Mom: Karen
Baby: Chris
Born: April 11, 1998
Time: 4:24 am
Weight: 8 lbs. 10 oz.
Length: 19 1/2 inches
Birth: Epidural and forcepts, attended by dh and doula.
Chris was born at 4:24 am on Saturday 4/11. He weighed 8lbs 10 oz. at birth and is 19 1/2 inches long. Chris and I went through a lot to get him here.
Friday morning at 6:45am my water broke at work (yes... at work). I called DH to come get me and he decided he had time to take care of a few things before he left the house. He finally arrived at my work at 8:10 and we went to the hospital. My labor did not start and I was only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced so they decided to induce labor. At first labor wasn't so bad. I had a little bit of cramping but not much. By 7:00 in the evening I was in excrusiatingly bad back labor. It was so bad that I kept throwing up and at that point I had only dilated to 4 cm. My doctor and I decided that I needed to have an epidural if I were going to be able to relax and rest enough to push. My doctor also thought that the epidural would help my labor progress, which it did. I had the epidural at about 7:20 and by 8:30 I had progressed from 4 cm to 7 cm. By 1:00am I was ready to push. I pushed for three hours but Chris got stuck and wouldn't budge. My doctor said that she felt he would move if she nudged him with forceps. At 3:50am, they wheeled me from the LDR room into a delievery room. DH and my doula were told to get into scrubs and a nurse would be back for them. In the delivery room, they increased the amount of medicine in my epidural. DH and Helen, my doula showed up and we were ready to try to get the little guy out. The doctor put the forceps in and used them to guide Chris down. I pushed twice with the forceps and then she took them out. On the next contraction, I pushed and Chris came right out. He just needed a little nudging. He was so awake and alert right after birth. I fell in love with him the moment I saw him. DH and I are at home now and everyone seems to be doing well. I ended up with a fourth degree laceration (stiches from vagina to rectum) but the soreness is slowly going away and I am feeling good. The truth is, all that I went through was well worth it to have this little guy in my life. I can't imagine ever being without him.
-Karen