On Friday, August 19, 2011, I had an OB appointment to check on little baby Jared inside of me. It was with Dr. Jacob who I had a few weeks before and he mentioned that my cervix was such that I could be induced earlier than 41 weeks. We really wanted this because my body seemed to have stalled out and wasn’t going to go into labor naturally. I had been having contractions for a couple weeks, but nothing seemed to be happening. At my previous appointment on Monday with Dr. Broberg I was dilated 3 cm and 80% effaced. Dr. Broberg stripped my membranes just to see what would happen. Immediately after leaving the office I started getting contractions. We went home, ate, and then I felt like going for a walk so we walked a mile around the neighborhood and then walked for at least an hour at the Orem Fitness Center. The contractions were pretty regular and they hurt, but I could handle them. I timed them at about 3 minutes apart. This continued for about 2 hours (I had already been having regular contractions for 4 hours) so we decided to go to the hospital since they had gotten a lot stronger, they just weren't to the point where they hurt so bad that I wanted to die (and the doctors/nurses said to go when they were 3-5 minutes apart).
By the time we got there I was freaked out (I never remember being in a hospital in my whole life) and the contractions really calmed down and weren't very painful at all. They got me all hooked up and checked me again (I was 3+ cm by this point) and said that they would see where I was at an hour from then and go from there. On the monitor it showed I was having contractions every 2 minutes (and a baby that decided to do a kickboxing workout), but after an hour nothing had changed so they offered me morphine (which I didn't want even though they had gotten painful again) and told me to go home and try to sleep and come back in a few hours when they got really painful because "they won't stop if you sleep". Well, we went home, went to bed, but my body really likes to relax and sleep because I woke up the next morning with absolutely no contractions.
This happened again a few times during the week (except the going to the hospital part), but I hadn’t had any regular contractions for a few days. By the time Friday came around, I was 4 cm and 90% effaced. We asked Dr. Jacob when we would get induced if I didn’t go into labor, and he asked if Monday was ok. This was a surprise for us. We knew we wouldn’t have to wait until 41 weeks like most first-time Mom’s but we didn’t realize that they would induce us at just 39 weeks. He stripped my membranes again and hoped that we would go into labor on my own over the weekend, but he also scheduled us to be induced on Monday, August 22. The membrane stripping only produced a few contractions this time and I didn’t have any more contractions over the weekend.
At 5:15 on Monday morning I got a phone call from the hospital asking us to be there at 6:00 am to be induced. We gathered up our stuff (which was really easy since we knew exactly when we were going to the hospital) and headed out to have a baby. We got to the hospital on time and got settled in room 509. We had two wonderful nurses named Jill and Julia. We had lots of paperwork and had to answer tons of questions. They had put on the contraction and baby heart monitors while they were asking questions and pointed out that I was having contractions, although I couldn’t feel them!
They started Pitocin at 7:30 am and within 10 minutes I was having regular contractions every 4-5 minutes, but I still couldn’t feel them! By 9:00 am my contractions were still going strong and very regular, yet I still couldn’t feel them! I was still dilated 4 cm and 90% effaced. At this point Dr. Broberg broke my water. After this I could feel the contractions, although they still weren’t bad, but I got an epidural at 9:30 am anyway. They checked me at 10:30 and I had dilated to 6 cm. I was making progress finally! My body likely stalled out at 4 cm because my water hadn’t broke. About 45 minutes later I noticed that I was starting to feel really fidgety, but I couldn’t do anything about it because my legs were numb due to the epidural. It was quite uncomfortable.
At 11:30 they checked me again and I was 10 cm and complete. The baby was at a +1 station, which is probably why I was so uncomfortable. He was trying to come out on his own! The nurses said they would page the doctor because it was time to push. I was a little scared at this point because I had no idea how to push. Dr. Broberg came in and said that baby’s head was perfectly positioned and just before 12:00 we started pushing. The contractions were about every 2 minutes by this point so there wasn’t much time to catch my breath in between each push, but I pushed as hard as I could. I had to ask the nurses if I was really pushing because I didn’t know if I was doing anything or not. At one point I felt baby Jared pushing against my rib cage with his feet when I pushed as if he was trying to push too. All that time I spent weight-lifting and strength training in high school paid off because at 12:45 pm Jared Matthew Faragher was born. The first words out of the doctor’s mouth were, “Wow! Big baby!” They cleaned him up a little and put this beautiful baby boy on my stomach. I almost cried. After a long 9 months (6 of which I spent throwing up), he was here and he was perfect. He weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces and 20.5 inches long. In a record 3 hours of real labor and a speedy 45 minutes or so of pushing, we finally got to meet our little baby boy.
