The Birth Day

Here he is! Doesn't he look so long in this picture?

Just moments after he was born

My midwife Angela who was there for it all
The sweet nurse Lindsey who stayed with us all night, such a sweet nurse!

One proud dad

One proud grandpa

My little monkey

At Boulder Community Foothills Hospital they only use cloth diapers so that's why it's so big on him.

Our view from our hospital room

So I think I'm ready to share my birth story now. It has taken me two weeks to grieve how it all happened but I'm starting to accept it and know that God was in control and this was His plan for how Owen was to enter this world. This is very long and mostly for my memories so feel free to skip over it if you want.

On Tuesday, November 10th my water broke at 1:30 a.m. My water never broke ahead of time with either of the girls so this was a different experience for me. I didn't tell anyone until the morning but I was having some contractions. I actually went back to bed and tried to sleep through some of them which I think I did a little. Then I went and told my mom about 6:00 a.m. Everyone got up and got ready as if we were going to leave to go to the hospital any minute. The problem is my contractions slowed way down. I called my midwife and she wanted my contractions closer together and longer so we waited. I had an appointment with my chiropractor for acupuncture to see if that would help my labor get going so I went to that and I think that helped because my contractions after awhile got closer but it still took all day. Between 7 and 8 p.m. they started getting harder and I said I think it's time to go. Steve had taken the girls to our friends house and then we were off to the hospital. The ride to the hospital is around 30-35 minutes and it was awful. My contractions were coming so fast my mom thinks they were 1 minute apart. Steve pulled up to the emergency entrance and we got a wheelchair. I was in bad shape. When the midwife checked me I was at 9 cm. Wow! Almost there right? Wrong! We had called ahead before we left from home to ask for an epidural as soon as I got there because I couldn't handle it anymore. If you know me, I always try to do natural labors and I work very hard trying to do relaxation techniques that they taught me in Bradley Childbirth classes that I took when pregnant with Olivia. The problem is I can never make it to do a natural birth. My labors are very difficult and I can't stick with it. So, got the epidural and then I was at 10 cm. Problem, the station Owen's head was at was a +1. The midwife thought I should rest and see if my uterus could work to bring him down farther so I wouldn't have to push for 3 1/2 hours like I did with Audrey. Well, after 1 hour the epidural started to wear off. They decided to have me push without the epidural so I could feel my pushes and see if he would come down. 45 minutes of pushing, he wouldn't budge. Another 1 1/2 hours and still nothing. At this point, I was exhausted, weak, and emotionally done. I said I couldn't do this any longer and what could we do. The midwife checked with the Dr. on call to see if he was far enough down to use forceps or vacuum which I didn't want these to happen either. The Dr. said he wasn't far enough down. So I said what other options. Either push more and hopefully he would come down or a c-section. I couldn't push more, I had no strength left. I had cried and cried for awhile because I was tired of them saying, "You're doing great!" If I was doing great, he would be out. I was so frustrated. I finally gave in and said I want a c-section. I can't believe I uttered those words because that is the last thing I wanted but I wanted it all to be over. It took a long time to get Owen out because I had so much scar tissue built up from my c-section with Olivia that it took the Dr. forever to remove the scar tissue. The Dr. thought she damaged my bladder and when removing some of the scar tissue on my uterus, she tore a hole in my uterus. They finally got to Owen and I heard the Dr. say that he is really stuck in there. He was posterior which means he was facing the wrong way to come out and his head was twisted funny. Posterior babies are very hard to deliver and his positioning is the reason he wasn't come down into the birth canal. This is what happened with Olivia too except I don't think she was posterior she was just a big girl, 9 lbs. 8 0z., and stuck in there too. Owen was 9 lbs. 7 oz. and the midwife and Dr. think that he might not have been able to come out vaginally. Audrey was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and I was able to do a VBAC with her but she was also 2 lbs. smaller. Not sure how I made two big babies but I had trouble with both of them. No one in Steve's or my family have big babies so what's up with me? Since I've had 2 c-sections, the Dr. said I now have to have only c-sections. Also, I will be high risk because of the tear in my uterus that was repaired. She said that it would be dangerous to go into labor next time so they would schedule a c-section at 38 weeks so that I wouldn't go into labor. We've always wanted to have 4 children but we need to just focus on my recovery and will think about that later. Also, I'm having trouble healing. My incision site was infected and oozing and yesterday they almost scheduled surgery for me again but they were able to get rid of dead tissue in the office and pack the section that won't heal with gauze. It has to be repacked every day for maybe two weeks. So I have a home health nurse coming for the remainder of this week and weekend since the Dr.'s office is closed. I also spent some time in the E.R. last week because I had horrible aches and stiffness in my legs and Steve and my midwife were worried about blood clots so I spent 3 1/2 hours there to find out that my Total CK was high which means I was having muscle breakdown from not moving much since my c-section and all I could do for that was drink lots of fluids and take Ibuprofin. That has slowly gotten better but boy oh boy have I had a tough time with recovery this time. No fun!
I am extremely thankful that it wasn't worse and that Owen and I are alive and he is doing so well. He is such a good baby and I am so thankful for him. The first week I couldn't tell this story without crying but I'm doing a lot better and have to remind myself constantly that this was God's plan for us.