I am so thankful to be home with a very precious third son who I was able to have the privilege of birthing. I love all three of my boys and am so happy that I get to raise them and appreciate all of the ways in which God chose to have them in my life.
Due to Gestational Diabetes, and a Positive GBS test the plan was to have Winston come into this world through an induction, the process beginning with cervical gel on the morning of August 31st, and then a full induction on the morning of September 1st.
I arrived at the hospital at 7:30 am on August 31st and had the Cervical "tampon" (as it seemed) placed inside of my cervix at around 9 am. I then had to stay in the hospital for about 2 hours to check that everything was okay prior to me going home. The nurses and Doctor kept telling me that "typically the Cervical Gel alone does not work" and that I would be in tomorrow morning regardless to have the full induction. Not true in my case. I started having notable contractions within an hour (perhaps less). At around 11 am the contractions were regular, but being the stubborn person I am I told them that I felt confident about going home, and that I would be "just fine". Once home (a 5 minute drive mind you) my contractions were about 1.5 minutes apart, and each contraction was lasting about a minute. I wanted to labor at home as long as I could, and since this was my first time I wasn't really aware what was "normal" in regard to contractions.
My mom came to the house and felt that it would be a good idea for me to head back to the hospital, given that my contractions were coming so close together. I was home long enough to sit in the bath for a bit, and bounce on a birthing ball, only to arrive back at the hospital an hour and a half later. When I arrived the contractions were just one after the other, and really not a lot of time inbetween (about 30 seconds). They did a cervical check and found that within that 2 hour span, I had progressed to 5 cm dilated. Woah!
I was brought into the labor room, and proceeded to have back to back contractions (with only 30 seconds to 1 minute in between). They were trying to figure out how to slow down the contractions, without impeding the progress I was having in the labor. Because I was not getting a break between contractions they were worried about the duration I would have to be able to push without having a rest inbetween contractions. They decided to break my water to see how it would affect my contractions. After they broke my water, within 1 hour I went from 5 cm dilated to 8 cm dilated, and was in a lot of pain. My contractions were still shorter and on top of one another, so I was progressing quickly but the duration of contractions were not quality, and I had little rest inbetween them. At that point I was really tired, and was worried about pushing, but I was beyond the point of being able to have an epidural. They decided to give me a spinal tap (which is normally reserved for C-Sections) to see if it would slow down my contractions, and give me rest periods and help make the contractions longer. I was disappointed because the Spinal Tap didn't give me the relief I was hoping for in total, but it did make it so my contractions slowed down, and lessened the back labor pains. The problem is they slowed down too much, and then they had to give me Oxycontin to speed them back up again. I was in the 8-10 cm zone for about 6 hours, including pushing. I do remember having the strong sensation to push at 8cm and the nurses and doctor kept telling me I wasn't allowed to. Having to hold back those instincts to push were probably the hardest part about the whole labor process for me. The pain was so immense, and my body seemed to naturally want to push downwards.
The Spinal Tap wore off after 1 hour, which was a good thing because I was able to push better when it got to that time. 10 cm is where things got comical. I remember yelling at the nurses and Doctors telling them "I refuse to push until you give me either an epidural or a C-Section". Adam kindly let them know I was nuts and not to listen to me. The Doctor reminded me that I no longer could have an epidural and that I just needed to push. I started pushing, and I was amazed at how much better it felt to push the pain away rather than just sitting there having to deal with contractions. The only issue was that the Spinal Tap, even though it had worn off on my back and stomach, managed to keep my legs frozen. It felt very strange to try and push with frozen legs. I pushed for a total 2 hours, and I started feeling like something was wrong. I kept having the sensation of his head sort of coming out, but then going back in again after a push. This sensation went on for about an hour, and I could tell there wasn't a lot of progress happening. I told the Doctor that something wasn't right. She informed me that he wasn't in the right position and that his chin was facing up, not down which was making it hard for me to push him out. At this point I was so tired because of the labor progressing so quickly and my crappy contractions so they called in another Doctor to do a vacuum extraction. This was great because he came out within in three minutes of the vacuum being placed, and 2 pushes on my part.
When he came out I was so overwhelmed by how the pain just seemed to disappear. I just couldn't believe I pushed this baby out, and that he was now in the world for me to take care of. Very hard to describe, but a feeling I will never forget and will always cherish. It took two hours for them to stitch me up.....let me just tell you that everything that could tear did- so you can imagine what recovery will look like.
So overall the labor took about 10 hours, with the majority of that being in the 8-10 cm zone. I did not expect it to happen as quickly, especially since this was my first birth.
I am so elated to have this little miracle here with me. I just can't believe that God blessed us with him. It is such a privilege to have both adopted and birthed children. Each experience is unique, and the love I have is the same for all of them.
