Crue's Birth Story {08.02.13}

Before we get to today's birth story, I am excited to announce that SARA is the winner of my Favorite Things Giveaway! Congratulations girl! 

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Funny story, Jason has been reading these wonderful birth stories y'all are sending me and told me I need to post them every Wednesday and call it "Welcome to the World Wednesday"! HA! I will not be doing that, but thanks for the suggestion honey! 

Anyways, today the lovely {and hilarious} Sarah from Midwest Pillowtalk {fellow Minnesota Mama} is here to share the story of the day her beautiful son, Crue, was born! 

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note: this is quickly typed out as i nurse crue.. ignore my run on sentences & grammatical errors. sorry not sorry ;)

I was 9 days overdue. Holy. Moly. 

I had noticed that during my overdue days, my baby was moving around less and less. At my 40 week appointment I mentioned this to my doctor and we kind of both just chalked it up to my baby running out of room. As days went on, I got more worried and started wondering if my baby was distressed or if the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck or Lord who knows what.. first time pregnant lady panics.

Wednesday night, Isaiah and I went out to dinner and for a walk around the sculpture garden... I kept stressing that I wasn't feeling many movements and we agreed we'd wait through the night and see what the morning brought. Thursday morning came and I hadn't felt anything during the two time frames that I often felt the most, so we decided to head in to L&D to be monitored. All of our hospital bags were already in our car for quite some time...as I never thought I'd be so overdue! 

When we got into L&D, we saw my doctor! We had been talking about most pregnant women being induced between 10-14 days and I knew that I did NOT want to be induced, nor did I want to be 42 weeks pregnant. Because my doctor was there and saw us,  he said that we could be induced right then and there... after weighing out some serious options with Isaiah, we chatted and decided to go ahead. It was August 1st and we were SO ready to finally see the face of the babe in my belly{and i was so NOT ready to lose my belly!} Serious emotional moments.

My doctor broke my water at 7:38am on Thursday, August 1st. I was 2cm dilated and 80% effaced, the same that I had been for weeks. When he broke my water, I didn't know that he was going to do that.. I was expecting a regular cervical check so when I felt the gush it took me by major surprise and I literally thought I had just peed all over the hospital bed and his hand. I said "something just got really, really warm" and he told me it was my water.

I HAD NO IDEA IT WOULD BE HOT. GAH-ROSS.

Isaiah and I sat in my birthing suite all day long; watching TV, playing on our phones, taking a few naps, chatting amongst ourselves and waiting the arrival of our new baby boy. We kept telling all the doctors and nurses that we were trying to have this kid before midnight! {for most of the day, we thought my doctors shift ended at midnight.. but turned out it didn't end until 7am}. After a few hours, the nurse came back in to check me and I was still at 2cm, just barely at 3cm. so they started pitocin, upping my dose every 40 minutes. I was having contractions when I came in before they broke my water, but I wasn't feeling them... so during this time I was still contracting but doing well other than having such slow progress with my dilation. 

At about 9:30am, I started feeling them, and the people don't lie, THEY ARE NOT AWESOME. You will totally know what a contraction is like when you're having them. I absolutely thought "what if I never know?" "what if I never feel them?!".. when they're active - you'll feel them! 

At 11:30am my contractions were every 2-3 minutes apart. At 12:30 I was like OH MY WAAAHH. I had been in labor for 5 hours and STILL only at 2cm! My baby's station was at a 0 - so that was some progress and I tried to stay calm. At 1:00pm they upped my pitocin to 12 units and I was describing my pain level to be between an 8-10, depending on my contractions and the length. I kept needing to pee, multiple times of course, I had two IV bags hooked up to me so I suppose that's to be expected. HOWEVER, I needed the nurses help or Isaiah's help getting out of my bed and in to the bathroom, carrying all those damn bags and cords behind me. Obviously, I'd rather have my husband's help, so I'd tell Isaiah "I gotta pee" and he'd come help me up only for me to gush more waters ALL OVER the floor. every. single. time. My poor husband spent majority of that day mopping up my waters from the floor and I would hysterically laugh as it came out of me thinking that I was not only losing waters, but peeing everywhere too. Isaiah just kept giggling along with me saying "it's OK! it's OK!" but then I'd get embarrassed and just try to scoot my way to the toilet with my legs closed. 

YOU GUYS, the water don't stop flowin'! 

At 3:30pm we got a new nurse and she kicked some major ass. I wish I could hang out with her. 

I got out of bed and started to labor on the birthing ball to speed up my progress. I think I kept that going for about an hour or so and I have no idea what progress I made afterwards. At some point after our new nurse came, she gave me the option of laboring in the tub and I took her up on that immediately. It was THE SCARIEST thing getting into a bath full of water while I had wires and things hooked up to me. I swore I was going to be electrocuted and I didn't trust anyone. That all changed when one of my contractions came because I just submerged myself into that water within the blink of an eye, no questions asked. Isaiah sat on the floor with me holding my hand and helping me breathe through them and i seemed to doze off in between my contractions, just to be alertly and rudely woken up by another strong one.

When I was in the tub, I kept thinking I had to pee. So Isaiah would help me out and I'd drip more water all over. I told him I felt like I had to poop and that's ALL I WANTED TO DO. I kept saying "help me poop pleeeeeease!" but of course, how would he do that?! So I'd sit on the toilet, half trying to push as hard as I can to poop and half scared to death to push in case my baby would fall out. I was consistently interrupted by another contraction and getting so pissed off.

I got back in the tub for some more of my insanely intense contractions. The nurse and Isaiah kept telling me I was doing SO SO well and my breathing was right on point, so just keep breathing! Many of the nurses swore we took classes or that this was our 2nd or 3rd child but when I said we didn't take classes and it was our 1st, I don't think they believed me. It felt SO good to have them cheering me on in these moments. Isaiah kept telling me I could get the epidural but I had a goal for myself, I didn't want it until I was between 5-7cm (if at all) and I had no idea where my progress was. 

