Showing posts with label birth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birth. Show all posts

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Emmersyn's Birth Story

July 15th came and went. Each passing day I thought I just might stay pregnant forever, I thought for sure this baby would never come! I had an appt. on the 19th and after meeting with my doctor I was scheduled again to be induced at 5am on July 20th. I had been having TONS of contractions leading up to her birth so on the night of the 19th I was discouraged that I wasn't having very many. I went to bed early, but didn't fall asleep until about 11:30pm. At 12:30 I woke up to very strong contractions...I knew this was it and I was so excited that I wouldn't have to be induced! I woke Ty up around 2:30am, showered and got ready to go to the hospital. Thankfully my mom had flown in on Sunday evening so she was already here with the kids. To make it even better for her, July 20th was also her birthday. How special for me to have my baby on my mom's birthday!


We got to the hospital just after 4am. I was put in a labor room and monitored. I got my IV in and about 15 minutes later my throat started feeling funny. It felt like it was closing and I couldn't breathe or talk. I was gasping for air and literally couldn't breathe. I had doctors and nurses, anaesthesiologists and respiratory therapists running around around my room trying to figure out what was going on. I had oxygen on my face, but even without it my O2 saturation was 98%. We had no idea what was going on but it was pretty scary! About 45 minutes later I felt fine and no one ever did figure out what happened. They initially thought I had a latex allergy, but ruled it out because I've had two babies and plenty of surgeries to know that, that wasn't the issue.
They had called my doctor to come in from home because of my "emergency" so he came and once I felt better they started me on pitosin (my contractions had slowed down a little, so they wanted to have them pick up a little bit) and broke my water around 7:45am. I was checked initially and was at 4.5 cm when I had gotten to the hospital. Next time they checked me, around 10, I was already at an 8!! They asked if I wanted an epidural and if I did I'd have to get it NOW because if I waited it'd be too late. I said bring it on, I was looking forward to some relief. 10 minutes later the anaesthesiologist came into the room ready to give me my epidural, but for some reason he got mad at my nurse and walked out of the room before he gave it to me! I think, by then, I was begging him to come back!! Lets just say no one in the room, including myself, were happy.

The nurse asked if I wanted something through my IV in case he came back too late to get the epidural and through my tears I said yes. I was given Stadol through my IV, then about 20 minutes later the anaesthesiologist came back to give me my epidural. However, about 10 minutes after being given the Stadol I was knocked out. The nurse had told me it would make me feel drunk and/or loopy. In fact, I don't even remember getting the epidural. It made my vomit many times and I don't remember anything for at least an hour or so. I was so out of it, come to find out, that any time someone walked into the room or came near me I would say to them (I was even saying it to Ty) "Do you know my husband? He's REALLY HOT!" haha, I was laughing so hard when my nurse told me that. She said I said it at least 30 times. Lets just say I will never get that medicine again.

I remember being in a lot of pain and my nurse ordering me another dose for my epidural, but my doctor said he didn't want me to have any more because it was time to push!! I couldn't believe how quickly this labor was going. The only bad news was, was that the baby was "sunny side up". I knew that wasn't good because it increases the chance for a c-section and my sister pushed for 3 hours with Micah because he was the same way. The doc. ended up being able to turn her (lets just say it was a VERY painful process) before she was out. I pushed for about 55 minutes and once I saw my beautiful baby girl it was love at first sight. She was absolutely perfect and I could already tell she resembled our other two so much! Black peach fuzz hair, blue squinty eyes and chubby! They put our baby on my belly, Ty cut the cord and I held her and thanked the Lord for a healthy baby and an "easy" delivery.

I knew she was going to be big, but she actually looked really tiny to me. The nurse took her after a while and weighed her, checked her vitals, etc. She was a whopping 9 lbs. 14 oz and 21 inches. Her head was 13.75 inches Dr. Lao said she was the biggest baby he'd ever delivered vaginally! At least he'll remember us forever :).
What a blessing she has been to us, it was like a piece of me that I didn't know was missing was finally here. She makes our family complete and I already cannot imagine life without her. She's perfect in every way! God definitely had her birth planned and everything worked out just the way I'd been praying for it to: I didn't have to be induced, my doctor was back in town (he had gotten in town the evening before), I got my OWN private ROOM (doc. hooked us up!!), and she's perfectly healthy. I am one happy momma who coudn't ask for anything more!!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Labor and beyond...

