Luke's Birth Story

Luke and Mom
Originally uploaded by Jenmomma

Details are already getting fuzzy, so I thought I should try to get this in writing. Here is the story on how Luke made his way into the world.

Our induction was scheduled for 6:00 a.m. That is really early though, so of course I slept about 10 minutes longer than I should have, so we were running late. Grace heard everyone showering, so she was also up by 5:30 a.m. and ready to start her day with Nana. I knew I wouldn't be able to eat, so I made a bagel with cream cheese for the road. Eric had to stop for coffee, but we still made good time and got up to Labor and Delivery at about 6:10 a.m. We were taken to our room and the nurse took down all my history, took some blood, started my IV and checked me to see where we were starting. Still no change from the previous appointment (about 2 cm and 60-70% effaced).

They went ahead and started my Pitocin around 7 a.m. and were waiting on a resident or my doctor to come in to break my water. Contractions started up, but were managable. We had lots of discussion about how long labor would take. My Mom and Eric both thought it would be late evening around 8 or 9 p.m. My guess was 3:10 p.m. Samara had guessed the day before and said 1:55 p.m. The nurse seemed to think we'd be done by the time her shift ended at 3 p.m. Finally, around 8 a.m. they tracked down a resident to break my water. It was different than having it break on it's own. Grace's was more of a trickle where this time it seemed like tons more any time I moved.

Samara came in around 8:30 a.m. to join the party. I didn't write down all the times and such, but I know my contractions got stronger after my water broke and I moved to the rocking chair so I wouldn't be confined to the bed. I knew once I got my epidural that I'd have to get back in bed. I got checked after an hour or so and was at 3 cm. The nurse started asking if I was ready for my epidural. I felt like a wuss. The contractions were strong, but managable, but I knew eventually I'd want the epidural and I didn't want to "need" it and have to wait a long time, so I agreed to go ahead and get it. With Grace I was at 6 cm before I got it, so I felt like I was wimping out a bit, but I knew I'd get it eventually, so whatever.

I know I got checked 2 more times and was at 4 cm both times. That made me a bit sad, because the 2nd time was still around noon and I started thinking it was going to take a really long time. The good news was that with my epidural they could dial up the Pitocin and I really couldn't feel it. Over the next 2 hours or so, things got more interesting. When they checked me, they had a really hard time telling how far I was dialated. The best explanation the nurse could give me was that his head was coming down at a slight angle so the cervix was dialting uniformly. At one point she said she'd call me 6 cm, but it was more like a face of a clock. Where the 8 o'clock to 12 o'clock was covered, but the rest was completely open. At this point I was really starting to feel a lot of pressure, but again, I was only fully dialated on part of the cervix.

Also, fairly early on, my nurse said that in anticipation of a possible complicated delivery, my doctor was requesting that no one be in the room with me other than Eric. The nurse was going to see if she could let Mom and Samara stand back near the doorway, so if things got hairy they could just exit without getting in the way, but it was going to be the doctors decision.

Finally, as it started nearing 3:00 p.m. (probably between 2:30 and 2:45 p.m.), my nurse decided to let me have a trial push to see if I could push past the rest of the cervix and get to fully dialated. It worked and she immediately had me stop, so she could call the doctor over. Dr. B arrived in minutes and got set up. She confirmed that she wanted only Eric in the room, as she was going to have an extra resident doctor, an extra nurse, plus the Special Care nursery nurses in the room, just in case. They also got a stool ready to help them get up onto my bed if they needed to push from above and showed Eric where to stand if they needed to move him.

Mom and Samara exited the room at 3:00 p.m. and it was time to get started. I wasn't feeling any pain, but I did feel extreme pressure with every contraction. I started pushing and within 2 or maybe 3 contractions, we were ready to deliver his head. (Funny story, at this point, I was still getting kicks from little Luke.) Dr. B said that as soon as his head came out, she would check the cord, suction as needed, but have me go ahead and continue to push to see if we could just ease the shoulders on out before they had a chance to turn. So the next push came. I closed my eyes and pushed. His head delivered and then I heard Dr. B tell the nurse to hit the call button. I still had my eyes closed but suddenly the room seemed to fill with even more people. Dr. B was giving orders to people and I had to listen carefully about when to push and when not to as they had to manouver to get my little man out. A big male doctor had come in and was doing the pushing from above. Dr. B apparently reached in (don't ask me how that happened, my eyes were closed), she turned his shoulder and pulled him out.

I felt him come out and opened my eyes to see Dr. B catch him and go down to the floor. Apparently he was very slippery and she didn't want to drop him. They immediately handed him over to the Special Care nursery unit to see if he had movement in both arms or a broken clavical. I didn't get to see him or hold him first and Eric didn't get to cut the cord. At that point things slowed down a little. His birth was announced at 3:18 p.m. (quite a busy 18 minutes). He quickly showed movement in both arms and no broken bones, although his forehead was pretty banged up. I also only needed 1 stitch to fix me up.

I asked Dr. B if we had another shoulder issue and she laughed and said, "Oh yeah, that was the 2nd worst one I've ever had to deliver." Looking around the room, our estimate was 4 doctors and at least 6 nurses in attendence for the birth. Once he was being checked, I heard someone say, that doesn't look like a 9 pound baby. Our main nurse went to go get Mom and Samara from the waiting room. Once they were all back, we weighed in and saw the result, 10 pounds, 8 ounces. I just laughed. I guess I shouldn't have been worried about delivering a little 7 pound baby because we went 2 1/2 weeks early.

Once I finally got to hold him, Luke immediately started rooting, so we did our first breastfeeding session in the delivery room. He latched on immediately and hasn't really detached since (joke).

So, that's the birth story. A lot has happened this week and I want to give more thoughts on his personality, but I have a feeling he's going to need fed soon. More to come later!