Birth Story - Kim's First Birth

Posted by Kim:

I have been promising my birth stories and after an aggravating, sweaty search for my birth journal I finally found it and will transcribe the words from the actual birth experience. I have been looking for a week and I was starting to get a little sick to my stomach because I thought I had the journal out since we have been in our new house, frankly I felt a little taste of vomit in the back of my throat for every day that went by and I couldn't find it. Never the less, I was successful and without any more pointless details about my search I will get to the story!!!

Look at this picture? If you ever wonder why we "invented" BINSI this is why. To say the least I am not looking like I am ready for the challenges of labor and birth. I look like someone stuffed into a sausage casing. Thank goodness I wore BINSI for my second birth

October 20, 2002

written by Paul (Daddy)

Today is the big day! We arrived at the hospital around 12:15pm to begin inducing the baby. We are inducing the baby because the baby is a little bit smaller than expected, but the baby is healthy [original due date 11/16/02]. The Doctor believes at this point the baby will grow better on the outside than inside [had an amnio the previous week and lungs are developed].

Our first nurse is Polly and she has been wonderful. Our room number is 2010, pretty ironic since today is 10/20, we think it might be a sign that the baby will be born today (so naive we were). Also the Bills are beating the Dolphins 20-10, coincidence? The first thing Polly does is put Kim on the fetal monitor for about an hour while going through the formality of admission paperwork. During the course of conversation we find out that Polly is from Elmira, NY and that Kim and Polly share the same birthday. It seem that everyone has a NY connection.

At approximately 1:30pm Dr Finnegan arrives applies prostin gel to begin inducing the baby. Kim is about 1cm dilated, so we have a ways to go, but almost immediately after the gel is applied, Kim starts to feel cramping. We are also starting to see contractions on the external probe, a good sign. Kim describes the pain as similar to menstral cramps she used to have.

Since our arrival we've been catching up on our NFL action. Unfortunately the hospital does not have the NFL ticket, so we didn't get to watch the Bills today, Kim and baby are disappointed. Dr Finnegan says the head is in position for delivery and that the baby's head is looking in the direction of the football game, must be a football fan!

Amy Jones arrives around 2pm to visit us. Shortly after Amy arrives we go for a walk outside around the hospital. It was a short walk, but it felt good.

The Bills won today 23-10, so maybe its a sign that we're not having a baby today.

After a shift change, a new nurse Kelly, our friends Mark and Becky visit bearing gifts. Becky brought a sleezy sex mag (Cosmo), a baby Magazine (Martha Stewart) and Fortune with an article on Super Dads for me.

Dr Finnegan returned around 7pm to check on Kim's progress. Contractions are still occuring and the baby looks good, so the Dr will not give another dose of prostin gel tonight. Our progress indicates the baby may not come until Tuesday, but he'll re-evaluate on Monday morning.

After the Dr leaves Kim, Amy and I watch Monsters Inc. After the movie I run home to pick up a few things and get some food. As Day 1 comes to a close Kelly is relieved by Missy who will be our nurse throughout the night. I think we were both very anxious for the baby to arrive and with the news it may be Tuesday before baby comes is disappointing. The hospital and nurses are great but I think we'd both like to be home with our new baby!

October 21, 2002

Day 2 starts early with Missy coming in to take vitals every couple of hours, with a pelvic exam around 5am to check Baby T's progress and prepare for Dr Finnegan's first visit. After the prep work for the Dr visit Kim heads for the shower to freshen up. I slept on the sofa bed in the room. It was nive to stay in the hospital, but the comfort could be improved.

written by Kim:

Dr Finnegan stopped by around 8am or so, just before breakfast arrived. I was very hungary and wanted to eat, but didn't get a chance. The cramping from last night's gel had pretty much worn off so he decided to start with gel again today, not pitocin. Dr Finnegan checks my progress and I am 3cm dilated and about 80% effaced. He applies the gel and it seems to instantly spin me into labor. Our nurse today is Stacie and she says that the gel may be enough. I may not need pitocin.

Stacie constantly monitors my progress and I feel the contractions come on strong. They are approximately 2 minutes apart and 45 seconds in length. Stacie checks my progress and vital signs. She can not believe it, I have not dilated that much, but I am 100% effaced. She is going to call Dr Finnegan, it may be time to break my bag of water.

Around 9:15am Dr Finnegan breaks my bag of water and the contractions start to get stronger. He thinks we may have a baby by 4:30pm today. Mean while, throughout the whole labor process Paul has been wonderful! He hasn't even had a chance to shower or anything. He just sits by my side, counts my breathing and holds my hand. After Dr Dinnegan broke my bag of water he had to put the internal fetal monitors on me to check the baby's heart rate and my contractions. For some reason my contractions were not showing up on the monitor. I find this very odd because I know I am having them. The pacement of these monitors restricts where I can go, but that's ok because it seems like lying on my right side makes me feel best any way. Every time I move I throw up! I feel sea-sick.

