Dalton's Birth Story

Pregnancy was pretty cruel to me. I spent 9 months (It's actually 10 months... Why do we lie about this?) puking my guts up daily. I guess you could say I did the pregnancy thing all wrong because I never really craved anything except Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and I was -3 pounds from my starting weight on the day of delivery. Heartburn came on strong around the second trimester and food was definitely not my friend after that... I would not ever say I got "large" or "uncomfortable", but at 38 weeks I was ready and willing to do nearly anything to get this baby out. I think most people who are pregnant feel this way. In fact, I'm certain that extreme discomfort is the thing the helps most women not be completely terrified that a tiny human has to exit their body. Anyways, my 38th week of pregnancy was spent walking, walking and walking some more with anyone who was willing to walk along with me. I went to my weekly doctor appointment that Friday (March 24) only to be told that I was still only 1.5 cm dilated. After all my efforts, I was pretty disappointed and sick of hearing "The baby will come when HE is ready." Clearly, HE and I were not operating on the same timeline!

Saturday morning I dragged Ryan and Gracie on a walk around the neighborhood. Later that day Ryan and I walked every inch of the largest mall near our house. I think my FitBit said I had walked 8.5 miles by dinner time. I was pretty determined to make something happen. That night around 10 pm I started getting contractions. Around 2 am, I was pretty miserable (...or so I thought) and my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. According to the doctor and the textbooks, it was time to head to the hospital. Ryan gave me a blessing and we said a quick prayer. We grabbed our bags and drove over to the Emergency Room since it was the middle of the night and that's the only place that will take walk ins at 3 am. I spent a few hours in Labor and Delivery being monitored. My contractions were coming pretty consistently, but I still wasn't dilating or "miserable enough". I was sent home early Sunday morning and told to come back when "I hated my husband."

The next 30 hours were not a good time, but I'm glad I spent them at home. I guess I didn't know my pain level could get much worse. Surprise! Contractions were getting more intense, but they were no longer consistent. I was super annoyed, uncomfortable, tired and starving. I was still throwing up pretty much everything at this point. Around lunch time on Monday I decided that I did not care if my contractions were consistent, I was miserable and needed to go back to the hospital. We grabbed our bags and headed back to the hospital. I'm not sure I hated Ryan, but I definitely was at a whole new level of grumpy. Ryan called my mom on the way to the hospital. He put her on speaker to talk to me. I told her that I didn't want to hear her voice or listen to anything she had to say.

When we arrived, I was only 2 cm dilated which wasn't really great news. However, my blood pressure was concerning this time around. The nurse did a few labs to make sure things were ok and ultimately decided to keep me. The only major concern was my blood pressure which I'm still guessing was high because of my lack of food and high level of pain. The doctor told me that things were most likely going to take awhile since I wasn't progressing all that much. The first step was to insert Cytotec to ripen my cervix and see what happens from there. I was told at this point that I could only have morphine for pain and would have to wait for the epidural. I didn't really like the idea of morphine... The nurse showed up to insert the Cytotec, but my body had other plans. I had managed to dilate to 4.5 cm and no longer needed the Cytotec. This was a relief because I was also able to get an epidural instead of settling with morphine. Ryan will tell you that once I received an epidural I became an entirely new person. The extreme pain was gone and I suddenly felt pretty confident that I wasn't going to die giving birth to my son.

Side story: The nurse asked if I would allow a nursing student to put in the catheter after I got the epidural. My mom is currently a nursing student, so I didn't feel like I could say no. Everyone has to learn somehow and I couldn't feel anything anyways. The nursing student came into the room looking terrified with her instructor. The instructor walked her through the process and told her she could start the process. The student looks at the instructor and says, "Wait. What hole is it suppose to go in?"

After the epidural, my body was able to relax and things really started to speed up. I was pretty satisfied watching my contractions on the monitor without feeling them. My contractions were never consistent the second time around. The doctor said I would not need Pitocin because my body was doing exactly what it needed to do to get this baby out. The doctor came in to break my water around 8 cm. This is where things got temporarily crazy. The baby decided that he didn't like his swimming pool disappearing and his heart rate dropped. Suddenly the room went from 1-2 nurses to 8 nurse and the doctor. Everyone was watching the monitors. They were repositioning my body trying to get the baby's heart rate to stabilize. It was pretty scary for awhile, but the doctor kept reassuring me that my baby was going to be ok. Eventually an oxygen mask and increased fluids helped the baby stay happy for a few more hours until he was officially ready to exit. I was still pretty nervous at this point, despite the constant reassurance that everything was fine. The nurse was checking on me pretty frequently, but I still had Ryan give me another blessing for comfort.

A few hours later it was time to push. My nurse was the perfect birth coach. I honestly don't think I could have gotten through it without her (and Ryan, too). I made sure I cut back on the epidural when it was close to pushing time. I wanted to be able to feel the pressure, but not the pain to speed things up. I pushed for about an hour throwing up a few times along the way. On March 28, 2017 at 6:31 am, Dalton Thomas was born weighing 6 lbs 5 oz and measuring 19.5 inches. He was immediately placed on my chest and the first thing I noticed was his cute little ears that look just like his dad. I know that seems strange, but I actually didn't get to see his face for a few minutes... Ryan and I have a running joke about who's ears are genetically better. Dalton had some problems with low blood sugar and body temperature, but that was all worked out within the first 24 hours of birth. He had to spend a few hours sleeping under a heat lamp and drinking some formula.

Overall, I'd say that my labor and delivery experience were WAY easier than puking for the entire pregnancy. Ryan was great at supporting me during the entire pregnancy and birth process. He is also an excellent dad to Dalton and I love watching him in this new role. Gracie is still unsure about her "big sister" role, but she is very sweet to the baby. She always checks on him if he is crying, but seems to disappear if he is making too much noise. Dalton is the perfect addition to our little family. We definitely feel blessed to have him in our lives and can't believe that its been an entire month since his birth.