Birth Story of James

My son James measured several weeks ahead for almost the entire pregnancy so we thought he would probably come before his May 3rd due date. Were we ever wrong! James decided to start making his entrance into the world at 2:45am on May 6, 2010. I woke up at 2:45am with pain that I thought could be Braxton-Hicks contractions or the real thing. The contractions were anywhere from 3 minutes to 25 minutes apart. I sat in the den from 2:45am until 7am counting the time and wondering if James was going to make his appearance. At 7am, I heard my husband’s alarm going off letting him know that he needed to get ready for work. I was having a contraction when his alarm went off so I text him to let him know that I was in the den with contractions. The contractions continued off and on so I called the doctor’s office at 9am to ask them what I should do. They suggested that I come in so they could see if I was truly in labor or just in the very early stages. My husband and I headed to the doctor’s office and got there around 10am. The doctor who looked at me said that I was barely 2 cm dilated so it was probably very early labor. He did an exam and told me to come see him in his office once I got dressed. As soon as I stood up (after he left the room), my water broke so we knew that the 6th was James birthday. I will never forget standing in the exam room with my husband when my water broke and all we could do was laugh because we didn’t know what to do. The nurses heard us laughing in the room so they figured something had happened so they were not surprised when my hubby went into the hall to let them know what had happened. The doctor came back to the room and said “I don’t need to see you anymore in my office. You are heading downstairs to have a baby.” I was wheeled down to Labor & Delivery and checked in with lots of monitors. Because I was barely 2 cm’s dilated, the doctor on call told me that it was going to be a long day of labor and it could well be into the night before my sweet baby boy was born. Pitocin was started and within a few minutes really strong contractions started. Both of our families were there, in the room, until I asked my husband to ask our families to wait outside because the contractions were so painful and I was trying hard to breathe through the contractions while trying to not freak out the family. My doc told me initially that I could have an epidural when I reached 4cm’s. I thought he was crazy and when I was only dilated to 3 cm after over an hour, I knew it could be a while. The contractions became unbearable and were every 1-2 minutes apart so when the doctor told me that I was only 3 cm, I asked him if was serious. It was decided that I could be an epidural at 2:30pm so I breathed through the contractions and watched the clock. Around 2:45pm, the anestheologist came in and started the epidural. Within 10 minutes, I felt human again. Within 45 minutes of the epidural, I dilated from 3cm to 10cm. I began pushing with every contraction and I thought he would come soon but my baby boy James had other ideas. He got stuck and was having a hard time moving into the birth canal. I pushed for over 2 hours, was reprimanded by the doctor for not pushing hard enough, pushed more, got sick, epidural started wearing off, was given more pain medicine, pushed more and then it was decided that he had moved into the canal enough but forceps would have to be used. What I did not know (hubby and doctor knew) was that both James and I were having blood pressure issues and we were both becoming fatigued. It was decided that forceps had to be used and it was time to get him out. At 6:51pm, my baby boy was born. My first thought and statement was “why is he not breathing?” I saw him blink his eyes so I knew he was okay. My next thought was “he is so small”. We had been told for the last 3 months of the pregnancy that he was going to be anywhere from 9-10 pds but he was 7lbs 11oz and 21 inches long. My labor & delivery and recovery (still having a rough time) did not and have not gone as I had hoped for but my sweet son is worth it all.