Sometime after I got my epidural. I didn't sleep well the night before.
Shortly after birth.
First bath in the nursery.
His stats.
Jared and Mommy a few hours after birth. I felt so skinny but I don't look it. I often wonder how he fit in me.
Daddy and Jared in the hospital.
Getting ready to go home in his first outfit.
Jared in his car seat right after getting home.
By the time we got there I was freaked out (I never remember being in a hospital in my whole life) and the contractions really calmed down and weren't very painful at all. They got me all hooked up and checked me again (I was 3+ cm by this point) and said that they would see where I was at an hour from then and go from there. On the monitor it showed I was having contractions every 2 minutes (and a baby that decided to do a kickboxing workout), but after an hour nothing had changed so they offered me morphine (which I didn't want even though they had gotten painful again) and told me to go home and try to sleep and come back in a few hours when they got really painful because "they won't stop if you sleep". Well, we went home, went to bed, but my body really likes to relax and sleep because I woke up the next morning with absolutely no contractions.
This happened again a few times during the week (except the going to the hospital part), but I hadn’t had any regular contractions for a few days. By the time Friday came around, I was 4 cm and 90% effaced. We asked Dr. Jacob when we would get induced if I didn’t go into labor, and he asked if Monday was ok. This was a surprise for us. We knew we wouldn’t have to wait until 41 weeks like most first-time Mom’s but we didn’t realize that they would induce us at just 39 weeks. He stripped my membranes again and hoped that we would go into labor on my own over the weekend, but he also scheduled us to be induced on Monday, August 22. The membrane stripping only produced a few contractions this time and I didn’t have any more contractions over the weekend.
At 5:15 on Monday morning I got a phone call from the hospital asking us to be there at 6:00 am to be induced. We gathered up our stuff (which was really easy since we knew exactly when we were going to the hospital) and headed out to have a baby. We got to the hospital on time and got settled in room 509. We had two wonderful nurses named Jill and Julia. We had lots of paperwork and had to answer tons of questions. They had put on the contraction and baby heart monitors while they were asking questions and pointed out that I was having contractions, although I couldn’t feel them!
They started Pitocin at 7:30 am and within 10 minutes I was having regular contractions every 4-5 minutes, but I still couldn’t feel them! By 9:00 am my contractions were still going strong and very regular, yet I still couldn’t feel them! I was still dilated 4 cm and 90% effaced. At this point Dr. Broberg broke my water. After this I could feel the contractions, although they still weren’t bad, but I got an epidural at 9:30 am anyway. They checked me at 10:30 and I had dilated to 6 cm. I was making progress finally! My body likely stalled out at 4 cm because my water hadn’t broke. About 45 minutes later I noticed that I was starting to feel really fidgety, but I couldn’t do anything about it because my legs were numb due to the epidural. It was quite uncomfortable.
At 11:30 they checked me again and I was 10 cm and complete. The baby was at a +1 station, which is probably why I was so uncomfortable. He was trying to come out on his own! The nurses said they would page the doctor because it was time to push. I was a little scared at this point because I had no idea how to push. Dr. Broberg came in and said that baby’s head was perfectly positioned and just before 12:00 we started pushing. The contractions were about every 2 minutes by this point so there wasn’t much time to catch my breath in between each push, but I pushed as hard as I could. I had to ask the nurses if I was really pushing because I didn’t know if I was doing anything or not. At one point I felt baby Jared pushing against my rib cage with his feet when I pushed as if he was trying to push too. All that time I spent weight-lifting and strength training in high school paid off because at 12:45 pm Jared Matthew Faragher was born. The first words out of the doctor’s mouth were, “Wow! Big baby!” They cleaned him up a little and put this beautiful baby boy on my stomach. I almost cried. After a long 9 months (6 of which I spent throwing up), he was here and he was perfect. He weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces and 20.5 inches long. In a record 3 hours of real labor and a speedy 45 minutes or so of pushing, we finally got to meet our little baby boy.
Sometime after I got my epidural. I didn't sleep well the night before.
Shortly after birth.
First bath in the nursery.
His stats.
Jared and Mommy a few hours after birth. I felt so skinny but I don't look it. I often wonder how he fit in me.
Daddy and Jared in the hospital.
Getting ready to go home in his first outfit.
Jared in his car seat right after getting home.
Congratulations! Sorry you had to be induced, but at least that took some of the waiting away. And he's beautiful. Hope you're getting sleep while at home and adjusting well. Can't wait to meet him!
ReplyDeleteHe is soooooo cute!!! I am so proud of you. Your little family is adorable. I'm so sorry I couldn't make it to the baby shower. Can't wait to see you and him when you're ready. Way to go!
ReplyDelete