Well here comes the birth story. This is going to be my personal record of it, so it's going to be the long version. Also, I've been told all my life I sometimes share too much information and don't use my "filter". Welllll, I don't want to filter this post, so I'm gonna share all the gross details I want and not even feel bad about it! So there's your warning!
Quinton's due date was November 20th, about a week before Thanksgiving. At my 39 week appointment (on November 13th) we decided to "strip my membranes" to help move things along. Well if you don't know what that means, you're not alone. I didn't either. I guess it's when the doctor separates the amniotic sac from the bottom of the uterus. I had heard it hurt so I was kind of nervous, but I wanted to do all that I could do to get him here a little sooner so we didn't ruin peoples plans. Much to my surprise, didn't seem to hurt me at all, and I was then sent on my way.
That night I went to Target to get out of the house and to walk as much as I could to try to help induce labor. And thennnnn, I convinced Connor that night to go on a nice long walk with me before bed. Felt good and tiring, but nothing happened. So, we came home, hung out for a bit and went to bed.
At 1:23am I was awakened suddenly with a weird feeling. I layed there for a second and slowly moved one leg. Suddenly I felt a slow leakage of some fluid. I quickly jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. I knew I my water had just broke!!!! I was sitting in there FREAKING out! My face turned bright red and I started to breath fast. I wasn't sure if I was ready!! But ready or not, this baby was coming!!! I got the leaking under control enough to go wake Connor up. I was standing at the bottom of the bed and said "hey honey....I'm pretty sure my water just broke." He opened his eyes real big and said, "ARE YOU SURE?!" We then began to finish getting our bag together and I called my mom and Connor's mom to tell them we were headed to the Hospital.
If you would have asked me if I thought my water would break naturally, I would have told you "no way jose." And let me tell you what! Its kinda gross. I couldn't seem to gain control over this leakage!! I wont gross you out more than that, but goooodness gracious. After we were checked into the Hospital the nurse came to test the fluid and make sure it was actually amniotic fluid. She got all of her stuff ready and as soon as she saw how much I had, she was like OOO yeah, that's your amniotic fluid alright! haha and started laughing and decided there was no need for the test. I swear I had gallons surrounding this kid. Probably broke some kind of record.
We got all checked into the Hospital and since my body was going into labor on its own they just waited to see how fast things would progress on their own. That allowed Connor and me to actually be able to take a nap. The contractions were starting to get pretty uncomfortable when they told me the anesthesiologist was available, so if I would like to get the epidural right then, I could. Soooo I did. I decided, if I KNEW I was going to get one, then why wait through all this pain? So I got one when I was only 3 cm dilated. I got checked again at 1:00pm and I was STILL dilated at a 3. Now remember, I came into the hospital at about 2:30
AM!!!! My body was taking forever!!! By this time my doctor was back on for his shift and came to check on me. He noticed that part of the sac was still really full and Quinton's head was blocking it, so during one of the contractions he popped it. Which meant, MORE amniotic fluid EVERYWHERE. He said that that was keeping his head from moving down and things would start to move along a lot faster now. In the meantime they had been pumping the pitocin into me like nobodys business.
I remember I was talking to my mom on the phone (who was on her way from Idaho) when the labor really started to get hard. My body would start shaking, and in the beginning, I could kind of calm my body down and stop them. But by this time, I couldn't control them anymore and my body was shaking uncontrollably. The nurse said that can happen sometimes during hard labor. I can't really remember the order of some things during this time, but during the hard labor, I threw up SEVERAL times, had a high fever and had to wear an oxygen mask. I always expected labor to be painful, but goodness, this was pretty unpleasant. I remember telling Connor that "this wasn't fun anymore and want to be done".
Throughout the entire pregnancy I could feel Quinton tucked on my right side. So, during labor he was still there, which meant, I had to lay on that side to keep track of the baby's heart beat. I remember I wanted to turn over sooo badly. Not to mention the epidural was making my right side pretty numb and I could feel everything on my left. Also, I'm no expert on delivering babies, but I kept telling Connor I didn't think the epidural was working very well. And the nurse would say, "trust me, you'd be in a lot more pain if it wasn't" Which made me want to punch the nurse in the face right then and there. The problem was, I didn't know if I wanted them to come give me more and become COMPLETELY numb for when it was time to push, but gosh, more relief would have been nice!
Again, I can't remember the order but at about 3:45pm I was finally dilated to a 9. Sometime around this time the anesthesiologist came back and gave me a higher dose. I wanted to be able to feel at the end but I was hurting sooo badly. I can't remember if I eventually said yes, or if I groaned loud enough during a contraction that he did give me a bit more. Also, around this time they were really worrying about infection because my water had been broken for so long and my high temperature. They also discovered the baby was turned a little funny, so I had to lay on my side with a leg up for a while to help the baby turn. They also had to put some amniotic fluid BACK IN to help keep the baby's temperature down. FINALLY, the doctor finally came in a little after 5pm to check everything out. At this point I KNEW I had better be at a 10 because I WAS READY TO GO!!!! I was, he said the best words I had heard all day!! It's time to push!!! Before we started, the Doctor told me that because of the worry about infection, the baby's heart rate, and because meconium had been passed, the NICU doctors would be there during delivery and he would have to cut the umbilical cord instead of Connor to get Quinton to the NICU doctors as fast as he could. I think I was in too much pain to really realize the seriousness of the situation. I just agreed and was ready to push. It was GAME TIME! Now if you can believe it or not, that extra bit of epidural kicked in right before my first push. I couldn't feel that pushing urgency anymore. I was pretty ticked at the timing but maybe it was a blessing to not feel all that pain. After a few series of pushing, the Doctor told me they were going to have to use the vacuum because they needed to get Quinton out as fast as possible. I understood and with one last push, he came!! 5:30 pm my beautiful baby Quinton was born into this world!
Quinton was handed over to the NICU doctors right away. They began doing all of their initial newborn testing. Quinton only passed 2/10. He wasn't breathing and had to be resuscitated by the doctors. The doctor was stiching me back up and I didn't realize what was going on with Quinton. Connor on the other hand was standing there all alone watching our little baby have a really hard first couple of minutes. Slowly, but finally, Quinton passed all of the initial tests and weighed and measued him then finally gave him to Connor. Our little "mini Connor" was PERFECT!!
Right after delivery, puffy face and all!
Q had to stay naked to be on the lights. He didn't seem to mind.
Just a few hours before he was taken to the NICU
