Tucker’s Birth Story

our little boy's first picture

According to my LMP our due date for our son was May 23, 2009. However, once we had our first ultrasound (at 6 weeks and 4 days) and the tech did the measurements it was determined that our due date was May 31, 2009.

With that said, we were eagerly anticipating the end of May. I was ready to be done with being sick, and exhausted, and in the hospital all the time. And we were more than ready to meet our son! His room was all ready, clothes all washed and hung up, and I did a lot of nesting. 🙂 The day before my due date was quite “uneventful” (in the baby department). In fact, there was nothing happening that day so my husband and I and my best friend went to a baseball game that evening! I was quite uncomfortable because we had to sit on the grass because the seats were all sold out. ugh. After the game we all went to Denny’s and I ordered spicy buffalo chicken (hoping that the spicy food might start something, haha). Well, May 31st came and went. No baby yet. On Monday, June 1 I went swimming with my best friend while my hubby was at work. All of a sudden I got a very sharp pain in my stomach. The only time it felt a little bit better was when I was in the water. June 2 I spent a lot of time in the pool trying to relieve the pain. That night we went out to Copper River Grill to celebrate my mom’s birthday. All the while I was in extreme pain. BUT no contractions. Just constant pain. On Wednesday, June 3 we had an OB appointment. I told the doctor that I was in a lot of pain and she checked me and I was at 1 cm. She went ahead and sent me straight to Labor and Delivery at the hospital (which is in the same parking lot, thankfully). I was checked in and put on the monitor. No contractions. Just pain which no one could explain. The doctor came in that night and told me that since I was already there they could go ahead and induce me in the morning to make it more convenient for them…uh… I mean me. Since I was in so much pain I told them to go ahead with the induction. I had NO idea what I had just agreed to. I will never make that mistake again. The doctor’s reasoning was that if my original due date was correct than I would be 1 week and 5 days overdue. However, according the due date that we had been going by for 8 months said I was only 4 days overdue. (Again, my pain took over and I just let the doctors have their way). That night (June 3) the nurse inserted the Cervidil probably around 8 or 9pm. That is used to “ripen” a “nonfavorable cervix” (which mine was). The next morning I was given the Oxytocin/Pitocin in my IV and the induction officially started at 7:51am. By 9:30am I was at station  -3, 80% effaced and 2 cm dilated. By almost 1pm I was still only between 2.5 and 3cm and the baby hadn’t moved from station -3. The pain from the extra-strong, unnatural, Pitocin-induced contractions was quite intense. I did ok with the Stadol and Phenergan for several hours. I never remember asking for an Epidural but the doctor came in and told me they would put one in for me and since I was half asleep (thanks to Stadol) I guess I agreed. However, I did remember from our 4 week childbirth class that my husband and I had taken together in March that I wasn’t supposed to be getting an epidural until 4 cm. But, again, I just kept my mouth shut. Around 1:15pm the epidural was in place, I barely reached 3 cm, and I was having a good pattern of regular contractions. That’s when the doctor started talking c-section. They said they would give me a couple more hours to see if I would progress at all. So around 3pm the Dr. Delahunty came in and gave me the option of a second day induction or a c-section. He said that a second day induction would involve removing my epidural and starting all over again the next day (Cervidil, Pitocin, Epidural, etc.). He said that there was a very high chance that it still wouldn’t be successful. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to wait any longer so I chose a c-section. I remember being disappointed but at the same time I didn’t know what else to do. I think they took me to the OR around 3:30pm. It was miserable. I was freezing cold, they locked my legs and arms down so I couldn’t move, and the nurse kept asking “can you feel that this is cold?” as she moved a cold, wet rag, all over my stomach, chest, etc. I kept saying “yes” because I was terrified that I would be able to feel the doctor cut me open and the nurse kept upping the medicine. I was crying and repeatedly asking for my husband. They didn’t let him into the room until almost 4:15pm so I was by myself for 45 minutes, cold, scared, confused, and basically terrified out of my mind. The doctor had already made the incision by the time the nurses let my husband in the room (I was quite mad about that). My sweet hubby sat by my side, did not stand up to see me cut open, and he held 2 cell phones that were on speaker phone. One phone had my mom and best friend on the other end, the other phone had my mother-in-law and brother-in-law on the other end. At one point I started yelling because of the extreme pushing and pressure that one doctor was applying to my stomach. The other doctor made us hang up the phones for a couple of minutes. Thankfully, we were able to call our moms back and at 4:25pm our little son entered the world. The doctor held him up for me to see (over the blue curtain) and all I thought was “Oh, he’s so cute!” Then my hubby got up, walked over to Tucker and said, “Hi, little buddy” and stayed with our son while I was sewn up and stapled back together for about 30-45 minutes. Our little bundle of joy was 8 lbs. and 11 oz. and 21 inches long (born on June 4). I was sad that I missed out on the first hour of my son’s life and was even more sad that we didn’t get to bond or breastfeed for quite some time. We left the hospital to take our little son home on Sunday, June 7 after being in the hospital for 5 days! The c-section recovery was AWFUL. Extreme pain for 2 weeks and I couldn’t laugh, cough, hiccup, sneeze, take a bath, drive, or bend over during that time. I could hardly even get into the bed. Thankfully, the pain eventually went away. I never want to have another c-section again. But of course, I’m thankful for my healthy, perfect, and happy little boy.