ZACHARY JOHN EDWARDS
BORN OCTOBER 15, 2012
6 pounds 13.7 ounces
20.5 inches
Birth Story
written by One Extremely Sleep Deprived Mother
(basically.... my excuse for a lot of grammatical errors)
I went into labor on my own for the first time around 6pm Sunday evening. My dad flew in late that evening, which was perfect timing. That evening I couldn't sleep because of the contractions and constant trips to the bathroom. John couldn't sleep because he was so excited. I think John slept even less than I did.
The following morning, Monday October 15th, John got up to get ready for work and headed to the gym. As soon as he left I knew I was actually in labor with contractions 2 1/2 to 5 minutes apart. I tried calling him and paging him but he never answered, which of course would be the case when I am actually in labor. I called the gym and they found him. He felt so bad that he never heard my calls. He rushed home and I finished packing.
We got to the hospital around 7am and we decided to walk around the hospital until clinic opened at 8am because I did not want to go to Labor and Delivery to be sent home. I was only 2 to 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced, but my contractions were still really close together. Just a few days before I was 1 cm and 25% effaced, so this was alot of progress for me and on top of that my previous labors were over after I hit 4 cm. Thankfully my OB said I was in labor and sent me right to Labor and Delivery.
Of course, as soon as I check into Labor and Delivery, my contractions slowed down to 5 to 6 minutes apart, so they decided to put me on the lowest dose of Pitocin sometime after 9 am (its all a blur now). My labor nurse, Karen, gave me 3 rules that all her patients had to keep. They were #1: No Throwing Up, #2: No Pushing Longer Than 30 minutes, and #3: Only Beautiful Babies. I told her sorry, I always throw up a lot in both my previous labors and I've pushed for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours with the other two boys, but that I might be able to pull off a cute baby.
Soon, the doctor came and broke my water around 12:30 or 1pm (I got my epidural before this since in the past I went really fast after my water broke). Afterwards, I was still at a 3 and only 75 % effaced after all this, so we waited..... Finally, I hit a 4 and we thought here we go I'll be at a 10 in about 40 minutes like the first two boys. 45 minutes past and then I was only at a 5, but then my body progressed super fast like it always has and 15 minutes later I was at a 10 and pushing. I pushed for 15 minutes and our beautiful baby boy was born. He looked perfect and he got perfect APGAR scores as well. I was shocked at how tiny he was since I had never been pregnant this long and he was my third. I was seriously expecting an 8 pounder.
I'd like to report that I kept all 3 of her rules and was so happy I did. Of course, I am biased about rule #3, but what nurse is going to tell you that you have an ugly baby....? This was by FAR my best and easiest labor.
This concludes my labor story and the first one out of the 3 that I finished recording. The first 2 were sooooooooo long and horrible that I never really finished a complete record. So, I guess "the third time is the charm."
