Shana's Update: Birthing Story

Sorry it has been a while since I have updated. Josh has done really well though with keeping you up to date with pictures and such.

Some of you might be curious how the birth went. Well here it goes.

Labor started Friday night at 10pm. I called Dean and Judy around 2am to let them know this was the real thing, and they packed up and headed our way. Not to long after that Andy and Caitlin headed here as well. We checked into the hospital for the first time Saturday morning around 3am. My contractions were 1 minute apart lasting almost 2 minutes. Since I have Group B Strep, we didn't know how long it would be till Truett would enter the world so we went to the hospital so that I could get on antibiotics. Well, once at the hospital, the first time, my contractions slowed down. They sent us home to labor some more. We came home Josh napped I tried to nap in between contractions. We took the dogs for a walk and kind of got ready again. We returned to the hospital the 2nd time Saturday around 11 or 12 in the afternoon. (Exact times start to get a little fuzzy for me, please forgive me.) They checked me in and I got a room. From then on we continued to labor through the day and into the night. I labored in the big bath tubs and labored mostly on either my hands and knees or bend over my bed. Josh's role was to apply pressure to my lower back and hips every contraction. Needless to say he got a really good work out,

FInally around 7pm we got to our first pushing point, so we thought. There was some miscommunication looking back because Josh and I could have sworn we were told I was 10 cm, but later after speaking to my midwife after the fact she says I was not a full 10cm. I was well over 9, but not a full 10. Well, I started pushing and that is a no no. We both knew that from all that we learned in our Bradley class. Well, I ended up swelling my cervix because I was pushing before my body was ready and digressed to 7cm. All while my contractions kept coming harder and stronger than ever. What did we need to do, we needed to rest in order for my cervix to come back down and redialate. Well, Jesse (my midwife) said we need to talk pain killers. We started just with the iv pain killers, but those did nothing really. They knocked me out in between contractions, but it was like being woken up to a stabbing every time I got a contraction. It was horrible. So, we did that for about 2 hours I think. It wasn't working. My cervix wasn't getting any better nor was I dialating. At this point I was in way more pain and resting was out of the question. It came down to focusing on a vaginal birth. Jesse said we need to get an epidural so you can rest. About at this point I had lost all mental capacity pretty much and Josh was making executive decisions on my behalf. He did everything right, and took very good care of me. He was super nervous that I would hate that I had given into the epidural once it was all over, but after educating ourselves with the Bradley class we knew there weren't any other options. So, with that said I am at peace. Now, when they came to give me the epidural I freaked out. Some of you who know me know that I was freaked out by this procedure. Well, that didn't make it less scary for me to get it. I was having incredible contractions on top of each other and they were telling me to hold still. All while all the side effects and negative stuff about epidurals is running through my head I am screaming out to my body hold still. Soon after receiving the epidural I was able to rest. The nurses came in every 30 minute to roll me over on my opposite sides so that my cervix could come back down. By 2amish Sunday I was redialated to a full 10cm and my cervix had gone back down and Truett was ready to come out.

My epidural was starting to ware off by now, which for me was fabulous. I had feeling in my legs and could move them and I could feel Truett making his decent. I know now too having pushed with the epidural that I wasn't pushing correctly the first time either. What a rookie right :) After about an hour of pushing Truett came flying out. It was a pretty awe struck moment. In which our camera got broken, o well. I had no tearing thanks to my fabulous nurse Val who messaged me the entire time.

Clark hospital was absolutely awesome. My nurses in the labor and delivery were outstanding. One stayed with me for a whooping 16 hours. That was Shirley, amazing. I can't believe that is what they do everyday for a living. Holy cow. They were really amazing. So after about 30 hours total labor time Truett Dean came into this world.

I can't believe how amazing it is to have him here in our lives. Way more then I could ever have imagined. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.