I love reading everyone's birth stories. They are all so unique and different. So I thought I would share mine if there is anyone who likes to read them like me. :)
This pregnancy went fairly smoothly for me. They kept a much closer eye on me since I had preeclampsia with Bentley. I didn't get preeclampsia again with this one, but I did develop a condition called gestational thrombocytopenia. Pretty much this means that while I am pregnant my platelets drop so they have to keep a really close eye on me because if they dropped too low I could bleed to death because my blood wouldn't be able to clot. So for about the last 8 weeks of pregnancy I was going into the dr every week and getting my blood drawn to keep an eye on it. Come to find out, I had this same condition with Bentley but it was masked by the preeclampsia so I will more than likely get it with every pregnancy and they said it will probably get worse with every pregnancy because of the antibodies I have built up.
At my 37 week appointment I was dilated to a 1 and was having fairly regular contractions. The next week still a 1.... The next week still a 1.... So I was kind of at a stand still but at my 39 week appointment I got the news that my platelets had taken a significant drop that week, and I was also measuring smaller than I should have been, so Dr Cox and I decided it was better to just induce me than to have me come in every day and get tested. Dr Cox decided we might as well do it that night, November 18. So I was sent to do a NST and then had to get home to pack and get everything ready.
I called the hospital at 5:30 and they were packed so they said they would call back when they had a bed open up. That was the longest wait of my life! They finally called at 10:30 and told us to come up. We got there and it took forever to get things moving. They had to run a bunch of blood tests on me before they could induce me and it seems like everything takes 10 times longer than it should at the hospital. They finally started the cytotek at 12:30.
Of course they tell you to get some rest and that never happens. I was so anxious and having contractions and I was hooked up to too many machines... Josh on the other had slept pretty soundly :P
At 4:30 they came to check me and I was dilated to a 3 but I was still really high and not effaced at all so they decided to give me one more cytotek. So far this induction went much smoother than when I had Bentley. I didn't really start getting painful contractions until about 5:30. That is when things really started rolling. At about 6 I asked for the epidural. Because of my condition they have to be really careful when placing an epidural because I could bleed internally so they had to triple check that all my numbers were in the safe zone and then of course there was a shift change in the midst of all this and so the guy didn't come in to give me the epidural until 6:30.
At this point if I had known how dilated I was I would have just skipped the epidural but the nurse didn't check me since I had just been checked at 4:30 and she figured I was only probably at a 4 or 5. Come to find out, after he finally got the epidural placed at about 6:45 I was dilated to an 8. So the nurse went to go call my dr to let him know he should probably start heading over. While she was gone I started to get the urge to push. I was freaking out at this point because my body was pushing whether I wanted it to or not and there was no nurse or dr in the room. I was seriously panicking and screaming for a dr to get in my room. I guess the nurse was in the hall panicking as well because she did not want to deliver this baby and she was frantically searching for any dr she could find in the hospital.
She finally found a resident and he got there just in time. My water didn't break until right before I started pushing. About 4 pushes later and he was out! It is crazy to me how much that pushing instinct takes over. Your whole body somehow knows exactly what to do and I get it done. I could never be one to push for hours on end. Gage was born at 7:04 am on November 19, 2014. Dr Cox ran into the room with dripping wet hair just as Gage was coming out. By the end of it all I had about 4 doctors (they all were paged to my room when the nurse was freaking out and they all got there when it was too late) and 6 nurses in my room so it was pretty chaotic. Of course it takes about 15 minutes for your epidural to start kicking in and even longer for it to be completely in effect so I felt everything. And then after he was born I was nice and numb which was awful.
So for me it went super fast considering I didn't really start getting painful contractions until 5:30 and then having him at 7:04. Next time I am just skipping the epidural because it was not even worth it. My labors just go way too fast from the time I start into active labor.
We decided to name him Gage Wheatley Hall. Wheatley is actually Josh's middle name and his mom's maiden name so in a way we were naming him after Josh. He weighed 7lbs even and was 20.5 in long. He is perfect and we love him so much!
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| My last belly shot, 39 weeks |
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| Proud grandma |
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| He had the chunkiest little cheeks when he was born they have since gone down but they were just so squishy! |
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| Josh is such a great dad! |
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| Aunt Melissa |
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| Uncle Michael - He said something to the effect of I have never held a baby that was only a couple hours old before! |
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| Feeling really good. This recovery went much better than with Bentley. |
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| Uncle Steven and Big Brother Bentley. Bentley loves him. Every morning when he wakes up he wants to see brother, which sounds more like "bubba" but it is really cute. |
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| All ready to go home. |
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| Bentley loves to hold him! Grandma got them matching outfits for when we came home from the hospital. |
