A Birth Story

This is really long, so no pressure to read it, but I just wanted to record this event somewhere so that I could remember it, so what better place than to share it all with you! I'll post new pictures next!!

So here goes, the events leading up to the birth of Noah Scott Saunders....

Sunday March 1

~Ben and I drove up to Cincinnati to spend the afternoon at Ikea for a little date day. We have been looking at buying a new couch and found the exact one we were looking for at almost half the price! I was feeling ok, besides being big and pregnant, but looking back I think that all the walking around Ikea might have done the trick to send me into labor. We had such a great time hanging out and spending time together, little did we know this was our last full day just the two of us.
When we got home we spent that night arranging and rearranging our living room so that our new couch would fit~ This could have been what sent me into labor as well :)

Monday March 2

~8:00 am
Ben and I both head off to our Mondays, me to work and Ben to school.

~ 5:00 pm
I get home from work and start dinner. Not feeling 100% at this point, but who is at 9 mos pregnant? Ben gets home and we eat dinner, I don't have much of an appetite.

~7:30 pm
Ben and I lay down after dinner and my sweet husband gives me a back rub because I'm not feeling very good. Ben's mom calls and we talk to her for about a half an hour about water breaking and what it was like when she went into labor. Decided that she wouldn't make any decisions about coming out to KY until after my doctor appt on wed, as we might find out the approximate timeline when this little one might be on his way. But since my due date was still 3 weeks out, we were not thinking it would be soon.

~ 8:30 pm
I start cleaning the kitchen and have an urge to clean clean clean. After the kitchen was spotless, I headed to the living room to make it spotless.

~9:00 pm
Ben comes out and tells me that I need to go to bed since I wasn't feeling well. He says that I have until 9:20 to clean and then I need to head off to bed to get some rest.

~9:20 pm
I am still cleaning the living room. I start to straighten up the media cabinet and bend sown to put away the Wii controllers when I feel a huge gush in the lower region. A little bewildered, I yell for Ben. He comes running in the living room cause he could hear the panic in my voice. I say "Umm...I think my water just broke" He says "No....are you sure" I say "well it was either my water breaking or...I just peed my pants"
We are both a little bit in denial at this point, as my due date isn't for 3 weeks.

~9:45 pm
Ben and I are still a little in shock and not sure what we should do. I am standing in the bath tub because there is a consistent trickle running down my leg. I finally call our midwife who was at what sounded like a birthday party and she tells me its probably what happened and that we should head to the hospital. I was scheduled to have my strep B test that coming wed and since I haven't been tested yet, they have to treat me like I have strep which means I have to head to the hospital right away to get the antibiotics IV started.

We call our moms to tell them the big news. They are both so excited and we try to figure out how they can get here ASAP.

~10:00 pm
I jump in the shower so that I can be "fresh" when we head to the hospital, knowing that I'm probably in for a long haul in the hospital, and who knows when I'll get my next shower. My first contraction starts in the shower. They are noticeable but not painful....yet. I yell out to Ben that contractions have started, so he starts to time them for me. I would yell out to him "start"....and...."stop" with each contraction. After a few contractions, Ben comes in the bathroom and says "umm ...not to make you panic or anything...but your contractions are 4 minutes apart...I think you need to get out and we need to get going". I think Ben was a little panicked at this point. When I got in the shower, he was going to go back and finish the assignment that he was working on, but instead he was making phone calls to tell everyone the big news.

~11:00 pm
I am still having contractions, they are still mild. I blow dry my hair and put on a little make up, hey at least I felt pretty going into labor.
Ben and I are running around our apt trying to remember everything we needed to take to the hospital. We weren't packed or anything. We realize that I had taken my camera to work that day and left it in my desk at work...crap

~11:30 pm
Ben and I play a few games of Wii to pass the last half a hour. I don't want to go into the hospital too soon, although I know they would probably not send me back home at this point since my water broke. Contractions are getting a little bit stronger and are now about 3 mins apart.

~12:00 pm
Ben and I pack up the car and hope that we remember every thing we need. I am needing to walk around with the contractions, they are getting a little bit more intense.

~12:15 pm
We stop my my work and I head up to get the camera...having contractions all the way up the elevator and down. I had 2 contractions while getting the camera.