I labored in the tub for about 2 hours before I started to get sick, so I got out and got back into bed. I started throwing up multiple times so I wanted to get checked again. At 7:30pm the nurse checked me and I was 6.5cm! GIVE ME THAT EPI! I told her I was ready for the epi, and she alerted the anesthesia team. In about 5 minutes the anesthesiologist came into my room and started going through the medical terms and risks about it.. which I really didn't want to hear because I was terrified. The risks of an epi are the one thing I avoided looking into my entire pregnancy. My contractions were so close together and so strong though that it was really easy to tone him out. IT WAS A BREEZE. It went in so so easily and I was so relieved and so thankful, but totally the weirdest thing ever after that. I remember anytime the nurses needed to do anything they'd ask me to move my legs... MOVE MY LEGS?? you just paralyzed me! No I cant move my legs! I kept telling them I felt like one huge fat floppy fish. 

At 9:00pm, I was at 7cm. Our nurse kept coming in to check the monitor.. we noticed nothing but since she was watching it out at the desk she was noticing changes in our baby's heart rate. She came in quite often and at 9:30pm I was put on oxygen. My baby's heart rate was descending and they told me that more oxygen for me would help get more oxygen to my baby. My doctor came in and watched it and they decided things were fine for the moment...we'd keep laboring. 

I remember two nurses and my doctor all checking out my baby with cervical checks, talking about his hair and his ears. they kept saying I still had some cervix stuck up in the corner. At some point someone said I was fully dilated, but there was still a bit of cervix. fully dilated but not fully effaced? Whaaaat? I was still on oxygen, dozing in and out and desperately wanting some sleep. AND SOME LIQUID. I was so so thirsty! The whole no food, no drink after epi rule sucks!

Most of the night was a blur. 

I remember our awesome nurses shift ending at 11 and she said if we were close she was going to stay because she really wanted to see what our baby was going to look like... she hung out until about 11:40pm but there was no change and so she left. :( 1:00am and no progress. My doctor told me that our son had swallowed a lot of meconium and his heart rate kept descending so they suggested we get in for a c-section as soon as possible.

I cried.

I didn't NOT want a c-section, but I didn't think it was going to happen that way. I went into this fully prepared to bring my son into the world in any which way I needed too. Whatever was best for him, just do it. Keep us alive and healthy. So if a c-section is what's best, a c-section we will do. That's the same moment my dad and MIL showed up. They came in the room just in time to hear the news, give me a kiss and were sent off to wait. Isaiah was given a huge space suit to put on and they wheeled me off. I hated being alone. I couldn't feel anything from my epi so that was the only pain medicine I got and I wasn't put under. Isaiah came into the operating room shortly after and things began. the process wasn't long and I was doing okay. I expected to feel more pressure, so that wasn't horrible. It was hard to talk so I just kept looking at Isaiah as he held my hand. I wanted him to film the entire thing but he didn't! Poop scoop. I did tell him to watch and he would check every once in a while, and saw them pull our son out of my belly.

At 1:22am, I heard my son cry and saw my husband cry.

Our doctor told us that he was also sunny side up, so we would have needed a c-section in the end regardless. We would have just spent more hours trying to labor and push for a more serious situation with all of his meconium. It all turned out as it should have. I should probably mention that I had gotten sick a few more times and I remember throwing up as they switched me from my bed to the operating table...and again after.

Crue Leslie Warren was born on August 2nd, 2013 at 1:22am via emergency c-section after 18 hours of laboring.

7lbs, 14oz and 22 inches of pure joy.

After he came out, he was weighed and whisked off with Isaiah as I laid on the table waiting to be sewn up. I didn't want to be alone but I knew I wanted Isaiah to be with Crue. It was in our birth plan that if I couldn't do skin to skin with him, daddy was going to do it and so he did.

After I was finished, I had to go sit in a recovery room for one hour and I remember hating that. I kept asking the nurse when I could have something to drink but she wouldn't let me and kept telling me I would throw up again and I did NOT want that. There is nothing in the world I hate more than throwing up. It was about 3:30am and my dad came in with my MIL to say goodbye to me, they told me that my son was beautiful and I did an amazing job. I cant believe I had only seen him for 1 quick minute and I was his mother. 

Crue had to be in the level 2 nursery for 4-6 hours and be observed for his lungs from all the meconium, so when I was out of my recovery room I still wasn't able to be with him. FINALLY at about 6:00am they brought him into our room and I was so excited to wake up and hold my son. Isaiah and I spent the morning loving on him until they took him away for some more tests and we took a nap. That Friday afternoon around 3:00pm we had our first visitors and they continued to come throughout the weekend.

Monday, August 5th we were all OKAY'ed to go home as a family of 3!!

Crue weighed 7lbs, 1oz and I was a little upset he had lost 13oz... I know it's expected for babies to lose weight, especially because my milk hadn't come in yet but 13oz was almost a whole pound! The doctors then told me that 7lb, 14oz wasn't a very accurate birth weight because I had labored for so long before going into the c-section and Crue had a lot of "water weight" which came off in the first 24 hours. Sometimes I get bummed out and feel like I was jipped out of my sons actual weight! At our first pediatrician appointment, when he was 5 days old (2 days after we left the hospital), he had gained 4oz and was 7lb, 5oz! Happy momma! At our 2 week check up, when he was 14 days old, he weight 8lbs,1oz!

I can not believe we get to be the parents of this sweet little boy!

Follow Sarah at Midwest Pillowtalk

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To submit a birth story please email me at mamaandmou@gmail.com