Winslow's arrival: a birth story.

Here is Winslow's birth story.  I hope you enjoy.

Winslow's due date of August 9, 2013 came and went.  With each day that passed, I would get a little more anxious.  Seven days passed and still no baby boy...I stayed at work until I was 40 Weeks and 6 days pregnant and lord was that challenging.  I heard so many people say "WHY are you still here" or "You're STILL pregnant??"  (Well, duh..if I'm at work, I am still pregnant).

So Saturday, August 17th, I woke up and didn't feel any different. I had not had any Braxton Hicks or anything and at my 41 week appointment, I was still at 3cm and 70% effaced.  No change really...everything checked out well with the NST test and the fluid levels, so we kept the induction date of August 20th.  My mom had come in that Thursday (the day before I was 41 weeks) and so we just waited and waited for either my induction date (which I prayed and prayed that I wouldn't see that day) or for me to go in labor on my own.

We went to a couple garage sales, and cleaned up around the house..did some front porch swinging..and around 7pm we ate dinner. Then I started to feel a little different...I was having contractions but they did not hurt really.  They felt different than Braxton Hicks, but I wasn't sure if they were real contractions.  My mom kept telling me to time them just to see, but I didn't want to get my hopes up so I didn't do that right away.  After an hour, they started to strengthen a little and I started timing them.  They continued for around 2.5 hours and were between 5-6 minutes apart...around 10 o clock, they started to taper off to around 10 minutes apart.  I was so bummed out because I thought it was all false labor. Then like that, NO contractions at all.  We decided to go to bed around 11pm and I was very discouraged.  I layed in bed just praying "Please let this be real, Lord.  Please. I am so ready to meet my son."  He was still kicking me every now and then and I went to the bathroom like I always do in the middle of the night.  Once I got back in bed (this was around 12:15am) I layed down and felt a POP in my stomach.  It felt like a balloon being popped with a needle.  It didn't hurt and I wasn't sure what had happened.  Once I started to get out of bed, TONS of water started gushing all over the sheets..I woke up hubby quickly and had him wake my mom while I went to the restroom.  I KNEW this was it!  I was so excited and a little nervous.  I called my dad (who is a former OB doctor) and told him and he confirmed, yes, your water broke and that we needed to head to the hospital.  I quickly hopped in the shower to clean up.

Less than fifteen minutes after, the contractions started back and they were PAINFUL and CLOSE together.  I could barely move when one would come.  It was time to GO.

 (Right before we left for the hospital with contractions 2 minutes apart!)

We left the house around 1:30 and I thought we would NEVER EVER make it to the hospital.  I was in so much pain and was not good at breathing through the contractions.  We had practiced it beforehand, but when it was real, I didn't know what to do. I kept telling hubby to please hurry please hurry and with every contraction, more of my water would come..that means it got all over the seat, all over my dress...everywhere.  (Had i thought more in advance, I would have sat on a trashbag!)  I was embarrassed that my dress was wet, but thankfully there was no one waiting to have a baby at that hour and no one saw me! haha.  Funny thing is, like an hour later, around 6 more ladies came to be admitted.  It got pretty busy and my nurse told me if I had waited any longer, it would have taken a lot longer (like over an hour) for the anesthesiologist to come because he was so busy.  Boy, was God looking out for me because even though I knew I could have made it through, at the time, I wanted to die! ;)


We parked the car, and we walked into the check-in area.  We waited around ten minutes to be admitted and I though I would die.  I tried to make hubby go tell the nurse I was about to have the baby on the floor if she didn't hurry, but finally they admitted me to my L&D room. This was around 2am.

My doctor came in and checked me and I was 4 cm and of course ruptured.  Little Winslow had already had a bowel movement inside of me, so they talked with me a little about what that meant. (He would be wisked away to the special care nurse so he wouldn't breathe any meconium in his lungs.)  I was a little sad because I would not get to see or hold him right after he was born, but I would rather him be safe and healthy.

 They took my blood for the epidural because I kept asking when I could get one.  I'm sure the nurse was so annoyed with me.  Poor girl.  She was AWESOME, and I mean AWESOME though.  She had to look at me and say "Kaitlin,  you are wasting entirely too much energy moaning and groaning.  When you get a contraction, BREATHE through them and you will save your energy."  I apologized and then started breathing through them.  It helped a lot.

 (Fake smile signing papers to get the epidural. I couldn't even write I was in so much pain.  I don't see how they thought I could be able to. haha)

FINALLY, the anesthesiologist came and I was SO happy to see him.  He started the process of the epidural and I knew something didn't feel right.  He started to put in the catheter and I could literally feel him going down my spine. It was the WORST feeling in the universe and I kept arching my back (I couldn't help it, it was like a reflex!) which we know is not good when your'e getting an epi.  With each cartilage he went in, I could feel it and I kept yelling, I can feel that!  So he took it out and REDID it another time in a different spot.  So really I got two epidurals.  Joy Joy.

(Both the grandmas after my epidural was administered. I was much better)

Around 3:30, the epidural was finally working and I felt good. I could still feel when I had a contraction, which I liked, I just couldn't feel pain.  I liked being able to feel the pressure because then I could know when to push.

 I just ate ice chips and talked with hubby and the nurse.  I loved my nurse.  She was so great. Hubby and I listened to my birthing playlist and shared a few smooches.  We sang a little and just chatted.
 About 1.5 hours went by and I started to feel a lot of pressure down there and would tell the nurse that.  She said she would check me around 5:00am or so and then around 5:30, she checked me and I was already 10cm!  I couldn't believe I had dilated that quickly.  She couldn't either.  She told me it was time to push and I was so nervous and excited.  I was prepared to push for 1-3 hours like she told me and so I was very focused on getting this babe out.  Hubby was such a WONDERFUL support.  He would tell me after each push that I was doing a wonderful job, that we were almost there, and would feed me ice chips in between pushes.

 (This was already in the L&D room. I loved it.)

40 minutes went by and it was time! His head was almost out and so she called my doctor and the special team of nurses in! Wow, I was so excited that he was almost here.

My doctor came in, sat on a stool, told me to push once and his head was out!  He then told me to push one more time, and he was here at 6:20am!  He started crying and the doctor did put him on me for a brief moment while Seth cut the cord.  I was so happy and crying and overwhelmed with love.  They took him away for a few minutes and did his Apgar test.  He got an 8 on his one minute Apgar and a 9 on his 5 minute Apgar.  Then they brought him back to me and I just cried tears of joy.  Hubby did too.  It was such a special moment.

Doctor delivered the placenta, stitched me up (which was worse than labor!) because the epidural was turned off and it was not pleasant.  Man, I couldn't believe he was here.  After waiting 9 LONG days, he was here.  I was so happy.

The doctors and nurses were all amazed at how short my labor was for a first time mom.  From the time my water broke to the time he was here was a total of 6 hours.  I'll take it!

  I didn't really have a birth plan or how I wanted it to go because I just didn't know what to expect but I am very happy with Winslow's story.  I am so blessed that the Lord kept us both safe, that he is healthy and that I recovered fairly easily.  I still have a tiny bit of pain, but I am doing great otherwise.

And that is how my firstborn son was born.