We stop by the gas station to get come snacks and Gatorade. While in the gas station I need to grab Ben's arm for the contractions and not talk during them. I had 3 contractions while in the gas station.

~12:30 pm
We walk into the emergency room entrance to the hospital, we tell the lady at the window that I'm in labor and she immediately lets me come back. They check me into the hospital and we have to wait for the labor and delivery nurse to come get me with a wheel chair. Contractions are making me wince at this point.

March 3, 2009

~1:00 am
We get wheeled up to labor and delivery and they hand me a gown and tell me to go into the bath room and change "real quick". Bad design...how do you expect a 9 month pregnant woman to go in and change while having contractions by her self? I feel like 10 mins later I finally came out of the bathroom and got to lay on the bed in triage.

~1:15 am
After sitting in triage, the nurse comes in and hooks me up to the fetal monitor and checks to see how far I'm dilated. I hadn't been checked yet at all since I was only 37 weeks and I was not prepared for how much it hurts to get checked. I remember grabbing onto Ben and yelling a bit when she checked me. Not to mention that she triggered a contraction when she did it. he nurse says "good news, your dilated to 4 cm so we are going to go ahead and check you into your room!"

~2:00 am
We are still in triage, they had to prepare our room for us. I labored in triage for about an hour. At this point contractions hurt. Ben has to really help me breathe through them. At one point I remember grabbing onto Ben's neck and digging me nails into his neck...whops...sorry babe.

~2:30 am
We are finally in our room and the nurse hooks me up to the IV. She says that it will only take about a half an hour to drain the bag...try more like an hour. At this point all I am thinking is "I want to get in the bath tub". I had heard that the hot water really helps to bring down the pain of the contractions.

~3:30 am
They finally allow me up out of the bed and start running the water to fill the hot tub for me. They have to tape up my hand and arm because I had an IV to protect the port from getting wet. I remember walking to the bathroom and having to collapse on the floor because of a contraction. The nurse and Ben help me to breathe through it. At this point contractions are really hard but I am able to concentrate on breathing and remember all the techniques we learned in Lamaze class. Once in the hot tub, the contractions were way more bearable. It took the pain from like an 8 down to a 6. Ben is sitting on the floor of the bathroom out side the tub. I have a contraction and realize that I didn't hear Ben's voice, after it was over I look over and see that he fell asleep! I feel a little sorry for him because it is 3:30 in the morning and the poor guy hasn't had any sleep, then another contraction hit and I didn't feel sorry for him any more! I let him get a little shut eye but once he woke up I told him that he needed to go find some coffee. The nurse went and brought him some, but he said that it was the nastiest coffee he'd ever drank in him life, I advised him to drink it anyway:)

~4:30 am
Around this time the hot tub is making me over heat and I need to get out. I get dried off and my gown back on, all while contractions are coming about every 2 mins. Ben and I decide that walking might be helpful. We start to walk out in the halls of the labor and delivery floor. It was nice because we had a room at the end of the hall and I didn't have to walk past the nurse station. I felt a little silly every time a contraction hit, there is no telling what I would do to help cope with the pain. My favorite position was to drop to my hands and knees on the floor and moan. Probably hilarious to watch. We walked out in the halls for about a half hour, contractions are still about 1-2 mins apart.

~5:00 am
We go back in the room and I get back into bed. The nurse comes in to check on us. She said that she wouldn't call my midwife to come in until I was at 8 cm. She checks me again...Ouch!...again triggers another contraction and tells me that I'm at 8 cm! Yeahh!!

~5:30 am
This is where things start to get really foggy for me. I think exhaustion was starting to take its toll and I don't remember many details past this point. Our midwife, Beth comes into the room and checks me again and says that I am only at 6 or 7 cm which totally devastated me. I was thinking that I was 8 cm and almost at the finish line. What was happening was Noah's head got stuck on my cervix and was pushing on it so that when I had a contraction it would hurt and then when the contraction was over I was still in pain from his head putting pressure on my cervix. My cervix was swelling and closing rather than dilating.

