Cohen's Story

I like reading about other peoples births, so I thought I would share mine. If birth stories aren't for you...go ahead and give this post a skip. :)

On Tuesday night around 7:30 I was sitting in the t.v. room watching some stupid nightly gossip show. We never watch t.v. at that time, so maybe this should have been the first indicator that something was up! I felt a little trickle of fluid, people always say they feel like they peed themselves a little and I was confident I hadn't peed myself, but wasn't sure that it was my water breaking. I think I was a little in denial about it, I was so sure that I was never going to go into labor. I had pretty much accepted that I was going to be induced. I had a couple of small contractions after that and was leaking fluid with each contraction, so figured this must be the real thing. Justin called my mom so she could head over to watch Judah, we finished packing bags and I got a quick shower.

We got to the hospital around 9ish and we got checked in. The nurse checked to see how dilated I was and my water broke completely while she was checking. (think huge gush!) There was meconium in my water which means that Cohen had already pooed in there. I was a little worried about this, but the nurse said it isn't "as big" of a deal for a full term baby. It is more common for them to poo because their body is starting to work in all the ways it is supposed to. The concern is when they are born they shouldn't take a big breath of air and breathe in the meconium that is in their nose and mouth.

I was dilated to a 3-4 at that point which I was thrilled about, I was only a 1 at my dr. appointment. Since I went into labor naturally I was really hoping to avoid pitosin, my contractions started up on their own and I was dilating from them, so I was able to avoid it. I was really excited about that.

My first blood pressure reading was pretty high, 150 over something. I never have blood pressure issues, so they were concerned about it. They started an i.v. at that point, I'm not really sure why...I think the nurse said as a precaution?

I labored until around 1 (i think) when my contractions started to get really uncomfortable. I decided to ask for my intrathecal. It was such a different experience from my first birth where I was induced. The pitosin the first time made the contractions really strong and really close together. And that had me begging for the intrathecal. This time the contractions were better spaced out so I could talk myself out of wanting the intrathecal in between each one. But I finally decided I was uncomfortable and it was only going to get worse so I asked for it. She checked to see how far dilated I was and I was up to a 6-7.

I got my intrathecal sometime after that. 2ish maybe? It provided some relief, but by that time he was starting to really descend, and intrathecals only block pain from the contractions in the uterus. I could still feel a lot of pressure during the contractions, but it did take the edge off of it and made me a lot more comfortable in between the contractions.

My blood pressure readings were still high, so they decided I needed to have magnesium sulfate. I was less than thrilled about this. I had read of people having really bad side effects to it and I really didn't want to deal with any of that. I didn't have any side effects until after I had given birth, but I'll share more on that later. I'm glad they decided to error on the safe side, but I wish I hadn't needed it.

I started to feel a lot of pressure not too long after that and she checked me and I was complete. I had told her I pushed for a long time with Judah (2 1/2 hours) but I never felt the urge to push, I was only pushing because I was told to. I was hoping to avoid doing that this time and letting him descend as low as possible before pushing. Sometime around 3 they called Dr. Gold to come on over. (When I heard he was the one on call I wasn't sure how to feel about it. I hadn't really liked the other doctor at the clinic, but wasn't sure how I would feel about a male delivering the baby. I had always thought it would be really awkward. It turned out to be just fine.)

I started pushing not long after 3:00. I would push through some contractions and for a couple of them I didn't want to push and told them I wasn't going to push. The nurse and Dr. Gold were very accommodating to this. Dr. Gold stood outside the door for most of it, he only came in when his head was coming out. It really put me at ease to be able to push when I wanted and to not feel the pressure of hurrying to get him out.

Cohen was born at 4 a.m. exactly. Once I had his head out they had me stop pushing. (I am pretty sure I was still pushing...not sure I had any control over my body at that point!) I knew they were going to do this because they needed to suction his nose and mouth really good because of the meconium. What we didn't know is that he had his cord wrapped around his neck 3 times! He was also born with his hand up by his head. I was really impressed because Dr. Gold still let Justin cut the cord. The nurses later said that most doctors would not have let anyone else cut the cord at that point. After the cord was cut the rest of Cohen was born. Justin told me to look down and see him because he was all the way out. It was kinda scary because he was really blue and not crying. I remember asking why he wasn't crying. They took him away (not really away, but over to the warmer) and got him crying. It was a relief to hear. We got to hold him for a minute after that, but then they took him to the nursery to make sure everything was okay. Everything was completely fine with him, he hasn't had any problems from the meconium or from having his cord around his neck.

I had to stay on the magnesium sulfate for 24 hours after I gave birth. I HATED it. It meant I had to stay hooked up to a i.v. for that whole time, which is really annoying! Plus it made me sick the whole time I was on it. It really put a damper on our hospital stay. We didn't call people to come and see Cohen because I was throwing up the whole time. I really enjoyed people coming to see us last time, and feel like we didn't get to experience that as much this time. A few people did come see us late afternoon/evening, but nowhere near what we had last time.

I felt great after the birth and the recovery has been so much easier this time. I think it has a lot to do with the amount of time I was pushing and following my bodies cues for when to push. I am really thankful that I had a nurse and doctor that were supportive of that because I know a lot of people just want to hurry you along.

We got to come home on thursday, and it has been really nice being home. Cohen is doing great. He seems to be a laid back and easy baby just like Judah was. Hope it continues! I think Judah is adjusting pretty well. I haven't got much time with him because I am so consumed by Cohen. I think that has been harder on me than it has been on him. I'm thankful that Justin gets 2 weeks off, there is no way I can make it through these first few weeks on my own!





Justin has been posting a bunch of blogs, some of them have picture of the boys and talk about things I would have posted on. It took me several tries to get this one done...so you should be sure to read his, I may not be consistent about blogging for a bit. :)


I stepped on the scale today and I've lost 25 pounds already!!!