The contractions keep coming and they are getting stronger. Nurse Char comes in to relieve Stacie so she can go to lunch. Char suggests I try some different positions, maybe this will help. I try sitting in the glider chair, but the rocking really makes me nauseous. Then I try to stand up and lean forward on the bed while Paul rubs my back. While Paul's massage feels great the standing and swaying makes me sick to my stomach again. So I just opt to sit on the bed. The baby's heart rate is best if I just lay on my right side so this is what I do.

The pain is really starting to get intense now. Epidural is running through my mind, but I can do this, I can endure! I will wait until Dr Finnegan comes over on his lunch to check my progress.

Around 12:30pm Dr Finnegan stops in to check my progress. I am only 4cm dilated! 1 cm? How can that be? I don't htink I can do this too much longer [this is where a doula would have intervened]. Stacie said I may need to get pitocin to regulate my contractions. this will probably make them more intense, regular and closer together. UGH!! Call for the epidural. I need it now.

We hear Dr Schneden is the doctor on call and I am nercous about this, but all the nurses say he is the best. At 1pm he starts the process and it takes about 30 minutes to complete, well it would have taken only 20 minutes if he wasn't so concerned about deleting a message on his beeper. By this point I could have picked up his beeper and slammed it on the floor inro 1000 little pieces. But eventually it is placed and the medicine starts to work.

It is amazing what a difference the epidural makes. I can hardly believe it, and I think Paul is pretty amazed too! The break in the action allows him to take a shower. I guess he doesn't want to be in his pajamas when the baby is born.

Around 1:15pm Paul calls Amy to give her an update. Very shortly Amy calls back. She got our message when she was in her car because she was already on her way to the hospital. She was just too excited to stay ay work. It works out well because Paul hasn't had anything for lunch and he asks Amy to stop by Wendy's and pick him up his favorite #2 combo.

Amy arrives around 2pm and Paul goes to eat lunch (switching of the guard)! I tell Amy all about the day and we are chatting when Stacie comes in to check my progress. She can't believe it, I am dilated to 10cm and I can start pushing! It is 2:30pm now and Amy runs out to get Paul and let him know we are going to start pushing. Paul runs into the room he can hardly believe it. In a little over an hour I went from 4cm to 10cm. Stacie says maybe th eepidural helped me to relax.

I begin pushing and it is really nice because it is only Paul, Amy, Stacie and me. The cameras are ready for action and the pushing begins. Soon the warmer comes into the room with our nursery nurse Brenda and Kristi the tech is present as well. A few contractions come, so they tell me, but they don't want me to push because the baby is too close. I have been pushing lying on my right side Stacie is counting and holding my left leg. Amy is cheering me on, but I think Paul is so excited and overwhelmed he forgets about me. He doesn't count, I think he is speechless. Finally Dr Finnegan arrives and he says we need to push him out now or we may need to use the vacuum because the baby's heart rate is going down. Just as he says that I push as hard as I can and out comes the abby. For what seems like an eternity I think "What is it? Boy or Girl?" Finally Dr Finnegan says it is a BOY! I can't believe it, I was so sure it was a girl. Paul was glowing with pride!! It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. Connor was 4 pounds 10 ounces and 18 inches long.

After Connor was born they laid him on my belly and cleaned him off. We had a short time together, but then they took him to the warmer so the nurse could check him out. Of course at this point the only person paying attention to me was Dr Finnegan [again a place where a doula would have made a major difference]. Dr Finnegan said I better get use to it. I don't mind my boy is healthy and beautiful!!!

Connor was induced 5 weeks early due to low in-utero fetal movement. We had been sent to Denver for an amnio and his lungs looked developed and the Dr there said I could either have the baby now or wait a week on bed rest and then induce the labor. Upon Dr Finnegan's recommendation we decided to induce sooner than later (the day of my planned baby shower actually).

While typing these words out I felt tears of joy coming to my eyes thinking about the birth of my first son. While at the same time I feel tears of pain stinging my eyes for the naive choices we made, the lack of knowledge I feel I had going into the birth (we did take a childbirth class), and some mourning for the birth experience I did not get to have, but had been planning all along. I have often wondered why we didn't listen to our friend Chuck when he said "Get a Doula. It's the best investment you will make." While hindsight is 20/20 and I can't change anything about Connor's birth there is a feeling of loss and sadness that I did not accomplish the natural birth I had been wanting. I really think we made the choices we had to at the time and as Carri always says, I have to embrace Connor's story because that is HIS birth story and in the end we have a happy healthy 6 year old now who I adore and is truly one of the lights of my world!

Little did I know that Connor's birth was going to be the easy part. The next two weeks were to be the hardest weeks of my life!

To Be Continued.......