Grant’s Birth Day

This is long over due, but I wanted to write down Grant’s birth story so I’d always remember  the little details.

The week before I had him, I went to my weekly appointment where I had an ultrasound. We checked on his progress and size and then I had my appointment. My blood pressure was elevated and the doctor was concerned. He told me I either needed to go to the hospital for 24 hour monitoring or that I could go home on bed rest for 24 hours and do the at home urinalysis to check for preeclampsia. I opted for the at home version. Everything came back from that so after two days off I got to go back to work.

The next week I went to my appointment on May 19. My blood pressure was up again and this time my doctor decided it was time to get Grant out. He told me he was going to schedule me for an induction. He came back in the room and said we were doing it the next day! I was a little caught off guard. I thought maybe we’d go on Friday or something, but didn’t plan on doing it that day. I was dilated to a 4 and 80% thinned and he went ahead and stripped my membranes.

I had a birthday lunch scheduled with my friend Iva, and we went ahead and went that day and during lunch I was timing contractions. ha! They came and went throughout the day. I got home that evening and Zach wasn’t home because it was the night of his school’s graduation. My mom happened to be in town that evening to go to a doctor appointment with my grandma the next day, thank the Lord. She picked up the kids from school that afternoon and had them here when I got home. At this point, I was having fairly consistent painful contractions and kind of thought I wouldn’t make it through the night. Mom started cleaning my kitchen and before I knew it, she had cleaned my whole house. Ava seemed a little upset so we took them to get some ice cream before coming home and tucking them in. Around 10:00, I went to bed and my contractions finally subsided enough to fall asleep. I woke up about 1:30 and never went back to sleep before we had to leave for the hospital. We had to check in at 5:00 a.m. and there was a very heavy thunderstorm that morning while we drove to the hospital. This was me right before we left

We got all checked into the hospital and about 6:00, they came in to start my pitocin and check me. I was at a 5 but the baby was still up pretty high. My doctor came in about 7:25 and said he was going into a c-section. Because of where I was and my past labor histories, he said he wasn’t going to break my water until after the c-section because he was worried I wouldn’t make it until he was done. They also went ahead and stopped my pitocin. He said I could have my epidural at any time, but because I wasn’t hurting at that point, I didn’t get it right then. I was frustrated that my pitocin was turned off because I thought that would make the day last even longer.

My doctor came back in around 8:30. I was still at a 5 and he went ahead and broke my water. After about the third contraction, I was in intense pain and asked for my epidural. Around 9:00 they came in and told me the anesthesiologist had gone into an emergency c-section (with my doctor, no less) and it would be a while. They asked if I’d like some IV drugs until he could get there. My contractions were coming about 2 minutes apart and they weren’t going completely away so I wasn’t getting any break between them. I asked for that medicine and they finally got it to me around 9:30 – and I was still at a 5.

The IV meds did absolutely nothing except make me sleepy. They didn’t touch the pain. I think somewhere around 10:00 they told me the epidural was coming. I think it was about 10:15 when he got in my room and we got started on that. My epidural with Reed didn’t work the first time so i was nervous about whether or not this one would work. As soon as I sat up on the edge of the bed, I started feeling pressure with the contractions. I thought maybe it was just because I was sitting up. I got the epidural in and they laid me back down and I felt the pressure again with the contractions. I told the nurse I was having pressure. She was fairly new and I guess she thought I meant I was still feeling pain. She told me to wait about three more contractions and see if that helped. The epidural was working. Between contractions I felt like I could’ve taken a nap thanks to those IV meds! After about three, I told the nurse I was still feeling pressure. She said something that I don’t remember now and I said “no, I’m not feeling pain, I’m feeling pressure like I have to push.” She was like “OH!” She grabbed the other nurse and checked me and it was time. This was around 10:15 or so. Fortunately, my doctor was still hanging around as he’d just finished the surgery and had been coming to check on me.

He came in and I started pushing. After the first push, they said he was face up. This worried me greatly because I’d heard horror stories about those situations. Somehow, truly by the grace of God, I managed to push him out in four pushes and he was born at 10:56 a.m. He weighed 8lbs 7 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long. The nurse told me later she couldn’t believe I’d done that because sometimes when a baby is face up it can take hours to push and turn them to deliver them. Wow! I had prayed right before I started pushing that all would go smoothly. He truly answered that prayer.

After he was born, my mom and sister and Zach’s mom and dad were there to meet him! Later after school was out, the kids got to come meet him, too!

We spent two days in the hospital and got to go home on Friday, May 22. He had some jaundice so we had to keep a close eye on that and I’ll share more about that in another post. We were just so glad to bring our boy home!

He is now almost 11 weeks old and time is FLYING by! I have done a one month and two month post on him and I have back dated those. Here are the links:

One Month Post

Two Months Post