(Obviously, as this is a birth story, there are a lot of gory details. If you don't want to know all the TMI, please consider this your warning and move right along)
My sweet little boy made his way into the world entirely on his own terms. I had a pretty difficult pregnancy, but my labor by comparison was pretty breezy.
In the second half of my pregnancy I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes which was then managed with diet and exercise for the most part. I ended up needing to take Metformin to bring my fasting numbers into the acceptable range. Because of this, my OBGYN wanted to induce labor at 38 weeks. There's an increased risk of placental death with taking medication to manage gestational diabetes and we did not want to take any risks.
I started going to appointments twice a week in mid April for monitoring. A week before my scheduled induction, my OB started performing cervical sweeps to hopefully ease my body into the labor process. After the first sweep, I lost my mucus plug and started to experience more Braxton Hicks contractions. Originally, I was going to work right up until I gave birth, but my doctor and I agreed that it would be prudent for me to begin my leave early.
The day before I was scheduled to be induced, I had one last appointment. By that time, I had dilated to a two on my own and was having regular, nonproductive contractions. Since things had stayed at that same point for a few days, my doctor decided to be more aggressive with the cervical sweeping. My body must have been really ready to go because that was all it took.
I was uncomfortable after my appointment and a little bit crampy but that was par for the course. As the day progressed, the cramping got worse and worse. I spent the entire afternoon with my feet up and drinking water. My husband brought me Freddy's for dinner at my request because I had felt so crummy all day. I had a hotdog and chili cheese fries (this was a decision I almost instantly regretted). About a half hour after we finished eating, I started to experience negative side effects from the Metformin interacting with the chili fries. I think that also accelerated my experience.
After being sick a couple times, my cramps had progressed to being actual contractions. I was starting to freak out. My parents live 12 hours away and were getting ready to drive to be here for the birth and I was starting to feel like they weren't going to get here in time. I took a shower in the vain attempt to slow things down and get my body to relax enough that I would be able to get some sleep.
We went to be at about 10pm on 1 May. I could not get comfortable. The contractions were getting worse and I was starting to feel like they were almost constant. My husband was timing them without me knowing and told me they got to be about two minutes apart and we could not wait any longer to go to the hospital.
We are very blessed to live a total of five minutes from our hospital and we were there at about 11:30pm. We had taken a birth class weeks before which had included a hospital tour so we knew exactly where to go to check in. When we got to Labor and Delivery, I found out I had dilated to a three throughout the course of the day. The nurse had me walk around for two half-hour increments to ensure that my labor was actually progressing enough to admit me.
During this hour, my contractions started to get stronger. The majority of the pain was occurring in my lower spine. By the end of the hour, my legs were starting to go out from under me when contractions would come on. The nurse checked me and I had progressed to a 3.5 during that time. She said they were going to call my doctor (who was, very thankfully, working in the ER that night) to see if he felt I should be admitted. She was back within five minutes to get me in a room. That was about 1am.
Immediately, the nurse had the anesthesiologist come to give me an epidural. Let me tell you. I was worried about getting an epidural because you hear all these horror stories about birth and epidurals. That thing was magical. Typically, I need to watch when I'm being given an injection. It helps me cope with the pain of the needle. Since this was in my back, there was no way for me to watch the injection. The anesthesiologist was a super pro, though, and he talked me through the whole thing. He timed the actual epidural with a contraction so I didn't feel it at all.
While he was working on getting the epidural just right, Rusty held my hand to help me through the contraction pain. The nurse had brought him a chair so that I could look at him and stay in the right position for the epidural. He told me to squeeze his hand as hard as I could to help with the pain. I nearly broke his hand, guys. He still had his wedding ring on and I was squeezing hard enough that it was hurting him. The nurse had to work really hard to open my hands enough to be able to get his ring off and relieve his hands a little bit.
Thankfully, the epidural worked very quickly. Once they had me layed back down, I was able to rest for a few hours. They would come and check my vitals and everything about once an hour to make sure things were still progressing. At about 4:30am, I was dilated to a six and they had my doctor come to break my water. From there, things moved even quicker.
Shortly after 5am, the nurses told me it was time to push. They had Rusty hold one of my legs to help me and the nurse held my other leg. She told me how to push and had me practice a couple times. All of the nurses that helped me said they were impressed with how quickly I picked up on what I needed to do as a first time mom.
After a couple pushes, I started to dry heave. They gave me a bag in case I puked, but all it did was cause the baby to crown. One of the nurses ran to call the doctor in while the other nurse tried to reposition me on my side and told me to take short, shallow breaths and to not push. That was like a bad joke. There's basically nothing you can do to make your body stop once you reach that point. The nurse also gave me some oxygen at this point to help me breath (I barely remember that part though).
Once my doctor came in (thankfully just a minute or two later), it was just a couple more pushes until my beautiful boy entered the world. In every ultrasound we had, our baby had his hand right by his face. Birth was unfortunately no exception. This caused a small, second degree tear which my doctor was able to stitch up with no problem. I think the tear was also caused because of how quickly things progressed but that's just me.
After pushing a total of 30 minutes, I felt every emotion all at once. I was holding my baby and fighting back tears and laughter simultaneously. Rusty cut the cord and the nurses gave our sweet boy a quick wipe down. I just held him for as long as they would let me. I was so tired but so invigorated all at the same time. I fed him and had french toast for the first time in five months. It was beautiful.
Jacob J Sarsozo was born at exactly 5:58am, a mere six and a half hours after I checked into the hospital. He weighed 6lb7oz and was 17 inches long. He had a full head of brown, curly hair. He's got all his fingers and all his toes. And I could not be more in love with him.
In the early afternoon, my parents would arrive in time for JJ's first bath. I so wish that circumstances had been just a smidge different so that my mom could have been there to help me during the birth, but I was so incredibly happy that they were able to be there at all. Plus they brought me a soda and that just sweetened the deal.
Below is the first picture I took of my little family. My two boys. I feel weepy whenever I look at it and I probably always will. There is so much love in this picture. These two are my everything and I don't want to know a world without them. The night of 1 May to 2 May was the hardest night of my life and it was completely worth every second. I have no regrets. Except maybe those chili fries.
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