable). he's got adorable blue eyes and loves snuggling. hands down the hardest part right now is that he doesn't like to sleep unless he's being held - sweet during the day, but makes for reeeeeeally long nights. i got about 6-7 hours total sleep two nights ago, but other than that have averaged about 3-4 hours a night/day since sunday night when we went in for our induction. my parents are here to help out, which is awesome, but if they have him and i'm trying to sleep, i wake up as soon as he starts to fuss. i discovered cotton swabs this afternoon to take a nap, but was only able to sleep for an hour. sigh. i'm trying to remember the joys of being matson's mommy, though, because there are so many, and that he'll figure out the sleep thing sooner or later and we'll be a little rested again. he's been going longer stretches on his own, though, and the pediatrician suggested letting him sleep in his car seat since he likes being snuggled up in close quarters. (he also likes his bouncer seat and the curved pad on the changing table??)
so that is matson's birth story! overall, i am so happy with how things went, and incredibly proud that i was able to make it through labor with no pain meds. liberty has since told me that it's incredibly rare to have a pitocin labor and not have an epidural. honestly, even though i didn't mention her much through the story, i don't think that scott and i could have made it through without her. her encouragement and support (and massages!) gave both of us the energy and motivation to keep going without an epidural, and made the pain bearable. if you ever have any intention of doing a natural labor, i 100% recommend getting a doula - she was completely awesome, and a great supplement to scott's incredible help.
