Reagans Birth Story

It's been so long since I've written a blog post...but I validate that by saying we have a newborn in the house!

I figured I would start out this new chapter of our life with where it all began. 

Reagan's Birth Story.

I woke up at 3am on Feb 27 just not feeling very well. Pretty normal for me throughout this pregnancy. I went to the bathroom and noticed there was some blood...I got super excited that something might be happening and ran to get Matt. We decided to lay back down and hopefully catch a little sleep before anything more drastic happened. As soon as I laid down though I started having bad cramps. They definitely felt a lot different than the painless contractions I had been having for days prior. And I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep through them. Plus I was getting way too excited. So I got up and went in the nursery and decided to let Matt sleep for awhile longer. At 5:30 I woke him up and said I thought we should go to the hospital. I let him shower and we got everything around and headed out. Should I mention we had a blizzard this night? We also live an hour from our hospital. Needless to say it was a long drive.

We arrived around 7am and they did all the normal registration stuff and got us into a triage room and me hooked up to monitors. I was definitely having a lot of strong contractions. But, when they checked me I was still 3-4cm...like I had been for a week. Pretty discouraging since I knew something felt different this time. And by felt different I mean very painful. They told me they would monitor me for an hour and see if I had made any progress.

 Contractions...

At this point we prayed and prayed that I had made progress. My family was already on their way down...and we did NOT want to get sent home. Sure enough, when she checked me again she said my cervix had changed enough that they would admit me. Yay!

Things kind of turned into a blur for awhile. I was in a lot of pain (remember...my goal was completely natural)...and a lot of people were coming in and out of our room and doing stuff. They checked me again about an hour after I got into my L&D room and I was at a 6. Yay for more progress! We decided to break my water (such a weird feeling)...and 45 minutes to and hour later I was at 8cm. The nurses and doctors were seriously appalled at how fast I was progressing. My family started guessing when he would be born...because we all figured it would be soon! It was painful, but everything was going perfectly!

Matt was such great labor support :)

And then...everything stopped. Everytime they checked me I was at 8cm. It was so frustrating. Eventually the whole crew of doctors and nurses came in so we could talk about what was going on and such.

1. They thought baby was in an odd position causing my labor to stop.

2. They thought my muscles were all way too tense from the pain that my body wasn't allowing itself to make anymore progress.

So...all in all we decided to get an epidural. The pain was way too intense at this point for me to not get something...plus they had no idea how much longer it would take for my body to progress to the point of being able to push. If I knew an end point was like an hour or 2 away, I'm positive I could have done it, but not knowing scared me. I also didn't want to risk being so worn down already that I wouldn't be able to push effectively. I was very torn with my decision but in the end I am so glad I got it. It still ended up taking 5-6 hours with the epidural for my body to reach 10 cm, and I know if I would have continued on medication free for that long I would have been beyond exhausted.

So the epidural. We had a love/hate relationship. It helped with the contraction pain, but I couldn't get over the fact of being completely numb. I felt paralyzed...and I didn't really like it. Plus...the epidural only worked for contractions in my belly...a few hours after getting it I started having back and side labor. Seriously...so painful again. Plus now I was numb so I couldn't move myself to alleviate some of the pain. They called back the anesthesiologist to see if something was wrong. No one could figure out why I was in so much pain when I was supposed to be completely numb. The best they figured was the babies positioning. He was still curled up on my side and they said they thought that was causing the pain. They decided to check me though...and I was at 10! Hallelujah! I was so ready to have a baby!

They let me do a few practice pushes...and said I did ah-mazing! They could tell I was moving him. The nurse called the doctors to come in...and they asked if they could do something real quick first before coming...and the nurse said "no...I don't think you have time for that." And good thing too...because a few pushes later and out popped our little Reagan Alexander!

 Pushing was honestly the best part...such a breeze!

Another surprise to me was the fact that my epidural wouldn't wear off. At least on my right side. My left side was feeling great, but I still couldn't do anything for a few days because my right side was still numb.

Sharing a first little family moment :) Proud parents!

My labor totally didn't go as planned...but not really anything about this pregnancy did. I also tore really bad...so my recovery is taking a lot longer than I anticipated too. When people tell you to lay low and let others help out...they aren't kidding. Take the help! Even though I was kind of discouraged with how it all went...I couldn't be happier with the outcome. We have the sweetest little boy now! He is seriously such a good baby. He totally makes up for having a rough pregnancy and a not so great labor experience :)

 

Just 2 days old :)