Saturday, May 24, 2014

Ezra's Birth Story

Warning: This post contains personal, pregnancy stuff that might gross some people out.  I plan on writing what really happened without mincing words.

I really wasn't in a hurry to have Baby Ezra.  However, when my due date came and went, I finally started to get ready.  On Friday May16th, I drank 4 cups of raspberry leaf tea in hopes that it would help contractions begin.  I had drank it earlier in my pregnancy, but stopped because I noticed that when I drank it, I would have really strong Braxton Hicks contractions.  Anyway, I planned on drinking a lot if I was still pregnant in the next few days.

However, on Saturday May 17th. I woke up and was getting ready to head downstairs to make Jonah and myself some breakfast.  As I was walking down the hallway, I felt a slight trickle of water on my leg.  It felt a lot like when my water broke with Jonah. I went to the bathroom to check things out.  Sure enough, I had a watery discharge that was bloody.  Then, I lost the mucus plug.

I yelled down the stairs to Jesse (who was down there with Jonah) to tell him what happened.  I was excited and a little nervous.  I really didn't want my water to break early, like it had with Jonah because I thought that pretty much guaranteed that I would have a c-section.  I was hoping that it was just the bloody show and not my actual amniotic fluid.

I called Dr. Chamberlain's office and got their call answering service.  A nurse was going to call me back. I made Jonah and I some french toast for breakfast.  As I was eating, the nurse called and told me to go to the hospital.  As I was getting myself ready and packing last minute things, Jesse took Jonah over to his Nana & Papaw's house.

We headed to St. Mary's and while we were in the car, I started having some small contractions. We got to the OB floor around 11 am.  They put me in room 3049.  My nurses name was Heather.  Heather checked my cervix and said that I was about 1 cm dilated and about 70% effaced.  She gave me a test to see if my water had broke.  The test was only supposed to take 15 minutes in the lab, but she had some holdup waiting for stickers to label it or something.  It ended up taking around 90 minutes!  My water had broke so they called Dr. Chamberlain.  He was doing a circumcision at Cabell Huntington Hospital, but said he would be there soon.  We waited and waited.  Meanwhile, my contractions got stronger and stronger.  Heather hooked me up with a heplock IV (and it took them 4 tries to get my vein because I was dehydrated and hadn't had anything to eat or drink since breakfast!)

At around 4 pm, Dr. Chamberlain finally arrived.   He checked my cervix (felt like he was checking my tonsils!) and said I was almost 100% effaced and 2 cm dilated.  However, he said the baby was WAY up high.  He hadn't started to descend at all.   So, he said I could labor for about and hour and see what happens.  They let me be disconnected from the monitors and I just paced around the room.  My contractions were coming pretty strong.  Jesse started timing them and they were coming around every 90 seconds and lasting for about 45 seconds.

After an hour, Dr. Chamberlain said I was 4 cm dilated but the baby was still way up there.  He broke my water with a hook.  Even though it was broke a little, it hadn't broke all the way.  So, he did that and it gushed out.  The water contain meconium.  I decided that a c-section was okay with me at this point.  The baby wasn't moving down and it was going to be a long labor with meconium floating around my baby.

So, they prepped me for the c-section.  The wheeled me into the OR at 6 pm.  The nurse anesthetist was so nice but it took him forever to get into my spine.  He had to try in 2 different places.  The nurses were all so helpful and nice.  Nurses really are special people! Dr. Chamberlain even played "Butterfly Kisses" on his cellphone. Ha!  So, they finally called for Jesse to come in.  The c-section medicines made me shake uncontrollably, but he held my hand really tight.

Then, at 6:39 pm, sweet Ezra was born!  I heard him cry and then Dr. Chamberlain said, "How much did your first baby weigh?"  I said, "7 lbs, 6 oz" and he says, "Well this one is the prize-winner!"  They took Ezra over to dry him off and do his checks.  He weighed 9 lbs, 9 oz!  He was 22 inches long and his head was 38 cm in circumference.  I said, "I only gained 30 lbs!" and Dr. Chamberlain said, "Well you lost 25 today!"  Ha!  (FYI: I really didn't lose 25 lbs).

They put Ezra on my chest in the OR.  They took us back to my room so I could go through the recovery process.  I put Ezra to my breast and he immediately latched on!  It was an awesome experience!  Amazingly, I felt so good about my choice to have a c-section.  I still feel really great about it!  My emotional state after having Ezra was 1000 times better than after having Jonah.

Sarah, Jay, Caylan and Carly came to visit us really soon afterwards.  Jesse and I were starving, so he drove over to Chipotle and got us some late dinner.  My first meal after having Ezra was two steak tacos and they were delicious!

The next day in the hospital, a different nurse came in my room.  She said, "I just wanted to tell you that I was in the OR with you during your c-section.  Your uterus was really, really stretched out and thin on the bottom."  She said that I would have probably got myself into trouble if I had tried to have Ezra vaginally.  She also encouraged me to make sure I had a c-section with any future babies (as if any doctor would sign up for that after 2 c-sections).








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