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Benjamin Thomas Sex: boy Born: 22 June, 2008 Age: 3 years & 239 days Birthday in: 126 days Starsign: Cancer Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

Birth details

Type of delivery: Vaginal (with pain relief)
Duration of labor: 25 hrs. (active labor)
Weight @ birth: 8 lbs. 5.7 oz.
Length @ birth: 19.75 in.

Benjamin-Thomas`s birthstory

Wow... it was a long road! My contractions actually started Thursday evening and were somewhat irregular... much worse during the night than the day! Go figure! :-) Finally, Saturday evening, we started timing them and they were 8 min. apart. I decided to wait it out for a bit, I did NOT want to be sent home! So around 1 AM I finally called the OB and they told me the hospital was pretty empty, so come on in.

I was 2 cm and 100% effaced when we got there. We were monitored for an hour, then walked an hour and didn`t change much. They said they wanted me to take an ambien to sleep and then be checked, I could go home or stay there until 7 AM and then we`d decide. Well, we live kind of far from the hospital, so we opted to stay, and I`m glad we did! By 7AM I was a loose 4, got my epidural and the midwife broke my water. We progressed really quickly to 8, and then got stuck there for 6 hrs. Meanwhile, the epidural wasn`t working effectively and I really started to struggle, they continued upping the pitocin to try and make my contractions more effective. Finally they had to administer a stronger epidural, and gave me 1 hr. to change or have a c-section. At that point, we had been in active labor for so long they were getting really concerned about my energy levels and the baby continuing to tolerate such a long labor.

Well, an hour later I was 9.5 cm, so the midwife gave me 1 hr. to rest up. I called the nurse back 10 min. later and told her it was time. She looked shocked, but sure enough, I was complete. In spite of the stronger epidural, I could still feel the contractions coming, so we tried a few pushing positions, and then went to town. Approx. 1 exhausting hour later... HE WAS HERE!!! Perfect in every way! We stayed in the hospital for 36 hrs. and then came home... Mommy, Daddy and Baby Ben! :-) We couldn`t be more in love!

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Zoe Grace Sex: girl Born: 02 March, 2010 Age: 1 years & 351 days Birthday in: 14 days Starsign: Pisces Development: See the 23 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

I went in to be induced that morning at 9:30am. We were checked in and got to our room around 10:20. It took 3 nurses to finally get an IV started and they hooked me up to the monitors for about an hour to see if I was having any contractions. Around 11:30 the midwife came in to check me and figure out our plan. I was still 2cm and 80% effaced - which I had been for the past month! So frustrating! Since it was my 2nd baby and I had already started dialating, she wanted to use a cook's catheter to force my cervix to open. It is a cathether you feed into the cervix. One side gets filled up with water on the inside of your cervix and the other balloon is filled up and outside of the cervix. The pressure from the water filled catheter helps the cervix to dialate faster. She told me it falls out once the cervix is dialated to a 4 and she's never seen anyone go farther than a 6 before it fell out. I was fine with that! She also wanted to start with a tiny dose of pitocin. She had a 'feeling' it wasn't going to take much to get me progressing. She wanted a little better feeling about the baby, so another bit of monitoring before inducement was in order. Honestly, I think they were just busy with another delivery and needed to get back, fine by me. I was just happy to be starting the process and having our baby!!! :-)

Around 12:30 she came in and put in the cook's cath. She wanted to let that work a bit and told me the pitocin would be started around 1:00. I was shocked at how much pressure that cath gave! When the nurse came back at 1:00 to start the pitocin, and told me that was totally normal and just meant it was doing it's job. She started me on the smallest possible dose of pitocin and said she'd be back in about 30 minutes. If I needed anything, just push the call button. :-)

I had the most amazing nurse ever! She was in my room a lot, she was so very reassuring and made me feel like she had nothing better to do than help me. I didn't even think to ask her how many other momma's she was helping, because she spent so much time with me it seemed like I was her only patient - although, I do find that hard to believe! At 2:00 the OB came in to see how I was doing. She wanted me to know she had to do a c-section on another patient and knew I had wanted an epidural eventually. She wanted me to have a heads up that it would be 1-2 hours until I'd have another opportunity and she would suggest getting it now if I was really uncomfortable. I had wanted to get to 4cm before getting an epidural, but I was really starting to hurt. I was tolerating the contractions just fine, rocking through most of them, but that darn cath was driving me crazy! The contractions would come and go, the pressure on my cervix did not! And by pressure, I mean highly uncomfortable, painful pressure! So I broke down and asked for the epidural. I wasn't sure I could stand another 2 hours of pressure from the catheter. I was disappointed in myself for giving in, but I wanted my body to have some relief! Within 5 minutes the anastesiologist and nurse were back in my room - made me wonder if they were specifically waiting for me, because they were there awfully fast!

