28 Hours – Birth Stories

I never took the time to write down my son’s birth story, and I feel pretty badly about that. He is almost six! So, when my friend Nicolette at Powerful Mothering told me she was collecting first born birth stories, I was happy to participate!

My first born… my son. It took 28 hours from the time I had my first contraction until the time they were finally able to suck him out (literally).

I had a really easy pregnancy.  I felt great, I was only a little nauseous, but never had major sickness.  I had a ton of energy and could still wear my combat boots up to the day I went into labor. I should have known it was too good to last!

As a first time mom, you’re so nervous about what to expect. What will labor feel like? Will I know when I’m labor? Does it really hurt as badly as they make it seem on the movies and TV? Will I die? (yes, that thought actually went through my mind a lot.  It was a huge fear, and considering the numbers of women who still die in childbirth, not all that irrational.) Will HE die. That was my biggest fear.

One that wasn’t far from occurring. Little did we know, the poor baby not only had the cord around his neck, like many babies do, but he also had a big knot in his cord. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

It’s a long story, so I’m just going to provide you with the Cliff’s Notes.

• First contraction woke me up at 3:45a.m. I wasn’t sure what was happening. Continued having contractions about every 6-10 minutes.
• By 4 pm they were every 5-6 minutes.  Called the hospital and they told me to walk around for awhile, because my water had not broken
• By 6:30 I felt like someone was stabbing me every time I had one, and knew they were not Braxton Hicks. Told my hubs it was time to make the 40 minute trip to the hospital.
• We lived in Germany at the time, and of all the times the gate guards decided to pull us over to inspect our vehicle before, this was the day.  (REALLY??)
• Checked in. I was still only at 1CM so the nurses could not technically admit me, even though when she hooked me up she acknowledged I was having very real, very big contractions. They made me walk around the hospital for an hour.
• I was miserable.  I was in terrible pain, and returned to the nurses crying. They finally believed I was in mega pain and admitted me. I had made it to 3CM.  Finally.
• That was at about 8pm. The rest of the night was terrible. The epidural only worked about halfway, so he came back in the middle of the night to adjust.
• The baby’s heart rate kept dropping significantly with every contraction, so they gave me something to stop the contractions, which put me into convulsions. TERRIBLE.
• At some point in the middle of the night, almost all the nurses had to rush down to the ER because a load of wounded soldiers from Iraq arrived.
• Finally at about 7am, after a horrific night, I was able to start pushing. It took almost an hour before they were able to get him out. The doctor said at that point if he didn’t emerge we would have to do a C-section. They had used forceps and the vacuum, had to untangle his cord and finally he arrived.
• Because there had been meconium in the waters when they broke it, we thankfully had a NICU staff in the room.  He needed it.
• We did not hear him cry. They worked on him and finally, finally we heard him cry.
• The NICU staff flashed him up so I could see him – “Here’s your baby boy!” and whisked him off to the NICU. My husband went with him.
• They sewed me up, cleaned up the room, and everyone left. I was all alone.
• I did not even get to touch my baby for several hours.

So, it was not the most fantastic birth story. Because of the knot in his cord, he had been deprived of fluids for several hours, if not more. He was white as a ghost at birth – his apgar was a 2!!  He had to be immediately provided several bags of IV fluids, but luckily only spent about 8 hours in the NICU before they brought him to me in the room.  I was able to visit him in the NICU, hold him, and start attempting to nurse him.

Once he joined us in our room, the experience began to improve. The poor little buggar had a huge bruise and abrasion on his head from the vacuum, which must have caused a wicked headache.  But other than that, he was perfect.  And I was in love!!!