Birth Story number 1 Braden

Our Seven QTpies is hosting a birth story contest, so once you are done here, post your own birth story on your blog and then head on over to her site to leave a link. Happy reminiscing!

Ah the joys of a first birth! At the time my water broke (barely a trickle) it was 2 am and my husband was in another state. We had wanted to move closer to family after I got pregnant so when an opportunity arose, at 5 very difficult months of pregnancy, we took it. However it was dependent upon the company acquiring 4 more nursing homes and 2 months after we moved, hubby lost the job. He then found a job in a neighboring state but my health insurance would not carry over, so I had to stay put with my parents until baby was born. It was all good, because hubby's new company said there would be a ticket waiting for the flight back. I called at 2:05 am so he could make it in time, but upon arriving at the airport no one knew about the supposed ticket. We had no credit cards, so my Dad graciously offered his. In the meantime, I knew I was supposed to go straight to the hospital, but I really did not want to be there without my hubby, so I waited. In between contractions I curled my hair, put on make up and dressed. Funny thing is the picture shows my hair as straight as a stick. All the curl fell out. By the time he got there at 9am I was not in labor, but we headed to the hospital anyway. I WAS IN BIG TROUBLE with the nurses, for not coming in! They started Pitocin to induce labor, a nasty medicine that not only makes the contractions VERY strong, you don't feel like you get a break between contractions. The doctor warned "don't let them make the contractions so close together you cannot breathe and when you get to 3cm you can have an epidural". To make a long story shorter, the contractions were so close and so strong I couldn't breathe. I couldn't speak, catch my breath, or even cry. The pain was so strong and constant. I had to fight with my nurse for the epidural. She walked out in the hall and told my mother that I needed to "buck it up" and that she had had three babies without pain meds. I had to wait an hour once she called the anesthesiologist and in that hour I went from 3 cm to 10 cm. The doc put in the epidural, they turned me over took a look at my face and turned the epidural off. They could tell it was time to push. So I got poked with a six inch needle in the spine for nothing! Now for more fun. I pushed for 2 1/2 hours as hard as I could. There was a couple of student nurses eagerly anticipating the birth, but after an hour they got chairs. After 2 hours the doc tried a suction device which popped off his head three times. Finally they got a grip with forceps and pulled him out. And even with all that trauma, his apgars were 9 and 10. the doc argued with the nurses saying Braden should have gotten a 10/10, but the nurse argued the very tips of his fingers were blue. There he was, all 8 pounds 6 ounces of him. He even pee'd on the doctor! They plopped Braden on my tummy and Darryl and I were admiring our boy when all of the sudden we got this look of concern on our faces as it appeared his mouth was deformed. One of us finally reached up and pulled down on his chin and out popped his lip. He was so hungry he was sucking on his botOur Seven QTpiestom lip. I on the other hand, was so swollen from all the pushing that they brought one after another student nurse to look at me in all my swolleness (a new word I made up) From the moment Braden was born, I knew I was meant to be a mother, it was so fun having someone to go everywhere I with! I also became less shy because I finally had something in common with almost every woman I met. It was a big turning point in my life. Check out my next birth story to see what I did about decreasing the pain of birth!