Ian Dwight's Birth Story

I'm finally in a moment where I can write up the story for you! Wow! So many of us having babies and so many more to come! Hard to believe (especially because a bit over a week ago I was complaining that nothing was happening with me! )

Ian Dwight was born on 1/31 at 8:31 pm (mountain time). He was 7 lbs and 12 oz. 20 1/4 inches long. Full head of hair and cute, cute, cute.

Last Sunday, I had my final day on my job in the am and had had no signs of labor. I was pretty sure I'd go over my due date of Feb 4. At 5 I was napping when I noticed a bit of a pain in my back. I looked at the time. 12 minutes later it happened again. I figured it was early labor or Braxton Hicks, took and bath and it stopped. I ate dinner, watched some tv and figured we would wait even more. at 9:00 I went to bed and immediately the labor started hard and fast...... and in my lower back solely.

It was agonizing and I said to DH, "If this is early labor, I can't do this naturally like we planned." The thing about labor I learned (among many) is that time gets warped and so I labored in this way until 2, when my doula showed up. Contractions started at 10 mins apart, jumped to 3, then jumped to continuous, just to jump back to about 4. By the time my doula came, they were averaging 4. While she was here I lost my plug (bloody show) and we think I had a high leak.

By 3:30 I was at the hospital. They checked me at a 6 (which incidentally was the earliest and farthest along of 6 women who would deliver on Monday). I continued to labor naturally even though it was back labor and pure agony.... seriously. That stuff is evil.

I was also dealing with nausea and vomiting at each contraction. When it reached it's peak, I'd throw up or spit up- lovely huh?

At around 7 a.m. I was only 7 cm. And I needed something to take the edge off so I got Fentenyl (sp?) which helped just take the back pain down from a 9-10 to 8-9, but only lasted about 20 mins.

Nothing my doula, the nurses, my husband or anyone could do would relieve the back pain. It was so hard.

Finally, a nurse checked me and said I was ready to push- yay! So for an hour I pushed and pushed and nothing happened, except more back labor and more frustration and exhaustion.

My doctor (who had 4 other patients that day) came in and checked me again and declared that I needed to stop pushing because there was still a cervical lip and I was at 9.5 cm not 10 and it was swollen and I was risking a c-section if I didn't stop. But try telling a body in pushing gear to stop! I couldn't. So it was decided I would get an epidural, despite my desire to do this naturally. While waiting for the epi, my water broke.

The epi was wonderful, and allowed my body to rest for about 4-5 hours, letting the swelling go down. But it wore off near the end of that time as I reached 10 cm and pushing.

So the back labor started up again and it was time to push. But my baby's big head (14.5 inches!) wouldn't make it past my pubic bone. I pushed nearly 4 hours and was again threatening a c-section. I finally took charge and got into my own position (despite the protests of the nurse) and that's when I got him to move.

At 23.5 hours, Ian was born. And I bawled. I guess DH did too, but I don't remember. And my doula and photographer cried. Check out "realphotography (dot) you know what (backslash) blog." Scroll down to his entry (Ian Dwight) and you'll see a few pictures of my boy) and I think even my doctor cried. The nurses (we went through 3 shifts, by the way) cried. And Ian was purple until they gave him oxygen and he grabbed DH finger and he was wonderful and beautiful and really slimy all at once. And we were even more in love than before.

I was anemic going into birth and am still so that's a struggle still. Plus I needed lots of help after the back labor and birth so we were in the hospital for awhile. Ian had some latching problems and he just had a couple stressful days of lack of nutrition due to his struggle but we are getting back in track.

I'm overwhelmed and happy and tired and totally unsure of anything I'm doing, but he's here. And we are amazed.

Thanks to all of you for your support during this pregnancy! Love you all!