Devin's Birth Story

I was posting to a new mommy message board when both of my kids were born...a little bit graphic, here's the story I wrote about Devin's birth a week or so after he was born:

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I was shopping at Target on October 11th when I felt a tiny little gush. When I got home and checked, it was a bit bloody. Everything I read said that if this was bloody show, labor was imminent. I called the doc, and they finally got back to me, I was told unless there was a change, I should just plan on keeping my regular appointment the following day.

At that appointment, they discovered that I was leaking amniotic fluid, and so it was off to L&D later that day.

As soon as I got to my L&D room, they started IV antibiotics (because I'm strep B positive) and just a little after that, they started the pitocin. This was around 4PM on the 12th.

I think was about 7 or 9 PM that I felt something shift, then I heard a pop, and my water started gushing out. About two minutes later, I felt a contraction. I'd been having little contractions, but I couldn't feel them until my water broke. After that little contraction, I told the nurse that I would be taking an epidural. It wasn't bad, but remembering what they felt like, I wanted to avoid the pain.

My doc came in about an hour later. He told me I would get the epidural in about an hour. The anesthesologist was in surgery. This was OK with me. I still wasn't in much pain. I just knew I wanted to avoid the pain, and that since it was going to be awhile I wanted to rest.

I was at 5 cm when I got the epidural. As soon as he was done, I went into transitional labor, told anyone would would listen that the epidural was not working, and asked if I could get up to go pee. I had maybe 6 painful contractions, a nurse came in, declared I was at 9cm, and told me the baby's head was right there, asked if I needed to push. The doc came in, checked me, and told me I was ready to push. I started pushing, he asked for a minute to prep. They had turned down the pitocin because the contractions were causing Devin's heartbeat to go too low, and as soon as the doc was ready, I stopped having contractions. I remember how nice it was to push through those contractions before, so I waited. The doc told me to push without a contraction. One push, he crowned. I asked the doctor to take him out because it was a little uncomfortable. They told me to push. He was completely out about 5 big pushes later. How nice.

The epidural kicked in just enough so the doc didn't have to use a local to stitch me up. No episiotomy was needed, but I got a 2nd degree tear. I did feel many of the stitches, but it wasn't agonizing. Devin was born about 30 minutes after I got the epidural at 11:46 pm on October 12th.

I got a touch of a spinal headache from the epidural, and I went to the ER yesterday for a blood patch. It's worked wonders. My back hurts from the 2nd epidural, but the headache is gone. Thank goodness. I had lost my ability to function.

Devin is doing well. He's a bit jaundiced, but fortunately, it's not too bad, and we got him on a bili blanket here at home. He's so skinny. At almost 4 weeks early, that's not too surprising, though. At first, I thought he looked just like his brother, but now I know he doesn't. This one looks like his Daddy!