Birth Story

On Wednesday, February 2nd I went in for my weekly appointment. I was hoping to find out if we had made any progress but I wasn't expecting much. Unfortunately the only thing that had progressed was preeclampsia and super high blood pressure. My doctor didn't want to risk letting any of it get it worse so she said I needed to be induced that day. I was SO nervous as we left the doctor's office that I was shaking! I couldn't believe we were about to head to the hospital to finally meet our baby boy!

{the view from our hospital room}

We arrived at the hospital after 1 PM. I didn't pay attention to the time after we arrived but I think they started me on Pitocin around 3 or 4 PM. I was already having small contractions when we first arrived at the hospital but oh man it didn't take long for the contractions to get stronger after I was given the Pitocin! Even though I was having contractions I wasn't dilated enough to get an epidural so I was given Stadol to "take the edge off" (as the nurse said). The Stadol instantly gave relief but also made me feel loopy. I couldn't open my eyes without feeling like the whole room was spinning. I didn't like it but it took some of the pain away and helped me get some rest in between contractions. (Jer said I would pass out in between the contractions to the point where I was snoring and then wake up instantly when the contractions would come. I honestly don't remember much of it.. Everything became a blur after I was given the Stadol.) Once the Stadol started to wear off I was given morphine. It didn't help at all though.

Thankfully around midnight my OB came in and broke my water and not long after I was finally able to get the epidural. I was terrified of getting the epidural but honestly I think getting the IV in my arm hurt worse than the epi. Then again.. I was pretty doped up already!

After I got the epidural I was finally able to sleep longer than 2 minutes. It was great! But around 2 or 3 AM I woke up because the baby's heart rate monitor was going nuts. Jeremy was asleep and none of the nurses were coming in so I figured maybe it was nothing.. until I looked at the monitor and realized his heart rate was almost to 180! I freaked! Of course I couldn't wake Jer up so I paged the nurse. The nurse checked my temp and said I had a fever over 100 so they immediately started me on antibiotics. I was given three different antibiotics.. one was a pill, two were given through my IV. Joel's heart rate stayed high for a few hours which was extremely scary for us!

When it came time to start pushing my epidural began to wear off. It was the most painful thing I've ever felt!! &It happened twice! It was horrible!!

I pushed for three hours but I had no clue of that until afterwards. Once my OB finally showed up she discovered that Joel was turned the wrong way--he was facing up and it was causing him to be stuck in the birth canal. She turned him around but he was still stuck so she said we had two options: either use the vacuum or a c-section. I honestly don't even remember making the decision to go ahead with the vacuum, but I did. I just wanted him out. Might I mention that my epidural had completely wore off once again at that point? Yeah.. So his head was stuck and I felt every bit of it. There was a lot of yelling involved at that point. It hurt, and I didn't care how loud I was being or who could hear me. (Can you blame me??)

At 12 PM our beautiful, 8lbs 2oz and 21.5 inches long, baby boy finally entered the world! While he was being cleaned up I was still in tons of pain and losing a lot of blood. I felt so bad for Jer.. I could tell he felt torn on whether he should stay by me and make sure I was ok or if he should have been next to his baby. He stayed by my side though, and every once in a while would turn around to make sure Joel was doing alright. Joel wasn't crying much which really freaked me out. I was terrified he was hurt from the vacuum. He was healthy and perfect though, praise God!

Seeing Jeremy hold Joel for the first time is a moment I will never forget. Jer was teary-eyed and couldn't stop smiling. It was priceless!

When I was finally able to hold him all I could do was stare at him and thank God. I couldn't believe the miracle that we had hoped, prayed, and waited for was finally there in my arms!