I got into bed, curled up around the tray that goes over the bed with a pillow and got the bp cuff put around my arm. Hubby was on one side, my nurse on the other, the resident at my back and the attending hovering! I was so much more nervous this time! I only had 1 weird sensation, other than that, I really felt very little. The attending started freaking out a little bit - he thought my head was too buried in the pillow and I was so quiet he was afraid I wasn't breathing! My nurse quipped up about how she is obviously not needed and that yes, indeed, I was still breathing and yes, those huge hills were some big contractions. After which my hubby decided to throw in the fact that I am a mute when dealing with pain so with the massive contractions they were watching, they would not hear the matching vocalization of those contractions from me. All of which were true. But my anastesiologist was such a ham and while I was in a good bit of pain and doing my best to remain statuesque through some massive contractions, I was smiling at his antics. Definitely helped to lighten my mood!!!

Toward the end of the epidural the midwife came back in. She joined right in the jovial mood, which I very much appreciated. Unbeknownst to me, I was making quite a bloody mess on the floor so once I was settled back into my bed, she wanted to check me. I was hoping to be at the 4, bit since the cath was still in, I was sure I wasn't and prepared to be disappointed... little did I know! :-) My midwife told me this would be the last uncomfortable check and maybe the cath could come out. I felt the WEIRDEST, warm, watery sensation - not pain persay, just WEIRD - as the pulled the cath right out. She said "whoa, that's a new one" and preceeded to tell me that I was at 7cm!!! WOOHOO!!! I had made it from 2-7 in 1 hour and had been in transition withOUT any pain meds! I was sooooo very proud of myself! The nurse got the instruments ready for delivery because she had a feeling I would be going very quickly once I was complete! I was so excited and proud of myself. The midwife decided to break my water to help bring the baby down. She broke my water and I have never heard such a gush! Unfortunately, there was meconium since I was 6 days past my due date. :-( It was 2:30pm and I was only officially, 90 minutes into my induction and labor.

The next few hours got a little hairy for me. I stopped progressing at 8cm, just like I had the first time. The baby was turned face up and not coming down. Deja vu! :-( Unfortunately, this time, there was another complication. With each contraction, the baby's heartrate started dropping. It always came right back up, but she was NOT happy with the increased contractions. My nurse started checking on me every 15 minutes. They put me on an oxygen mask and were constantly changing my positiong to try and alleviate any unnecessary pressure on the baby and that didn't seem to be helping. They put internal monitors on the baby's head to better assess her. They explained to me that her heartrate was dropping and coming back up and the monitor strips of her heartrate showed a "v". They would begin to be seriously concerned if they started looking like a "u" or had a broader span of time at the bottom. I was discouraged and scared. My room was very quiet and I was just listening to that reassuring heartbeat coming back to normal baseline.

Finally at 6pm - I felt "the urge". After about 5-10 minutes, I finally declared "I have to poop!" They were excited! Everyone (My hubby, mom and sister were with me) wanted to call the nurse, but bless her heart, she was coming every 20 minutes so I said we should just wait for her to come back. Sure enough, she was back 20 minutes later. Walked in the door said "how are we doing?" to which I replied "I need to poo!" She stopped in her tracks and said "are you serious" "yep" "I'll go get Carol" (my midwife). Within 2 minutes, they were back with some big grins. She checked me out and said "Let's have a baby! you're complete!"

She wanted me to try a push before breaking down the bed, calling the NICU/resp Dr's just to see how I did with the pushing and how well she would descend the birth canal being face up. I pulled up my knees and gave her my best push! Suddenly I hear "STOP, STOP, SHE'S COMING!" And orders started flying "get another nurse in here, call the nicu, get the resp team, don't bother with stirrups, her legs are good, just break the bed." the nurse winked at me "told you this would be quick!" Within 5 minutes everyone was there, a fast history was given and we were ready to push! She let me take off the oxygen mask (thank goodness, I do NOT like those things) and I gave a good push. I heard "She's coming, _____, she's coming!" So I started my 2nd push and out she came! She was on my belly and I got to touch her! They took the monitors off her head and my hubby got to cut the cord. After a few short minutes, the nicu took their look and resp team determined she had not aspirated any meconium! She could stay with me!!! :-) She was quickly cleaned up, ID bracelets and alarm on and back in my arms! Since she was breathing well, I even nursed her within that first hour!

I had ripped pretty badly, and the midwife had a lot of sewing to do. Vessels and tissue and lots of clean-up work to be done. She did a great job and all of the damage was on one side of my body - the side her nose was facing since she ended up twisting her way out! Big brother came in to meet his little sister once I was cleaned up and put back together! :-) Then he went home to go to bed and I got to spend about 4 hours with my newborn baby girl before she went to the nursery for her first bath and I ate some food and worked on getting myself out of bed and into the maternity ward.

Our family feels perfect... like we were always meant to be a family of four! :-) --- Still not sure if we'll have more or not, but it feels perfect at this stage in our lives!

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