Wil's Birth Story

Epidurals are a wonderful thing...I didn't get one.

That is what I will remember forever about Wil's birth...my lack of epidural.

But I'm getting a head of myself here.

William was due to be born on December 15th 2009 (according to the ultrasound) December 17th (according to my dates). Both days came and went without a sign of labor coming. I had two membrane sweeps, one a week before my due date, and one on the 16th. Neither brought labor on. I was getting really quite frustrated as I didn't want to be in the Hospital for the Holidays. I have a 4.5 year old that would really be sad if Mommy wasn't there to see what Santa brought for him.

Jump to December 21st.

Ben woke up crying around 6:30am because he had had a nightmare. He didn't want to talk about it cause it was too sad. I calmed him down and he went back to sleep. 6:30am is a little too early for us, we're NOT morning people. For some reason, this morning I decided to stay up rather than go back to bed. Not sure why, I just did. I sat in front of the TV for a few hours watching A Baby Story and a few other baby shows. At 9:10am the phone rang. It came up Unknown Name, so I didn't answer it (I screen my calls). At 9:12 the cell phone rang...that's when I knew that December 21st was going to be Wil's Birthday. I answered the phone and was told to come in as soon as I could if I wanted to be induced. And I soooo wanted it.

I woke DH and Ben up, told them to get ready, it was time to go. Within an hour we had dropped Ben of at G-Ma's and we were sitting in a delivery room of our local Hospital. After all the fun paperwork (though not that much, we live in Canada) the Doctor came in to examine me. According to him I was about 2cm. He broke my waters to see if labor would come on it's own.

It didn't.

We waited until shortly after 2pm and nothing happened at all, not even a contraction. So the wonderful Nurse that I had (She really was perfect) called the Doctor and he ordered the oxytocin. That started somewhere between 2 and 3pm. Slowly I started getting contractions. They really weren't that bad to start, but I went into this labor knowing that I wanted an epidural. It was actually one of the first things that I said to my Nurse...the exact words were "And I'm all about the Epidural." DH tried to tell me not to get too upset if I couldn't have one, but In my head I was thinking "what would stop me, I didn't have any problems having one with Ben."

Well, a bad car accident is what stopped me.

The anesthesiologist was in my room, we had the needle in my back, it was all hooked up and the test shot in when he got the call. The call that took him away from me to help save the lives of those unfortunate people in the crash. He said he'd try to get back as soon as he could to hook me up to the meds. At that point I was in A LOT of pain, but I figured 30 min maybe an hour and he'd be back...

He wasn't.

All I remember from that point on is the nurses giving me some meds through my IV. I can't remember the name of them right now, but they really didn't do much anyway...just kinda made my head a little faded. They gave me 3 shots of these meds and then gave up...they really weren't helping. So the Nurse decided to check to see how far I had progressed. That was close to 7pm, because she was saying that her shift was almost over and she was hoping that I would have the baby before she left.

I had gone from 5cm to 10cm in an hour, maybe an hour and half. It was time to push and still no Anesthesiologist. And it was too late now anyway...baby was coming.

Now before I go any farther I have to tell you that about Ben's birth. With him I did have the epidural and they had it turned way up. I felt nothing...not a contraction, not a pain, not even the urge to bare down. So going into this birth with no epidural was almost like doing it for the first time...I had no idea what I was in for.

So, back to the pushing.

Pushing is way better than just trying to get through the contractions. There was a purpose, and it didn't hurt near as bad as the contractions on their own. I think I did ok at the pushing. It seemed to be effective as I only had to push for a little over an hour. I didn't scream (according to DH and MIL) and I only cursed once out loud ( a whole lot more in my head). Time completely escaped me. As I said before I pushed for a little over an hour, but when I try to think back now I don't remember an hour going by, all I remember is Wil's head crowning and trying to wait for that last contraction. It seems like forever. All I wanted was to get this child's head out of my you know where and that contraction just wouldn't come.

When it finally did come, out Wil came, at 8:22pm. And you know what is really amazing? The Pain Was Gone! Instantly, just like that...

Now, for the last month of my pregnancy, I've said this baby was going to be BIG. I could just feel it. Literally. Many people guessed a few ounces bigger than my first (8lbs) but I knew Wil was going to be a big boy.

He weighed in at 9lbs 11oz!!