The Birth Story, part 2

Part 2

At around 7:00 p.m. we were moved to the labor and delivery room, and we met our first nurse, Jacklyn, who was awesome. We loved her. She kept the mood really light and happy. I got hooked up to the IV and at 8:00 p.m. I got the epidural. It took about 10-15 minutes before I was completely numb and I couldn't even tell when I was having a contraction anymore. After about 16 hours of painful contractions... that epidural was pretty heavenly. At 8:30 p.m. they checked me and I was 6 centimeters dilated.

We started to watch Marley and Me and before I knew it, I was sound asleep (remember, I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before!).

They checked me around 10:30 p.m. and I was still at 6 centimeters. Because I hadn't progressed in 2 hours, they decided to give me Pitocin. I was a bit bummed, but surprisingly not as bummed as I was when I realized I was going to get an epidural. At this point, we realized we may not have Isaac on his due date after all. Yet another bummer - not only would it have been cool to have him born on his due date, but it was also exactly 3 years from the day that Jared proposed to me. It would've been neat, but it just wasn't meant to be.

At 11:45 p.m. they checked me again and I was almost 8 centimeters dilated. At 1:00 a.m., I was 9 centimeters. Jared recorded that our midwife, Jenn, came in at 2:20 a.m. and made a "nonchalant baby shift", meaning she tried to reposition the baby. Whether she did reposition him is unknown because I don't remember this happening at all. Jared says I was awake, but it is completely wiped from my memory if I was! I really think I must've been asleep, because I didn't realize there had been any problem with his positioning until he was almost out!

At 2:30 a.m. I woke up nauseous. I was 9+ centimeters dilated at this point. I faded in and out of sleep until around 4:00 a.m. when I started to really feel an urge to push. I had stated that I felt like I was pushing almost involuntarily during contractions. At 4:20 a.m. they let me practice pushing. It felt much better to be able to push during contractions. I didn't get to officially start pushing until 6:00 a.m., though. I found it really frustrating to have to push, on my back without any help from gravity, to the count of 10. We had a different nurse at this point, Danielle, and I will just say that I didn't really enjoy her presence all that much. My midwife was very encouraging during the pushing phase - she was my energetic little cheerleader - but I just remember the nurse having such a negative energy. I felt like I was always annoying her somehow. I had a really hard time pushing all the way through to the count of 10 - many times I ran out of breath and had to stop pushing short of it. I remember she made a comment in an annoyed tone about how I will never have the baby if I can't push all the way through the count of 10. Her comments and attitude irritated me, but of course, I was pushing a baby out of me so I just ignored her for the most part and focused on my midwife and Jared, as they were much more positive and encouraging. She just seemed like she did not want to be there. And I wouldn't have minded much if she hadn't been. Sad.

A little after 7:00 a.m. the midwife decided this pushing thing wasn't working out. Supposedly the baby's heartbeat was going down enough during the pushes that they felt like they should get him out quick. Or I think that's what they said. It also could've been because he was face-up, which was making the pushing unsuccessful. He was crowning, but not really moving past that point. She brought in a doctor by the name of Dr. Saunders to deliver the baby using forceps. Before I knew it, the time came to push, the forceps went in (ouch... I forgot to mention my epidural was probably 75% worn off at this point) and as I pushed, he pulled. It was such an intense experience that I could've sworn my head was spinning in circles and the world was crumbling to pieces! I don't even know how to explain how weird that moment was. It felt like he was yanking and tugging and pulling every which way as I was losing my breath and turning purple from pushing... I was so overwhelmed that I don't remember if it took one push or multiple before the baby was pulled out. I took one look down, saw his goopy little body and crazy cone head with a big ole' bump on top of that... then I heard him cry, and that was enough for me as I plopped back on the bed and practically fainted in exhaustion. It wasn't necessarily the magical moment that I had envisioned, as they apparently had Jared cut the umbilical cord right away (no waiting for it to stop pulsating, yet another bummer), and whisked him away.

I don't remember much at that point except that the doctor basically pulled the placenta out (again, I had wanted them to wait for it to come out on its own... as my birth plan said... but ah well) - and started to stitch me up. Like I said before, my epidural was wearing off quickly and I felt every stitch! I just remember holding tightly to Jared's hand on my left and the midwife's hand on my right and looking back and forth at them with wide eyes and gritted teeth as he stitched me up. Ow ow owwwwww.

After they had cleaned him off and swaddled him up, they let me hold Isaac for a minute or two and then they took him away to the nursery with Jared following behind. Apparently he wasn't breathing perfectly so they wanted to monitor his breathing for a bit. He was gone for at least an hour before they brought him back to me.

As you can probably tell, this wasn't my ideal birthing experience. I do wish things had gone a little differently... but in the end, I was so happy that Isaac was okay and that we had our sweet and precious miracle baby that all of that didn't matter so much.

Isaac Joseph de Hoyos was born at 7:28 a.m. on June 17th, 2011. He weighed 8 lbs 5 oz and was 20.5 inches long. 

And this is his happy self now, at 3 weeks!

Yes, the birth went almost completely opposite of my birth plan, but I learned a lot about what I want for my next birth and what I will do differently. Starting with a better diet! Also, next time I have a baby I am going to try other, less disabling pain medications first before getting an epidural. (I personally believe he was positioned wrong because I was laying on my back for nearly 12 hours. I had felt his position before we went to the hospital and he was positioned just fine then - not face-up.) Oh... and I will probably do Hypnobabies again for the next baby but I will actually practice like you're supposed to! And I may even try a water birth....... but we'll see.

Anyway, I hope that didn't bore everyone to tears! We love this little guy and we are so happy and blessed to have him join our family.

Last but not least, let's take a poll... who does he look like the most? Jared or Alisa? Or which features look more like Jared and which look more like Alisa?