Just a heads up to the few of you reading this. I plan on telling, in detail, what happened from the moment I could tell I was going into labor until I had my baby. The details shouldn't be too graphic, but don't read if you aren't comfortable with details. I'm not very good at writing in my journal, so my blog pretty much is my journal. This post is mostly for my sake, and I want to remember as much as possible. It's a long post with a lot of pictures. So here begins the story of the birth of William Scott Hinton:
I was so sure that Will was going to be born sometime Easter weekend, that when Monday came, I was not in the best mood. I know my due date hadn't even passed, but I just felt that he was going to come earlier. So I rode up to campus with Lance, like usual, and walked back home. I felt good and made every effort to be in a good mood and just accept what would happen.
10:00pm: Lance and I decided to watch a movie. We got about 10-15 minutes into Wolverine when I suddenly felt a weird sensation. I could feel some fluid coming out into my pants. I looked at Lance and said, "I'm not sure, but I either just peed my pants or my water just broke." He kind of shrugged and went back to watching the movie. I hurried upstairs to the bathroom to see what was going on. I was soaked clear through my pants. I used the restroom and put on some clean clothes. But when I stood back up, more fluid kept coming out. I informed Lance that I was almost positive that my water had just broken and that we should probably go to the hospital to make sure. He started grabbing the last minute items and getting the bags into the car. I had just gotten out of the shower right before we started the movie, so I decided to hurry and blow dry my hair so it wouldn't be soaking wet all night.
11:00pm: We arrived at the hospital and got checked in. They verified that it was definitely my water that had broken. We would be there to stay.
11:20 pm: I was dilated to 1.5cm. I was at this point at my last doctor visit, so I hadn't started changing.
12:20am: I was dilated to 2cm and 90% effaced. They gave me another dose of medicine through my IV. They also offered me picotin at this point to help speed up the process. The picotin would also make the contractions much worse though. I decided to wait another hour to see how I progressed.
1:30am: Dilated to 3cm. I decided there was no point in waiting around in pain, so I got my epidural. At this point, the pain was uncomfortable but not unbearable. I was mostly experiencing pain in my lower back. The epidural went very smoothly and worked like a charm.
3:20am: Dilated to 4cm and fully effaced. I didn't feel anything after the epidural...except being very hungry. I sucked on a lot of ice and ate several popsicle.
3:30am: I was in the middle of eating a popsicle when my stomach suddenly got very nauseous, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I NEVER feel like throwing up. In fact, there has only been one time in my life that I remember actually throwing up. I'm sure there were times when I was little that I don't remember; but the point is...I never throw up. For a while I was almost convinced that I couldn't throw up. Anyways, Lance could tell I was about to puke and fortunately he moved quick and had a garbage can to me just in time for me to throw up. And it wasn't just a little, it was a massive amount, and it was disgusting.
The next few hours were basically just a waiting game. Lance was able to get a few hours of sleep, but I had a hard time falling asleep, mostly due to the uncomfortable bed and the fact that I couldn't lay flat on my back. It was kind of an awkward angle and not the best for sleeping. I ended up listening to some music, reading a bit of the Hunger Games, and finding anyway to pass the time.
6:15am: Dilated almost to a 10 - they decided to wait about 20 minutes to check again. After the 20 minutes, they had me do a practice push. I think this was basically to see how good I was at pushing and to gage where we were at. At this point, the baby was in about a +1 position. I was still numb from the epidural, but my butt was pretty sore. It was the type of sore you get from sitting in the same position for 10 hours and your butt just aches. So that's pretty much what it felt like. There was also a lot of pressure starting to build inside. The best way to describe it is that it felt like I needed to poop. That was always one of my worries about labor...that I would have a bowel movement while I was pushing. I know it is fairly common and happens to a lot of women, but I just didn't want it to happen to me. But it got to a point where I could've sworn I needed to use the restroom and I wanted more than anything to get it out. Kind of like when you have to go to the bathroom really bad and you are trying to hold it. And it hurts worse to hold it...so I told my nurse that I really felt like I needed to push. Typically once you a dilated to a 10 they have you wait for an hour in what they call "rest and descent". This allows time for the baby to move further down the birth canal, in an attempt to lessen the time of pushing. Instead of an hour I only waited about 20 minutes or so, then we decided we would start pushing.
I'm not sure exactly what time it started, but some time before I started pushing, I suddenly started to shake really bad. It was as if I was freezing to death, but I wasn't cold at all. My entire body would just convulse and my teeth would chatter really bad. It was pretty strange. This continued for several hours. I think it had Lance a little worried at first, but then he just found it funny. They weren't just small shakes, they were large, jerky movements. And the shaking actually got worse after the baby was out. I was wrapped in many layers of blankets, yet I still continued shaking uncontrollably.
7:30am: The nurse had me start pushing. It was hard for me to tell when my contractions were because there was just the constant pressure. The main way we could tell when to push was with the monitor, not because I could feel it. Or I could push on my stomach, and when I felt it get harder, then it was a contraction. We pushed with the nurse most of the time. When we got closer to the end, Dr. Olsen was called in and we started into the final phase of pushing. As the baby was crowning, the doctor said that it had a lot of hair. The baby's head was having a hard time coming out. The doctor spend several minutes trying to stretch me out more, but eventually just ended up doing an episiotomy. Thank goodness I couldn't feel it.
