Samuel Ryan Sex: boy Born: 15 October, 2010 Age: 1 years & 122 days Birthday in: 243 days Starsign: Libra Development: See the 16 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

Birth details

Samuel-Ryan`s birthstory

I started having contractions on Tuesday. By Wednesday evening, I was having regular, real contractions. I went to the hospital Thursday morning and they told me I was only 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced and sent me home until contractions were 5 minutes apart.

Went back Thursday night when they were 5 minutes apart and still not making progress so back home. They gave me an Ambien to sleep (who can sleep when you`re having painful contractions every few minutes) and I sort of did, but mostly not. I was so disappointed and I started to get really scared that I was going to end up having no epidural or end up having a baby somewhere other than the hospital.

Friday morning, contractions were about 8 minutes apart and it was really gettiing old at this point. So DH and I went for a walk at which point I was having more frequent contractions, but they slowed back down to every 6 minutes or so when I sat down. We decided to go into the doctor anyway just to have a cervix check.

Got there and they thought I might be leaking fluid, so they sent me to hospital. They put me in triage and at this point, my contractions were pretty much agony. They did the fluid test and checked and I was 4cm so I begged for an epidural. A couple contractions later my water broke for real (although we found out later that test they ran came back positive so I was already leaking fluid), and they moved me to an L&D room.

I had to wait a bit for epidural b/c they had to do a CBC test first (why didn`t they do this earlier, ugh). I was literally in agony, struggling to breath, and thought I might pass out from the pain. I didn`t originally plan to get pain meds other than an epidural, but I was afraid that baby wouldn`t get oxygen b/c I couldn`t breathe, so I took the pain meds. While it took the edge off the pain, it also knocked me almost all the way out and I regretted doing it.

Not long after that, they came and placed the epidural. Just before that I told them I felt like I needed to push, but one nurse checked and said I was still only 5 cm. I think she was full of crap. They had just finished placing epidural (didn`t even get to put in the catheter) when Sammy`s heart rate dropped below 70 beats per minute. That was soooooo scary and all of a sudden there were a gazillion people in the room and they put me in an oxygen mask. I started to feel numb and tingly from the epidural and I was begging them to just cut me or do whatever it took to save him. The doctor went to put an internal monitor on the baby and his head was right there ready to come out. Three good pushes and he was out and the cord was wrapped around his neck. The NICU folks were there and helped him and he turned out to be just fine.

I arrived at the hospital at 4:30 and gave birth at 6:40, thank goodness we decided to go into the doctor or we might have still been at home when my water broke and been rushing to get to the hospital before I delivered.

We still haven`t been able to get him to latch for breastfeeding and we had to start supplementing formula right away in the hospital because he had low blood sugar and issues with regulating his temperature.

This past week has been more work than I ever imagined, and the birthing pain experience far surpassed my expectations, but it`s all worth it and I`m so in love with my perfect little man.