Ryder's Birth Story

Thursday morning I woke up to find that I was leaking small amounts of fluid. I already had an appointment that day in the afternoon to discuss induction so I figured I would let them decide if it was amniotic fluid or not. I spent that day laying in bed watching tv, not really feeling any sign of oncoming labor. I went to my appointment only to learn that I had a high rupture of membranes. My doctor told us to head on over to the hospital to be monitored and possibly hooked up to Pitocin. Seth and I headed home to get our things and headed to the hospital. I was checked in and had an iv started at 6:00 pm. About 45 minutes later my doctor came in to check me and break the rest of my water. I was only at 2cm dilated so they decided to wait on the Pitocin and see how my body would progress on it's own. After only about 30 minutes I was having such strong and painful contractions. They were coming every 20 to 30 seconds and were very hard to breathe through. After managing the contractions on my own for only a little over an hour, I decided on getting an epidural. For those of you that don't know me, This is the part I have been dreading all pregnancy! At 8:00 pm the anesthesiologist came in. This is where things got very interesting.

Once I sat up on the edge of the bed my body completely took over. I was trying to tell the nurse and Seth what I was feeling, but the nurse just told me it was contractions and nerves. The epidural wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I definitely did NOT feel nothing! Once it was in and I was back to laying down mine and Seth's mothers came into the room. We talked for only about an hour before I had an insane amount of pressure. The nurse came in to check my progress and none of us could believe what had happened. I was a full 10cm and ready to push! Hold the f-ing phone!

--Wait a minute! I am a first time mom! We don't go from 2cm to 10cm in only 2 hours!--

Next thing I know I'm being told how to push and the nurse is counting. It was hard to get the hang of at first, mostly because I couldn't believe it was time already. I pushed for about 30 minutes then the baby's heart rate dropped drastically low. She had me roll onto my side and put an oxygen mask on me. Next thing I know the room is very busy and my doctor is rolling me back onto my back and telling me his head is crowning already. It was at this moment that I realized my epidural was no longer working. I pushed for 15 more minutes and out came a calm tiny baby. I only received a second degree tear (really doesn't feel that bad) and was able to get away with 3 or 4 stitches. Overall it was a very fast, painful experience, but he is so very worth every second of it!