Birth story & pictures

Short story: Water broke around 3:30pm on Saturday and he was born at 11:41am on Sunday May 1st. He was born 8lbs 13oz and 21 inches long. Black hair and blue eyes 

Long story:

We went to a local fair that morning and walked around for about 2 hours in the sun. I hadn't slept well the night before so I definitely went into labor pretty tired. On the drive home I felt a little gush of warm liquid but it was kinda small but I was wary. As soon as we got out of the car at our house a much bigger gush came out and I said to Corey "Either I peed myself or my water broke".  I went into the bathroom, emptied my bladder and stood up to another big gush...so we grabbed a few things, I took a shower, and headed into L&D.

in triage

I wasn't contracting AT ALL (3cm, 80%, 0 station) so they had to give me pitocin, which I was sad about but at this point it is for the health of the baby to get things moving on a quick timeline, so I didn't think too much about it. My contractions started coming pretty frequently, but they didn't hurt too bad. 


My cousin and two friends came by to be my labor support group and the first few hours with them were great. We basically sat around the room laughing and joking and it really made the time fly.

 My mom and sister got in around 11 after flying from Philadelphia so it was great they made it on time too.

I was checked around that time and was still not at 4cm (which is what is considered "active labor" but I had thinned to almost 90% and baby was at +1). I sent my mom and sister home to sleep while I took a little nap too. After a few hours I started to really feel the contractions but they were all in my back. At around 1:30 the contractions were coming fast and hard (every 30s to 1minute) and they were at the top of my pain threshold. I was exhausted because there was no time in between to rest, so I asked to be checked again and was at 6cms. At this point I had been screaming and really felt the urge to push with every contraction. They said it was because he was really low, but my cervix just wasn't cooperating.

I needed an epidural.


My plan was a med free birth but I have to tell you that I would not have been able to have a vaginal birth with out the epi.

As soon as they gave me the epi I knew I made the right decision. The pain was not totally gone (I still could feel the contractions in my back, but they were sooo much better) and I was able to move my legs as well. The best part is I was able to take a nap. I slept for a few hours until the contractions starting hurting again, but I asked them to keep the epi at the current level because I liked being more aware of the experience.

Finally I felt some pressure and called the nurse. She came in and told me that I was 100% effaced, 10cm, and that the baby was one knuckle away from the edge of the birth canal. So we started pushing around 9:30am.

My sister, mom and husband were all in the room, although I planned to only have my husband there I was happy they were there with the way things went.

Turns out he was sunny side up. Everyone was confident that he could come out naturally but they told me it would take a while. After about an hour of pushing he had barely moved so they brought in the doctor who helped stretch me out and worked with my positioning to help with the pushing. After about another half hour of pushing we discussed using a suction cup which I eventually agreed too.

I was taken off the epi and they drove up my pitcoin to give me the extra oomph to push him out. I pushed and pushed with all my might and even with the suction he was barely budging. It was very painful and I was exhausted. Finally they got his head half-way out, but I was so tired I had to take a break. I had one big contraction and pushed and pushed until I couldn't push any more and he still wasn't out. I was crying at this point and really didn't think I could do it, but I gave it one more go and he finally came out....and out..and out. Seriously, 21 inches is a long amount of baby!!

Now it got scary.

He wouldn't scream. All I wanted to hear was that awesome sound of the babies first breath but all I saw was the flopping white limbs of a silent baby. They grabbed him away from us so quick that my husband couldn't cut the cord. Suddenly the room was filled with people, all of them saying "He's fine! He's fine!" with overly cheerful voices while speaking to each other in hushed tones. He was in his bed which was just a few inches from me and I can tell he was in distress. He was breathing, but he wasn't doing it well or with any regularity and he still wasn't screaming. A LONG time passed before we heard anything even remotely healthy sounding and I was in full out panic mode.

During this time, I was hemorrhaging and had developed a high fever. My placenta wasn't detaching and my uterus wasn't contracting and I had no energy to push it out, although I tried. So in between staring at my child wondering if he was going to live, I had a new team of doctors surrounding me talking in hushed tones about bringing in a transfusion and talking about ways to stop the blood loss while my doctor was elbow deep inside me trying to dislodge the placenta.

My doc and I were absolutely covered in blood and I could feel it just pouring out of me while I stared at my quiet newborn a few feet away.

Eventually, Clark gave a loud cry and the doc let me put him on my chest but I couldn't hold him for long due to all the work they were doing on me and my rapidly deteriorating condition.  

Finally breathing (check out that cone head!)

Scared momma

Happy momma

He narrowly avoided needing to go to NICU but he did have to be monitored in the regular nursery for a while. I sent Corey up with him and my sister came in to watch over me while they were still working on the hemorrhaging.

Happy about baby/scared for momma

Suddenly, I was very tired and delirious. I was talking but no one could understand me and I couldn't really form a real thought. I was terrified as I thought it had to do with the blood loss, but it turns out they gave me a heavy narcotic so they could deal with the massive number of stitches and inside issues. I knocked out hard core and came to a number of times completely high and non responsive (which was scary as I still didn't know what happened). Four hours later they told me I could move upstairs to the recovery room if I had the energy, so I worked so hard to convince them I was ok so I could see my baby again.

All better!

After a long night of being exhausted and recovering from my fevers we both woke up healthy and happy.  Breastfeeding is going well and he even gained some weight!

Excited to be going home together!

New family!

Oma, Momma, and Auntie

Clark is not too sure about Magneto

And Magneto is not too sure about Clark