Right before the baby was about the come out, the doctor informed me that he could see some meconium. That means that the baby had a bowel movement inside. Dr. Olsen informed me that they were going to try to prevent the baby from crying right away to reduce the chance that he would breath it in. Also, once the baby's head was out, Dr. Olsen said that the cord was wrapped around his neck pretty good. He didn't seem to worried or panicked, so I tried remaining calm.
8:44am: William Scott Hinton was born! Because of the meconium and the cord wrapped around his neck, they didn't place him on my stomach right away and clean him off on me. They took him to the back of the room and started doing all the checks. Lance cut the umbilical cord and stayed with Will. He weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 inches long. I was pleasantly surprised because we were expecting him to be close to 9 lbs, if not more. We were also expecting him to be pretty bald, so I was ecstatic to see a ton of hair.
3:30am: I was in the middle of eating a popsicle when my stomach suddenly got very nauseous, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I NEVER feel like throwing up. In fact, there has only been one time in my life that I remember actually throwing up. I'm sure there were times when I was little that I don't remember; but the point is...I never throw up. For a while I was almost convinced that I couldn't throw up. Anyways, Lance could tell I was about to puke and fortunately he moved quick and had a garbage can to me just in time for me to throw up. And it wasn't just a little, it was a massive amount, and it was disgusting.
The next few hours were basically just a waiting game. Lance was able to get a few hours of sleep, but I had a hard time falling asleep, mostly due to the uncomfortable bed and the fact that I couldn't lay flat on my back. It was kind of an awkward angle and not the best for sleeping. I ended up listening to some music, reading a bit of the Hunger Games, and finding anyway to pass the time.
6:15am: Dilated almost to a 10 - they decided to wait about 20 minutes to check again. After the 20 minutes, they had me do a practice push. I think this was basically to see how good I was at pushing and to gage where we were at. At this point, the baby was in about a +1 position. I was still numb from the epidural, but my butt was pretty sore. It was the type of sore you get from sitting in the same position for 10 hours and your butt just aches. So that's pretty much what it felt like. There was also a lot of pressure starting to build inside. The best way to describe it is that it felt like I needed to poop. That was always one of my worries about labor...that I would have a bowel movement while I was pushing. I know it is fairly common and happens to a lot of women, but I just didn't want it to happen to me. But it got to a point where I could've sworn I needed to use the restroom and I wanted more than anything to get it out. Kind of like when you have to go to the bathroom really bad and you are trying to hold it. And it hurts worse to hold it...so I told my nurse that I really felt like I needed to push. Typically once you a dilated to a 10 they have you wait for an hour in what they call "rest and descent". This allows time for the baby to move further down the birth canal, in an attempt to lessen the time of pushing. Instead of an hour I only waited about 20 minutes or so, then we decided we would start pushing.
I'm not sure exactly what time it started, but some time before I started pushing, I suddenly started to shake really bad. It was as if I was freezing to death, but I wasn't cold at all. My entire body would just convulse and my teeth would chatter really bad. It was pretty strange. This continued for several hours. I think it had Lance a little worried at first, but then he just found it funny. They weren't just small shakes, they were large, jerky movements. And the shaking actually got worse after the baby was out. I was wrapped in many layers of blankets, yet I still continued shaking uncontrollably.
7:30am: The nurse had me start pushing. It was hard for me to tell when my contractions were because there was just the constant pressure. The main way we could tell when to push was with the monitor, not because I could feel it. Or I could push on my stomach, and when I felt it get harder, then it was a contraction. We pushed with the nurse most of the time. When we got closer to the end, Dr. Olsen was called in and we started into the final phase of pushing. As the baby was crowning, the doctor said that it had a lot of hair. The baby's head was having a hard time coming out. The doctor spend several minutes trying to stretch me out more, but eventually just ended up doing an episiotomy. Thank goodness I couldn't feel it.
Right before the baby was about the come out, the doctor informed me that he could see some meconium. That means that the baby had a bowel movement inside. Dr. Olsen informed me that they were going to try to prevent the baby from crying right away to reduce the chance that he would breath it in. Also, once the baby's head was out, Dr. Olsen said that the cord was wrapped around his neck pretty good. He didn't seem to worried or panicked, so I tried remaining calm.
8:44am: William Scott Hinton was born! Because of the meconium and the cord wrapped around his neck, they didn't place him on my stomach right away and clean him off on me. They took him to the back of the room and started doing all the checks. Lance cut the umbilical cord and stayed with Will. He weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 inches long. I was pleasantly surprised because we were expecting him to be close to 9 lbs, if not more. We were also expecting him to be pretty bald, so I was ecstatic to see a ton of hair.
Introducing...Will!!!
We are so very blessed to have this sweet little baby in our lives. We love him so much and can't get enough of him. I can't believe we have already had him for a week. We've definitely had some struggles and are still figuring out how to adjust. The biggest struggle is with breastfeeding. It started off bad and quickly got worse. I am sad to say that I got frustrated enough that we started using a bottle. It's kind of a sore topic for me, and I feel like a failure for not being able to breastfeed. But we're going to try some tricks and we have an appointment with a lactation consultant in a few days, and I'm really hoping that we can get this fixed. I would really like to be able to breastfeed. I plan on doing a separate post going into a little more details about what happened with the breastfeeding.
ah the shakes!! They were awesome! I'm so happy for you guys! he's darling.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I had a hard time with breastfeeding too. Don't feel bad. She wouldn't latch on too one side, and the side she did latch on too got mastitis. So now I just pump and feed her from a bottle. It's nice cuz Braidon can help feed her. Everyone is different, don't feel bad, you'll find something that will work for you.
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