Our little man has arrived! April 14th, 2010 at 8:52 AM. Maddox weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce and was 19.5 inches long.
Maddox's arrival was not necessarily unexpected on April 14th. We were scheduled for induction on April 14th and admitted to the hospital on the evening of April 13th. An induction was planned based on my blood pressure issues over the remaining 6 weeks of the pregnancy.
Hubs and I had attended many childbirth prep classes and had determined that we really wanted to try and have a natural childbirth. We also had decided though that we would not develop a birth plan, as we felt it can sometimes lead to disappointment should the birth not going according to "plan". Once it was determined that we would be going in for induction, I became doubtful of our desire for a natural childbirth.
So, that evening, I was hooked up to the monitors and settled in to "rest" before the induction in the morning. Dr H would be coming in that morning to break my waters and the Pitocin would begin. That evening was not restful though. I was frustrated because I was not having any contractions (mind you, I had contractions the entire last 6 weeks of the pregnancy) and I was "nearly 1 cm" dilated upon arrival. I was fearful that the birth would be an all day event and extremely nervous that it would end up as a C-section. Not to mention the fact that I was starving and could no longer eat any food- except for those yummy ice chips.
I barely slept. Joe slept peacefully in a reclining rocking chair next to me. I literally had to use the bathroom on the hour, every hour, and needed the nurse's assistance because of the monitors and the IV fluids. At 6:15AM, I started having extreme menstrual cramps. I looked at the monitor, but did not notice anything in terms of contractions. Suddenly my water broke! I started yelling for Joe to wake up. I called the nurse, who came down and confirmed that my water in fact had broken. She checked my dilation, which was now considered between a 1-2 cm.
Side note--SO weird when your water breaks. It was a lot of water!
The nurse needed to call Dr. H for new direction in terms of what he wanted to happen, now that my water had broken on its' own. Dr. H decided that they would move forward with the pitocin a little bit earlier than initially planned. During this time, I was having stronger contractions. At 7:00, with the shift change, they began the administration of the pitocin and checked dilation again...still 1-2 cm. The contractions started getting even stronger. I was trying to tell Joe just how bad they were. For some reason, the monitor literally was not picking up anything as a contraction. He and the nurse probably thought I was crazy. I was asked to rate the pain on a scale of 1-10--I said a 5. Truly, it was like a 20, but looking at the monitor I knew I would seem crazy if I said that. By the way, that contraction belt had to have been broken!
Joe asked if there was any pain relief that I would have. Too early for the epidural and they could not administer IV pain relief because Maddox had fallen asleep.
I had to use the restroom again. Joe told me that he heard a nurse say the night before, that when you have to go to the bathroom, that means it is almost time to push. I snapped at him that it WAS NOT almost time to push, since I was 1-2 cm dilated. The nurse helped me to the bathroom, where I has nothing but the urge to PUSH. I was screaming, like you would not even believe! The nurse asked me not to push and to return to the bed for her to check me. She said, maybe if you are a 3, Dr H will approve the epidural. So, she checked me and said she needed a second opinion and left the room. I cried to Joe that I couldn't do it. The pain was so intense. The two nurses returned and did a check again--looked at each other, then looked at me and said "Yeah, you are 10 cm dilated. DON'T PUSH". In 30 minutes, I had dilated to a full 10 cm!
They immediately started prepping the room and called Dr. H, who had not yet arrived at the hospital. There would be no time for an epidural and Maddox was still sleeping in his little womb. We were going to get our natural birth! I had to breathe through the intense contractions and not push. Dr H arrived at 7:45AM, checked me and instructed the nurse to push with me initially and to call him once the head had descended more. I cried, you're not leaving the hospital right?? He was not...Thank God!
We pushed with the nurse for about 45 minutes and then with the last cycle of pushes, his head was ready and I was instructed to STOP. Let me just say, that is not the easiest thing to do. Everything happened so quickly. They didn't even have enough nurses in the delivery room. It was just Dr H., Sarah our nurse, Joe and I. Once Dr H came in, I still could not push because they needed to replace the iodine cleaning solution with saline because I have an iodine allergy.
We pushed 2 or 3 cycles of pushes with Dr H and then Maddox was here at 8:52 AM. I was in active labor they tell me for 2.5 hours and we pushed for approximately 50 minutes. My writing of this story does not do it justice. I need to say too, that my husband was the ultimate labor coach. I could not have done it without him.
As many of you know, there are pictures that I clearly took right after the birth. I cannot begin to tell you the state of mind I was in right then. I barely remember anything at that point. Neither Joe nor I, remember how I got the camera, since it was in Joe's pocket, but I started taking pictures right away and shocked Dr. H. I even started instructing him to pose. I will surely get teased about that at his office at my 6 week follow up.
