Note, if you don't approve of me sharing my story then don't read it.
May 21, 2012 I had my 39wk appt with my doctor to check my progress if any. Of course no. A few weeks prior my doctor had stretched my membranes to help dilate me. Each week I would gain more progress. My 39wk appt I was sitting at 4cm, 100% effaced and +1 station. So he went ahead and stretched me a little bit more, getting me to 5cm. Let me just say these weekly stretching sessions were extremely painful. So my doctor told me to come back in the morning to his office and he would get me admitted. I could have been admitted same day but the labor and delivery was packed. I guess a lot of women drank the same water at the same time last August. LOL I went in, he checked me and sent me straight on over to labor and delivery. I didn't get hooked up to everything til almost noon. Got my epidural shortly after I polished off one bag of fluid. The first epidural only numbed my left side. You better believe I was raising hell and wanted to be completely numb. I knew Keiran was a big boy and wanted no part of that pain. So after an hour of feeling contractions on my right side, anesthesiologist came in to redo my epidural. Thank god the second one took. Only after he topped off the spinal block before placing the second, my body didn't know how to react and I fainted in the nurses arms. That was scary waking up from and being told not to move. Pitocin was started promptly at 1pm. Once pitocin was started, my sweet Dr came in to my aid and broke my water and this started moving FAST!!!! Nurse came and checked me around 2:30 and I was sitting at 7cm. Keiran kept having decels in his heart rate so they had me keep flopping from right to left side and vice versa. Then my Dr sat me straight up on the bed with my feet in the stirrups to bring Keiran down even further unassisted and let gravity do all the work. That's when I freaked. I started feeling the most intense pain ever. What the hell. What happened to my epidural???? I grabbed the button that was attached to the epidural and hit that this rhythmically for a good ten minutes. Nothing was happening. I was feeling extreme pain. Not muscular. Not in my vaginal region. But in my spine and it felt like someone was taking a sledgehammer to my tailbone and spine. Turns out, Keiran wanted to make his entrance a good one... Instead of being face down, he was face up, causing me all that pain as he was coming down the birth canal. Around 3:45 they checked me again, I was at 8cm. I remember being at 8cm for what seemed like forever. At 4pm I panicked and pressed the nurse call button, I felt like I had just had a bowel movement in the bed. My Dr came in with the nurse to check me, I was complete, I finally made it safely to ten!!! My Dr threw on his gear, nurses got ready and it was my turn to goto work. After what felt like the two most wimpiest pushes, in less than ten minutes Keiran was born. My Dr assisted me in pulling him out after he unwrapped his cord from his neck, not once but twice. He was layed on my chest and all I remember was an overwhelming since of calm, peace and a lot of relief he was safely in my arms. I couldn't stop crying. He was finally here. Wow!!! I'm a mom of two now. God really answered my prayer with the miracle of this handsome baby boy that I just helped deliver onto my chest. Did I mention I labored and birthed alone? Well I wasn't "alone" as I was surrounded by amazing nurses and my fabulous doctor. But daddy had to be with Hayden at my grandparents since we didn't have any other option. It was an amazing experience I didn't think I would be able to do without my husband but surprisingly I was relaxed and calm thru 95% of it all. God is so good!!!!
Here are a few pictures one of my nurses took in the minutes after Keiran's birth using my phone:
