A Birth Story

Two days after my last post, the water hit the floor.

Benjamin Andrew Tillett
May 30, 2013; 9:31pm
8 lbs, 6 oz
21 inches long

At 3am on Thursday, May 30 (it sure felt like it was still Wednesday, May 29th! Why do babies always need to come in the middle of the night?), my water broke. I got up to go to the bathroom and got back in bed, only to feel like I suddenly kinda wet my pants. I woke up my husband and told him what was going on, and called the OB office to say "uhhh, what do I do now?" After the on-call doctor called me back (and said to come in to the hospital), I gathered up my things, Drew and I both took showers, and we headed to the hospital around 4:15am.

Once there, things went both fast and slow. Unfortunately, I was placed on an IV of pitocin immediately (against my husband's and my better judgement), without even being seen by a doctor. Apparently, that is just what they do. I was also given fluids, an antibiotic (they hadn't gotten my Strep B test results back yet, so err on the side of caution), and a separate dextrose line on the other hand. I continued to wear my Omnipod and be in charge of my own diabetes. The rule was that I could use my lancet device (instead of those hospital harpoons), but had to check my bg on their giant hospital meter that needs a bucket of blood per check.

For a few hours everything was fine - the contractions were bearable and I was pretty happy, just bored. By about 12, things started to get rough. Pitocin contractions are not normal contractions; labor does not progress in any sort of regular way. My contractions went from kinda painful, but ok, to practically unbearable in a very short time. The contractions were literally "off the charts" in strength, where the monitor couldn't even show their peaks and they would not fully subside before starting again. There was no break between. However, I was also barely "progressing" through labor. While I was all "ripe," I was not very dilated. By 1pm, I had finally hit 3cm, so at 2pm I was given an epidural. 

At 7pm the doctor wanted to do a c-section, because I was only barely 4cm dilated, but I convinced him to give me two more hours. Giving me the epidural so early likely slowed down my labor progression. I also found out a few weeks later that Ben was facing up, which may have also slowed things down and kept him from descending (he was still chilling up in my ribcage). At 9pm, I had only gotten to barely over 4cm, was officially labeled "failure to progress," and c-section it was.

At 9:31pm the doctor pulled a baby out of my belly and I got to hear a baby yelp. As this doc loves to be a joker, he wouldn't tell me if it was a boy or a girl until I begged, but after a minute he held Ben up so I could see him over to the curtain and said "it's a boy." And, I couldn't stop smiling. 

Now it's almost 2 months later and it's me and my little guy all the time :)