Well here is the "story" of when I went into labor...

Ty had class on Wednesday night, so I had stayed up until 11:30 pm to make sure he got home okay and to say "goodnight" well when I tried to go to bed around midnight I couldn't sleep, so I went on the couch and watched TV until I fell asleep around 1:30am. Around 2:30 am I was awoken by my contractions. I was so excited because I knew this was "it". When you've had one baby I found that you kind of just know when it's time. So I started timing my contractions, showered, called the labor and delivery and then woke Ty up around 4:00am. Then I called my mom around 4:30 to have her come over and watch Riley. (She of course was up anyways--probably sewing) My mom got over around 5:30 and Ty and I took off to Borgess Hospital-bags packed and all, hoping this really was it.

We got to the hospital, had a quick exam and was hooked up to the monitors for a while. Then they got me up to walk the halls to help labor progress. After another exam I was dilated to 3 and was admitted!!! YEAH! I was so excited and of course a bit nervous. The past 2 weeks or so I had been having A LOT of pain in my abdomen, I had mentioned it to my OB doc. and he just seemed to think it was because the baby was moving into position. However, the last 2 days or so the pain had become almost unbearable. After getting settled into our birthing room we just waited and waited for labor to continue. My contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart but becoming much harder. Around 1:00 in the afternoon I finally couldn't take the pain anymore and requested an epidural. It wasn't that the contractions were unbearable, but it was the combination of the pain I was having EVERY time Lincoln moved and the contractions. Well, the doctor figured out that the pain was because the baby's head was hitting my pelvis when he moved it was rubbing bone on bone and that (come to find out) his head was so big that it was pushing my pubic symphasis bone apart...yeah VERY painful!

I got the epidural once the anestheologist got to my room and to make a long story short Ty and I both almost passed out. He gets light-headed when watching that stuff and I don't know what my deal was. Then come to find out after I got the epidural she accidentally messed up and put it in the wrong space, so I had to get it done again an hour later!! I was bummed because I wanted the pain to be gone and didn't want to have to get an epidural again because it's a little painful :)! But it was totally worth it in the end...

Once I got the epidural it was smooth sailing until I stated to need to push. Around 2:15 Dr. Saffold broke my water and I had to get a catheter. That really sped things up and at 3:30ish I started to push. I specifically remember the doctor telling me that there was no way I'd push for as long as I did with Riley (45 minutes) so I was excited to hear that. Well, I started to push and I never thought he'd come. An hour later, our sweet boy had arrived. I pushed for almost an hour. The only thing I can really remember was when his head came out the doctor and nurses ALL said "Wow, that's going to be a big baby". Then when he was totally delivered all they kept saying was oh my goodness, what a big boy!! Little did I know...

They put Lincoln on my chest and began cleaning him off, it was the most incredible experience. All of a sudden I felt no pain and I didn't care that I had just pushed for an hour and was in labor for 10. My boy, the baby I'd been praying for, had arrived and with my hubby by my side we held him and kissed him and stared into his "squinty Paulk eyes" in awe of what God had created.

So that's it...there is SO MUCH MORE I could write about but I'll spare you the details (plus I have to give Lincoln a sponge bath and get Riley to bed).

Saturday, May 10, 2008

My sweet boy is HERE!!!

Finally, after much anticipation our sweet baby boy has arrived!! I've got so much to do that I don't have a ton of time to blog, but I wanted to update all my fellow bloggers! I'll write more about labor and everything later on but for now here are his stats:

Lincoln Daniel Paulk
born on May 8th, 2008
@ 4:22 pm
weighed 9 lbs. 6 oz. (no that's not a typo, he really was almost 9 1/2 lbs!!)
21 inches
head circ. was 14.25 inches

We are so thankful to have our healthy baby home and we praise God for His miracle! What a blessing it is to have two healthy children. We are so thankful. Thank you all for your prayers!

Here is one quick picture of Lincoln and big sister, Riley: