Ford's Birth Story

So now that Ford is 3 weeks old I figure I should give you the story of how our cute little guy made his arrival… (and I want to write this all out so I can remember all the details)

On September 5th I went in for my check up at 40 weeks 2 days with another Dr in my OB office because my Dr was out of the office. After the normal check up stuff, he checked me to see if I was any more dilated… And I wasn’t! Still a measly 1cm, and he even warned me that he wasn’t dropped down like he should be. And threw in “if we induced you today, you’d end up with a c-section” for good measure. In my defense, I didn’t ask to be induced! 😉

at the OB – waiting to see if I’ve progressed…

My OB office did want me to get a non stress test and ultrasound to monitor Ford’s heart and measure the amniotic fluid. Luckily, I was able to walk right over to Maternal Fetal Medicine. And my Momma came with me… She had been wanting me to get another ultrasound so she could see what he looked like. I’m so glad she was able to come with me because as it turned out… I was getting induced! The nurse that did my ultrasound said my amniotic fluid was low. She measured 3.5, I asked “3.5 what? Liters?” And she said it’s just a measurement and that it should be over 5. She then tells me, “You’re going to be induced! You get to meet your baby soon!” Which was definitely NOT what I was expecting. Not to say that I wasn’t excited, but I was also terrified! I asked if I could head home first and get my hospital bags and the nurse just snickered… She says “You can’t leave the hospital. You need to head up to Labor and Delivery now.” I called Sundance to let him know what was going on, but to not hurry home just yet, because I was just going to get checked into Labor and Delivery and I wasn’t sure how quickly it would all happen. My Mom and I headed up to L&D and I got checked in and got taken to my room. When the nurse took me back and told me to get into the gown, I was in shock. They were serious. I was staying. I was gonna have a baby!

slightly terrified of this whole “induction” process

One of the other doctors from my OB office came and got me ready to go for the induction around 2 pm. At that point I was actually starting to have contractions, though very mild, and I was still only dilated to a 1. She started me on Cytotec, which is a drug that gets your cervix “ready”. The nurses warned me that it would be a slow process, but that once the drug started working, labor usually progressed very quickly. Diz got there pretty soon after my first dose of Cytotec and brought all my things. My Mom left pretty soon after that and we promised we’d keep her updated and let her know when things started progressing because I wanted her there for the birth.

The nurse came back in around 5pm to check me and I was still a 1. So I got my second dose of Cytotec. Diz and I were just hanging out, watching tv. He left at some point to grab a dinner. I, unfortunately, could not eat, clear liquids only. So I got apple juice for dinner. 😉 Around 8pm I started feeling contractions, like, really feeling them. Not only does Cytotec get the cervix ready, it also causes contractions. The nurse checked me again and I was still a 1!! I was so disappointed. I was really feeling those contractions and I was so worried I’d end up in the OR having a c-section. The nurse asked me if I wanted my epidural and I said I wasn’t sure. During our prenatal classes, I remembered hearing that you should wait until you were 5cm to get the epidural or labor could slow down, or even stop. So the nurse offered me some IV pain medication, which I took. It made me feel immediately groggy and SO sleepy, but it did help with the pain. I also got my third dose of Cytotec. The contractions kept coming and the pain med wore off fairly quickly and I got another dose at 9pm, but by 9:45pm, I was hurting again. I felt like such a CHUMP. Here I am… STILL a 1 and I’m in so much pain. The nurse asked me again if I wanted the epidural and I expressed my concern about slowing down labor, and she sweetly replied, “Honey… it might slow it down by an hour or two.” So I asked her what she would do if it was her, and she said “I’d get the epidural.” So I looked at her and said “Call the anesthesiologist and may I have another dose of pain meds until he gets here?!” She laughed and said he was already here and that he would be in shortly. He walked in 5 minutes later and HOLY smokes… what a difference that epidural made. It was like INSTANT relief. I wish I had gotten it earlier, honestly.

