Twelve days later…..here is Baby Winnie’s Birth Story!

I was placed on bedrest at 30.5 weeks following a pre-term labor scare and early dilation and contractions. While on bedrest, I continued to have minor contractions, but by 36 weeks, was still 1.5 cm dilated and 50% effaced. At 37 weeks, I was 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced, and released from bedrest and rejoined the world! In a week, I did every errand imaginable, went back to work, and went to eat with my husband about 5 times. During week 37, I had random contractions – I felt lots of pressure and cramping, but nothing that screamed “labor”. At 38 weeks, 2 days (Tuesday, May 15) I was 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced and had started feeling regular, timeable contractions that were picking up in intensity (but still no closer than 15 minutes apart). On Wednesday, I started feeling even more regular contractions (10 minutes apart and more intense) – because I had tested positive for Group B Strep and needed to get on an antibiotic (and was already 4 cm dilated), I was told to go to the hospital when my contractions were 8-10 minutes apart. The time came at about 4:30 on Wednesday, May 16! My husband and I still were not sure if this was “it” and thought we might get turned away from the hospital as I could still walk/talk through contractions, but we packed up the car and went to the hospital around 5:00.

By the time we got into a triage room it was about 6:00 – at that time, I was still 4 cm dilated but 100% effaced and hooked up to the monitors to measure my contractions. Of course, my contractions slowed to every 15-20 minutes! But, then, I had a really MONSTER contractions that literally lasted 4 minutes and looked like a plateau on the monitor. The baby had a de-acceleration (heart rate drop) during this contraction, which bought me more time on the monitor. Around 8 p.m., my midwife came and checked me again and I was dilated to 5 cm – she also stripped my membranes and told us we were getting admitted and were going to meet our baby! From there, my contractions really picked up to every 5-7 minutes. I was hooked up to an IV to get antibiotics for GBS (needed four hours of it prior to delivery) and at 9;30 p.m. finally was transferred to my delivery room. We were told I could get my epidural whenever I wanted, but I wanted to try to labor for a bit as I was worried the epidural would slow things down. By 11 p.m. my contractions got pretty crazy (to the point I was crying) and I requested my epidural at midnight when I was contracting every 5 minutes (and got it about 5 minutes later). One odd thing is that right before I got the epidural, I started shaking uncontrollably – apparently quite common during labor. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep still for the epidural, but it was fine….and sweet relief, oh sweet relief…..I should have gotten it sooner!

After I got my epidural, my husband and I tried to get some sleep (he did, I didn’t). I upped my epidural a few times because I started feeling some break through pain (which turned my legs to COMPLETE jello!!) Around 3:00 a.m., I felt my water break and my midwife checked me again and I was 6 cm and still had one pocket of water that she broke. I went back to “sleep” for a bit. Around 4:30 I told my nurse that I felt pressure and like I had to go to the bathroom – BUT my midwife was in another delivery! So I needed to continue to labor until she was done. At 5 a.m. I felt really, really nauseous. Around 5:45, I vomited several times. At just before 6 a.m. my midwife confirmed that I was fully dilated and ready to push!

After fifteen minutes of pushing, Tyler was born on Thursday, May 17 at 6:14 a.m. He was perfectly healthy and a total peanut weighing in at 5 lbs, 5 ounces and 17.5 inches long. He is absolutely beautiful and looks so much like his dad (though a few people have said he looks like me). The first few moments with him were totally surreal – all I could think (after he’s crying, he’s healthy!) was “it’s you, I know you!!” He also literally started sucking his thumb within a moment of birth – pretty adorable! We had lots of skin to skin post-delivery (minus a few moments immediately after birth when I continued to vomit….how special.) I did feel an instant bond with him and can’t believe how much I loved him from the start.

It was stressful in the hospital following Tyler’s birth because there was a lot of pressure to feed him since he was low birth weight, but it took so much effort to self express just a few drops of colostrum! On top of that, the little guy lost nearly 10% of his body weight in the hospital. When we were discharged home, he weighed less than 5 lbs, which was hard to deal with, and were told to supplement until we were in a breastfeeding groove. Breastfeeding at home was a real challenge for us the first few days – my milk didn’t come in until four days after his birth (born on a Thursday morning, milk came in Monday morning). By Tuesday morning, I somewhat got the hang of it, but every day presents a new set of challenges. I started pumping some so that we wouldn’t have to feed him formula, and by Thursday he wouldn’t really take supplemental milk on top of our feedings.

Today, Tyler is 12 days old and at his weight check today he had gained back all of his birth weight plus four ounces (ten ounces in 8 days for a total of 5 lbs, 9 ounces!) Tyler is a very sweet and cuddly baby (loves to held) and has curious big blue eyes (for now). Today is also my first day home alone – my husband has been on vacation since his birth and he has been a LIFE SAVER – he bonded immediately with Tyler and I feel like I’ve fallen in love with him all over again. Despite the few struggles we had (with weight and breastfeeding) over the last 12 days, it’s been a pretty special time for our family and we’re just so in love with our little man : )

My recovery has been pretty uneventful – I had a first (maybe second) degree tear, and felt a little out of it for a few days. But at this point, the bleeding has stopped and I have good energy. Now that my husband is back at work, I’ll have more time to hang on the boards and learn from all of you wonderful mamas!