I think it was right around this point that Ben was trying to help me breathe through a contraction and while breathing with me he blew in my face. And with a demon possessed voice I'm sure, I yelled "don't breathe on me!". Ben had really bad coffee breath and apparently I didn't like it too much. I felt so bad once the contraction was over. I was literally like Dr Jackal and Mrs Hide.
I labored a little longer and remember the contractions hurting so bad that my "lets go natural" birth plan didn't matter one bit to me and I wanted anything and everything that would take away the pain. The nurse said that I was too far dilated to give me anything, but my midwife said "well no, she is not dilating anymore and is actually regressing, she needs a little something to help her relax and finish" So they gave me a relaxer medication in my IV that allowed me to rest. It was a medicine called staydoll which flushes out of your system in an hour. It allowed me to only feel the contractions and not feel the pain in between. I'm not sure how long, but I got to rest for a little. I think Ben got to rest a bit as well, but I was a little drugged up to really know what was going on.

~6:45 am
My midwife said that the staydoll would wear out of my system in about an hour, and whoa was she right. As soon as that was out the contractions came back full force. I remember jumping up out of bed from a laying position and on to my knees and yelling and screaming at the pain. This was by far the worst hour of my life thus far. The contractions were so hard that I was pretty uncontrollable. All our learned breathing in Lamaze was out the window. I was hitting the bed, grabbing at the sheets, I think I might of hit Ben a few times.
I'm not sure when this happened but at some point in all the screaming and moaning a nurse that I had never seen before walked into our room. At this point it was just Ben and I, and I had just finished a contraction, screaming and all. She walks around the curtain with her hands on her hips and asks "Whats all this screaming about?,..... whats the matter?..." I just looked at her with a blank stare, because obviously any idiot could tell what the matter was, did my huge belly and the fact that I was on the labor and delivery floor give her any hint? Then she proceeds to ask me "Where does it hurt?" At this point I just gave her a sarcastic laugh and said "Ummm in my stomach....where do you think it hurts?" I think she knew that was her que to leave. I looked at Ben as she was leaving and said "you have got to be kidding me". He just laughed, and was a little bewildered himself.

~7:00 am ish, or there abouts
My night nurse was off and my new nurse was just getting there. She came in and introduced herself, I have no clue what her name was, but as soon as she heard where I was at, she told me, "we are going to get this baby past your cervix and born, ok?" She proceeded to make me lay down flat through every contraction so that I could back the baby's head back up and off my cervix, this was so hard because all I wanted to do was double over through each contraction. So for about 3-4 contractions I layed flat, then she stuck her had up there and made me push as she worked the cervex over his head. This was by far the hardest part of the whole ordeal. I didn't have the urge to push yet and it took all the strength I had to make my body push. She successfully slipped his head past, and then we were in business.

~7:30 am
It seemed like almost immediately there were 20 people in our room getting ready for Noah to make his appearance. Beth got all set up at the foot of the bed and she gave me the go ahead to push when ever I had the urge. With each contraction I pushed as hard as I could. I think I pushed through about 3 contractions and Beth said "I can see the head!" So I'm thinking "sweet one more contraction and this baby is out!" One more contraction....no baby....two more contractions...no baby, Beth is still saying "I can see the head"...I'm thinking "So if you can see it....get it out!!" Pushing actually was better than the contractions because I felt like I was doing somthing with them, rather than just having to bear through them. I think it was about contraction number 6 that Noah's head finally came out, one more push and his shoulders and the rest of his little body came out. I can remember looking over at Ben as he kissed my head and said "its a boy!". They immediately put his purple little body on my tummy and Ben, a nurse, and my self helped to rub him off with a towel and try to get him breathing. Noah's first breath and cry were amazing. I just remember Ben and I were both crying and saying " Hi baby!" I was so amazed at the whole process, birth is incredable.
As I'm holding Noah and Ben and I are looking at our son for the first time, Beth stiched me up. I only had 1st degree tearing, which isn't bad, and only needed 2 stiches. After Noah was born and they let us cuddel his for a minute they took him over to get him weighed. That was when I looked up to see literaly 10 people standing around watching. Apparently there were 4 nursing students and their teacher in the room watching, and were now congratulating us and saying what a good job I did. It was funny because I don't even remember consenting that they be in the room, let alone remember them even being there. So there where about 15 people Ben and I didn't know in the room when he was born.

Noah was officially born at 7:42 am and weighed 7 lbs 8 oz 21 in long. He is doing wonderful now and at his last Dr appointment yesterday he weighed 9 lbs 12 oz....one BIG boy!