Erik and Me and Baby makes Three! Quinn's Birth Story!

Erik and Me and baby Quinn makes Three: Quinn's Birth Story!

I know this is a little overdue but Quinn and I have been trying to figure each other out and also we were blessed to spend two lovely weeks with Grammy visiting so I apologize for the delay.

On Wednesday December 30th, 2009, I had gone to work as usual and worked a short day. All during work I felt like I was leaking but assumed that it was just extra fluids. When I got home the leaking continued to the point where I thought that maybe it was something more...like my water breaking. I called the hospital and they said to come in and get checked and that it sounded like I may have a slow leak.

I took a shower and then Erik and I went to the hospital, bags with us and all. I didn't figure we would be staying, but once we got there they checked me and in fact I did have a slow leak, most likely a tear in the water bag high up and Quinn's head was acting like a cork to keep the water from gushing out. They then told me I would be staying and that I was at 3 cm and 75 effaced.

We called Kelly, our friend and other birth coach and she arrived within the hour. I was planning on a natural birth, so we were just going to wait it out for a while, but the Doctor wanted to start me on Pitocin. I was very worried about this, as I had heard it would make it harder to have a natural labor. They got the Pit going as a low dose and everything was quite bearable for a long time. They broke my water at 1130pm on Dec 30th and I labored all through the night, and the contractions were not too bad at all. Even when I got to 6 cm it was still not bad.

Things started to get hard when I suddenly went from 6 to 7 cm in less than a minute. That contraction was bad and hurt and baby Quinn did not respond well to it at all. I finally got to 8 Cm but then go stuck there for 3 hours. After 3 hours of laboring at 8 cm I was in a lot of pain and requested an epidural. The pain was like nothing I had ever felt before. I know now what a 10 pain scale is! I still feel if I would have progressed to a 10 quickly I could have done it naturally, but after another hour on an epi and upping the Pit with no progress they determined that Quinn was too large for my pelvis...so off to a C section I went.

By this point I was totally exhausted and had the shakes really bad. They had to strap me to the table to do the C section.

I was so exhausted by this point that my body basically knocked me out. I was in and out of the whole procedure and did not even really realize when Quinn was born. I vaguely remember them telling me he was out and that he had tons of hair and large hands and feet. Then Erik showed him to me but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I was just glad it was over and wanted to sleep so badly. I guess I had a fever when they cut me open, which they were not aware of until then, and the doctors were a little freaked out by it. Also, Quinn came out with a slight fever and also came out peeing all over my incision! He has been peeing on me ever since! Boys are hard to change I have learned! I didn't get to hold Quinn for 3 hours afterwards. Quinn then had to spend several days in the NICU because he also came out “singing” which is a sign of respiratory distress. Probably because he had already pooped in my bag of waters before he was born.

So, though I wanted to go natural, it didn't come out as planned, but I am glad that I got to labor to 8 cm for the experience. I only regret that I did not even get to push at all.