Will's Birth Story...

Just recently I got a letter from my obgyn saying he was leaving his practice to go and travel to Africa with his children. Which it made me think back to Will's birth.

I was a little sad at first because he delivered Will, well no he only half delivered Will. It was actually nurse Molly who did. So to say that he is going to Africa I was happy for him and for me. Don't get me wrong he is an AWESOME ob but he let me down.

When I was pregnant and I saw him monthly, then every two weeks, and then weekly. He always asked me at the end...do you have any questions or concerns. Why yes...I do, "Please Dr. Promise don't let me tear!" I told him that at every appointment. I think he even had it in my chart.

At my 39 week check up I was tired and run down. I was still training clients and I was teaching kickboxing! What the H was I thinking? So Dr. Promise asked if I wanted to be induced. I totally said yes! I jumped on the chance. Again, what the H was I thinking?

So it was set. I was to go in the hospital at 12:01 am on Jan. 23. When we got there, I got one of those fashionable gowns and was ready but tired. I was kind of hoping to have something to help me sleep as they started the petoccin. No luck. At 1am...I started having mini contractions and I thought to myself, I can handle this!

My older sister had told me all about her 3 births and she had good experiences with an epidural. She said she barely felt a thing after it. Well, I wanted to be a trooper and take them as long as I could, and I did. By 4am, those suckers were coming on so strong, I was hyper tensing and they had to lower the petoccin. Thank goodness for that. I thought I wanted to walk around at 5:30am but by then I was just ready for the epidural. Got that and it wasn't that bad. I was in bliss! Glad I did because if I only knew what the next couple of hours would lead to, I would have gotten that thing earlier!

Meanwhile nurse Molly is the bomb and she checks me every so often, gets me ice chips, says encouraging words. Loved nurse Molly. Dr. Promise doesn't make an appearance tell 7:30am. At that time he breaks my water and tells me I am at 9cm. He tells nurse Molly to get me started on "practice" pushing. I was like you can't leave! He told me that it would be a couple of hours before Will would make an appearance and that he would be downstairs in his office seeing to his other patients. HE would come back as soon as we got close. I start thinking to myself, I should have gone to a practice with MANY ob's. But I liked my doctor and I chose to stand by him. Again...what the H was I thinking?

So practice pushing became real pushing and I was feeling everything! The epidural was wearing off, I told nurse Molly I needed more that I did not want to feel anything! I think they gave me 2 extra doses but somehow, I was still feeling everything! Will kept popping in and out because I would get so exhausted. During this whole time I guess Nurse Molly was in contact with Dr. Promise on updating my status. Will was still in there she would say. At one point I felt so much pain and tugging down you know where. I thought I was going to grab Nurse Molly and throw her across the room. But later I found out that Will had his hand by his face and she was trying to move it so he could deliver easily.

Okay...so you got that we started at 7:30am with the pushing. By now it is 11:30am and I everyone is yelling at me...keep pushing you can do it! I was like just get him out!!! Then I could see some panic on Nurse Molly's face. She is calling her call desk and saying, I cannot get a hold of Dr. Promise. Someone 911 him and tell him to get up here. I was like what is wrong? She said Will is about to come. I kept saying I have to push and everyone was yelling, "Don't push!" I guess at this point Nurse Molly has delivered Will's big ole' head. Just then Dr. Promise comes in and said okay...hold on a sec. Then he turns and saw Will sticking out. Okay...there is no sec. Ahhh...yeah!

One push more and Will was out at 11:54am. What the heck did Dr. Promise do? It was all Nurse Molly. She was a kick ass nurse let me tell you! Then Dr. Promise stitched me up with more than a couple stitches. Yeah...you heard that right, I tore! He promised! I ended up having a 4th degree tear!

Everyone in my family still laughs at me because when they put Will on me, all I could say was, "Oh My God." Over and over. I was probably saying that not only for Will but I had a huge, gigantic hole down there!

Don't get me wrong my prenatal care was all rainbows and unicorns. But the birth yeah, that was lightning and crocodiles(just made that up, creative huh?) I even asked Dr. Promise on my post natal check up what had happened and why he didn't get there fast enough. He did say sorry and that being only one ob in his practice has his down falls and I just happened to be one of those. Shortly after Will's birth he added another ob. Just so you know. I have switched to her. She is the one that is taking over his practice when he goes to Africa.

Now you know the whole story. Not so bad labor. Pushing for 4 and a half hours bad. But this is what we got...Will on Jan. 25th going home with us. Too sweet.

It is amazing how us mom's can forget about the pain and do it all over again. But frankly I am so reluctant to have another kid anytime soon because I do not want to tear that bad again. Everyone is asking when we do it again. I definitely want Will to have a sibling and I am thinking once he is self sufficient. Thankfully that could be a while.

I thought I would throw this pic in as well. It is one of my favorites of Lew and myself. Will was just a little peanut inside me. But we had such a great time even though I couldn't enjoy cocktails!

I call this picture, "Before the storm hit."

What was your birthing experience like? What it as challenging as mine? Or was your birth rainbows and unicorns? I would love to hear.