Birth Story

Everyone has their special story of how they were born. I thought Logan's was going to be normal without any problems. But I was wrong.

It all started Wednesday afternoon/evening. I started getting contractions and around dinnertime, they were 5 minutes apart. However, they didn't seem really strong. I have watched quite a few episodes of a Baby Story on TLC and the contractions I was having just didn't seem as strong as their's seemed to be. But I called my doctor and got the answering service. My doctor (Dr. Bazzoli) was actually on vacation for the week so the answering service got in contact with Dr. Euro who was covering for Dr. Bazzoli. Dr. Euro said I should go to the hospital.

When we got there, they checked me and I was dilated to a 2, which I was happy about because at my last doctor's appointment, I wasn't dilated at all. But I wasn't in active labor yet. So the nurses had me walk around to see if that could get things moving. After an hour or more of that, they checked me again and nothing had changed. They gave me another chance and gave me some sort of relaxing medication, hoping that would help me relax and let the contractions do the work.That medication seemed to slow down the contractions and after an hour of that, I still hadn't changed so they decided to send me home. It was a bit disappointing, but I was looking forward to getting some sleep and that medication was making me sleepy so I wanted to get home while it was still working. I had spent the last 5 nights attempting to sleep sitting up on the couch because of the packing for my nose and the night before those 5 nights was spent awake because I kept having nosebleeds.

After they admitted me and put the IV in

The next day, my contractions had really slowed down. So much so that I thought it would be a few days until we had the baby. Well, that evening (Thursday evening), the contractions became much stronger and were getting closer together. We did try to go to bed that night, but I knew I would not be sleeping because of how strong and often they were. So we got up again and watched some TV. I was really surprised that the contractions caused so much lower back pain for me. That was actually the most painful thing for me as well as the pain from him pushing farther into my pelvis. Nate would rub my lower back during the contractions and that helped immensely.

Finally, my contractions were 5 minutes apart for about an hour so we decided to go back to the hospital. We got there around 2 am. I was so sure that I would be dilated to at least a 3. But when they checked me, I was still a 2. I was not happy about that. So we went walking again for about an hour. They checked me again and I was at a 4! Yay! I didn't have to go home! I had told the nurse that I wanted an epidural, so she immediately ordered that my blood be taken to prepare for that. She also hooked me up to the IV (which took a couple of tries because I don't have the best veins). About 2ish hours later, I was given the epidural and they checked me again and I was dilated to a 6. The epidural was nice. The pain wasn't unbearable yet, but I was tired so it was nice to not feel that pain so I could sleep. At this point as well, the nurse said I was progressing nicely and should have the baby by noon. About 2 hours later they checked me again and I was an 8, so all was well and they were thinking that in about 2 hours, I would be ready to push. Well, those 2 hours came and went and I was stuck at an 8. I decided to let them give me some Pitocin to help move things along. It didn't seem to be working so they broke my water and I finally moved to a 9. And all this time, the baby's heartrate was fine.

After more time, I was finally dilated to a 10 and had the urge to push. I'm guessing this was around 4:45 pm on Friday, June 15th. His head was still really high (depending on who checked me, it was a -2, -1, or 0 station) so I knew it would take some time to push. But right after they turned me to my side to get into position to push, his heartrate dropped down to the 50s and 60s (it had been up around 110-130). They put some oxygen on me and told me to breathe deeply while they flipped me to the other side. I was still pretty calm thinking that his heartrate could come back up. But that didn't work. So suddenly the nurses were calling all sorts of people and quickly unhooking me from everything. Even though they hadn't said it yet, I knew I was going to have a C-section and that's when I started getting nervous for Logan's life. As they were wheeling me out, they told Nate someone would come get him, and soon they were running me down the hall. I was certainly praying that everything would be alright. Pretty soon I was laying on the operating table and they put the heart monitor back on for just a second and his heart was up to 90, which helped me calm down a little. They said Nate wouldn't make it in time, but the anesthesiologist was right there trying to make me calm and comfortable. My epidural had started wearing off earlier, so I could feel some pain when Dr. Euro cut into me so the anesthesiologist gave me something that put me in a dreamlike state. So I was suddenly dreaming about clouds and the sky and other things that I can't remember and I had no idea I was having a baby. I did come around a little and heard the doctor say he was out, but I was really out-of-it. That was at 5:01 pm. Sometime soon after this, Nate was finally able to come in and saw him get weighed and measured and things. They did have to watch Logan's oxygen levels for a few minutes after birth, but he quickly caught on to breathing and was perfectly healthy. The anesthesiologist took pictures and made sure we didn't miss out on anything and even took a family picture where I forced myself to smile even though I still was not all there. It was so good of her to do that since we weren't in the best state with how scary it all was. After I was finally stitched up (which was not fun. It seemed like the doctor was pulling and stretching really hard. I was still feeling things.) Anyway, after I was stitched up, they were monitoring me and I had really high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and low oxygen levels. So I had stay in there for awhile and they had Logan in the recovery room already. Nate wasn't sure whether he should go out with the baby or stay with me, but I needed him so he stayed with me. After a few minutes, my heartbeat and oxygen were normal enough so they let me go to the recovery room. I was finally able to really look at Logan for the first time and hold him. Honestly, I didn't think he looked much like either of us, but it was special to think he is my son and that everything turned out ok. I held him skin-to-skin and he quickly started nursing without much help from me. Eventually, they decided I was well enough to leave the recovery room. But instead of going to a postpartum room, they took me back to my labor/delivery room because I still needed a lot of watch care. I will finish our story in another post.

Daddy with Logan

First family picture

Poor little guy just went through a lot

Getting his footprints

6 lbs, 11.6 oz (round up to 12)

Inking his foot

In the recovery room when I got to hold him for the first time