Asher's Birth Story


On Thursday (Thanksgiving), I started having regular contractions around 6:00 PM. This had happened before so I wasn't getting my hopes up. They did seem to get a little closer together and more intense. Around midnight is when I figured that it was probably the real deal. We went to bed at 1:30 and I slept on and off between contractions until 3:30 when I decided I couldn't sleep any more. I got up to use the bathroom and had some bloody show which I knew was a good sign. I let Travis know around 4:00 that I was in labor. We called MIL and our babysitter to let them know what was going on. Our babysitter showed up around 5:00 and we called MIL to let her know we were heading over to the hospital.
We got to the hospital around 5:45 and they hooked me up to all the monitors and had me answering all sorts of different questions. At 6:15, they checked my cervix and I was 80% effaced and 3-4 cm dilated. They hooked up my IV and I walked over to the delivery room. I knew I wanted to get in the water pretty much right away so they filled up the jacuzzi for me and I spent a couple of hours in there probably. I had to get out around 10:30 for them to start my 2nd dose of antibiotics. I used the birthing ball until my antibiotics were done and got back into the tub. The kids showed up sometime after I was in the tub and I think they got a little freaked out by Mommy screaming but after a while I think they just got used to it.
My contractions had gotten closer... around 3-4 minutes apart and they were a lot more intense. At 12:30 my midwife showed up and they decided they would check my cervix again to see how I was progressing. He said I was 80% and 4 cm. I was just devastated and started bawling at that point. They suggested breaking my water to see if that would speed things along. I asked everyone but Travis to leave and I said that I wanted an epidural. I was in so much pain and not making any progress. So I decided to go with an epidural and said that after it started working, they could break my water. So I got the epidural in shortly after that and it was such a relief to not be hurting any more. They broke my water and told me I could just lay down for a bit. I did but I didn't get really any sleep because they kept bugging me. Around 2:00 PM they told me that my contractions had really started spacing out and they weren't as strong. They had someone come check my cervix again and I was still only at 4 cm. They wanted to start me on pitocin and after talking about it, I let them do it.
I was just really upset because of how difficult this whole thing was and how it was pretty much everything I didn't want. I laid down for a bit again and the kids came back in the room around 3:00. I was pretty comfortable thanks to the epidural so we all just hung out in the room chatting for a bit.
Around 3:30, I started to feel quite a bit of pressure with my contractions. About 10 minutes after that, I mentioned something to the nurse. The midwife was unavailable so she decided to check me herself. She said I was 8 cm dilated!!! I was very excited to be making some progress! Only about 15 minutes after that I was feeling the urge to push so she said she would check me again. She said that there was only a small lip left so she was going to call the midwife in.
After a while, he came in and checked me and said I was complete! He said the baby was still quite a bit up and that if I wanted to wait to push, that I could or if I wanted to do it then, that I could do that, too. Of course I wanted to push since I really felt like I had to! I started pushing around 4:15 and at 4:31 pm, little Asher was born and placed on my chest. :o) It was so unreal and I just started crying. Even though nothing went like I had planned it to, it was all worth it. They cleaned him off a bit while he was on me and I nursed him shortly after he was born. :o)
The kids even got to stay in the room while he was born which was so awesome! They did so well during the whole thing and can even tell you how babies are born now! joker I didn't have any tearing either which was great, too!
So, that's how it went. My 3rd baby and my longest labor... go figure!