At 11pm, the nurse checked me again… and I was still only a DANG 1! And I got my 4th and final dose of Cytotec. She wanted me to shift over to my other side because the fetal heart monitor wasn’t registering constantly, so she helped me turn (it’s crazy how HEAVY your legs are with the epidural…) and almost immediately I felt something warm and wet. I told her “umm, I think I just peed!” She laughed and said, “No, you have a catheter in.” and I said, “Well… something is warm and wet down there…”. She lifted the blankets and said, “OH… well, either you’re water broke or you have really watery diarrhea. Just kidding. Your water broke. But it’s green.” and I responded, “what does that mean?!” And she tells me that the baby had passed meconium in the amniotic fluid. Just another thing that I wasn’t planning on! I was so worried, but the nurse assured me that it happens a lot and that they’d have NICU staff in the room when baby Ford arrived to take care of him.

At 2 am… I FINALLY made progress! I was a 2! LOL! It took 12 hours to move 1 measly cm! I asked the nurse “At what point do we discuss a c-section?” and she told me not to worry yet, that Cytotec worked like this. She told me she’d come back in a couple hours and check me again. At 4am, she came in and did another exam, and she was down there for (what seemed like) a long time. I thought she was going to tell me that I was still a 2 or worse, back to a 1! BUT… she said I was a 6, almost 7! HOLY SMOKES! Those nurses know what they’re talking about. I told Diz to text my Mom and let her know to head back to the hospital since things were FINALLY moving. The charge nurse came in just after her and she wanted to place an internal fetal heart monitor since the external one kept giving them grief (it wouldn’t consistently get good readings). She was having issues trying to get it to stay in place and after a few minutes she pulls away and looks at me and says “You’re complete.” I asked “What do you mean? What does complete mean?” She looks at me and says “You’re a 10. You’re ready to push!”. I about died of shock. I told her “The nurse just said I was a 6!” and she replied “Well, now you’re a 10.” I looked over to Diz and said, “CALL my Mom, NOW.” She was (of course) already up and showered, basically waiting for our call.

Even with the epidural I was able to feel the contractions (they weren’t painful, but I could feel them building – if that makes sense?) and watch the monitor as well and with the nurse and Diz’s help I started pushing. It seemed to take forever to get him down in position. Once he got low enough I could feel constant pressure. It was definitely not what I expected! I thought I’d push with the contraction, then get relief (like it was earlier…). I kept asking the nurses “How much longer?” and “How much farther does he have to go?” I’d like to think I was being rational and not too overly emotional, but I do remember crying a few times, but Diz and my Mom assured me I was doing a great job. My Dr was able to come in for my delivery, (remember… she was out of the office – but she wasn’t out of town. She told me she’d do her best to come in for the delivery if she was available.) So once I saw her walk in, I knew we were close! Once he started to crown, my Mom started getting emotional, too. She kept saying, “He has hair! Lots of dark hair!” She left just before he arrived, so Diz and I could have that moment to ourselves.

After a few more pushes, Ford was HERE! He arrived at 5:53 am. My Dr hurried and clamped and cut his cord, quickly suctioned him, then handed him off to the NICU staff. I watched them work him over and suction him over and over again. He was crying and had good color, so I wasn’t too worried. Once they got him suctioned out enough they weighed and measured him. 8 pounds 7 ounces and 21 inches long! They brought him back to me and let us do skin-to-skin for a minute or two.

 

The NICU nurses wanted to take him down to put him on a c-pap for just a short time because he wasn’t breathing deeply enough for their liking. They explained it was more of a precaution, and that we’d probably meet up on the Mother Baby floor once I was recovered enough to move down. And sure enough, as they were wheeling me down, we stopped by the NICU and Diz and I got to go in and see him really quick and they told us they’d be right behind us. My Mom and Dad were watching through the windows with HUGE grins on their faces! He got sent down to the nursery and then had some testing done and his first bath and then he FINALLY came to our room! It wasn’t until after 9am that we finally got to hold him again! It was definitely a sweet reunion.

Hi! I’m Ford!

Diz is a DADDY! 🙂

My sweet boy!