Oh my goodness... the last 6 days have been the most amazing of our lives. We are so crazy in love with our son, it truly is blowing my mind. I feel like I need to pinch myself every morning that this isn't all a dream. I could sit and stare at Jake for hours on end or watch my love and amazing husband cuddle him and love on him. I have never been so happy. Pure Bliss.
First, the labor & birth story before I forget all the details!
- Wednesday the 5th of October, I woke up having regular, but not intense contractions every 10 minutes. I called the doctor and they advised me to stay home until I was having trouble breathing thru them and they were closer together. The back pain/labor was bearable, but was causing a lot of discomfort and achiness.
- Thursday the 6th, still laboring, I had a non-stress test to make sure the baby was doing well and to check on my fluid levels. The entire hour I was hooked up to the fetal monitor, I was contracting every 2 - 3 minutes. Jake's heartbeat was rock solid. The doctor made several comments that while I was uncomfortable, I had a VERY happy baby in there that was in no rush to come out. In addition, I had made no further progress with dilation or effacement. Baby's head was still high and she was 'pretty sure' that I would be having a C-section. In fact, I was in early labor and she expected me to be admitted later that day or by Friday for sure. But we set the induction for Sunday night at 8:30pm for my sanity.
- Friday, Saturday and Sunday - let's just say I wasn't a peach to be around. Still uncomfortable, unable to sleep and not wanting to talk to anyone about being pregnant anymore, I was just focused on the induction Sunday night.
- Sunday night at 8:15pm, Nick and I checked into Prentice Women's Hospital at Northwestern. By 8:30pm they had us settled into our birthing & delivery suite with the induction plan mapped out on the white board:
- CRIB
- Break Water
- Pitocin
- Pain Management
- Meet Baby Jacob!
By 9pm, the CRIB was in... and the 6 - 12 hour wait started. The doctors let us know that after 6 hours if I dilated to at least 3 cm, it would come out. If not, then it would stay in for another 6 hours. So we were advised to rest up... I got a little cocktail of some pain medication as the CRIB and contractions were getting much more intense and making it difficult to rest up. As 3am approached, Nick and I didn't think there was a chance that it would have worked, but sure enough, it did! I was at 4.5 cm and we were on our way to meeting our baby boy!
Shortly after, the nurses came in to break my bag of water.... it was an 'aggressive' procedure and resulted in Nick passing out, hitting his back and head! Terrifed me!! But, within 1 minute, 6 more doctors were in the room as the nurses paged - 'dad passed out, dad passed out!' Nick was fine, just got a little light headed with the graphic detail the doctor was providing while attempting to break my water. After his blood sugar was monitored and he was stabilized, the nurses came back for a 2nd attempt, and then a 3rd. Finally, success! Water broken at 5:45am.
They warned me that my contractions would now start to get much more intense and I was hooked up to Pitocin. Around 6:30am, I asked for the epidural... maybe a bit later than I would suggest. The pain was more than I wanted to feel. Shortly thereafter, I was in a much better place. Although no one warned me that the epidural would make my skin itch from the inside out for 2 full days. Small price to pay in my eyes though.
The doctor came in to check my progress around 11am, I had made more progress and was now officially in active labor at 6.5cm and 90% effaced. They expected me to start pushing in the next couple hours.
As the hours went on, the labor was getting harder and harder. Despite the epidural, I was feeling immense pain in my hips and back although the baby's head was not engaging. I started to lose control of my muscles and was shaking uncontrollably as well as getting sick.... all normal for labor. However, after that 11am check, nothing ever changed. I felt like I was there just to be tortorued and I was never going to meet our son! The doctor then said, if I hadn't made more progress around 4pm, then we would talk about Plan B. Mind you, my doctor wasn't present on Monday, as she had personal matters to tend to, so this was another one in the practice. 4 turned into 5, and 5 turned into 6pm. At 5:59pm the Dr Kelsey came in and let me know that he had spoken to my doctor and we were going to do a C-section, the baby's head was too large and my pelvis was too small. In fact, he was already lodged in there and may have a slight conehead at birth.
I then started to get prepped for the C-section. The shaking became a lot more intense and I was wheeled down to the OR. I mentioned that I am likely to get sick in the OR so they gave me more anti-nausea medication along with everything else. I just closed my eyes as the room full of doctor's introduced themselves to me so I didn't have to see anything.
Once the curtain was up, Nick was brought into the room to sit by my head and hold my hand. I told him, 'I just need to hear the baby cry, I just need to hear him cry.' It was all of 2 -3 minutes and there it was... my sweet boy's cry! I started to cry and Nick and I grinned ear to ear! Jacob William Montgomery born 10/10/11 at 7:25pm 8lbs 12 oz and yes.... a very big head! Our nurse, Sarah, brought Jake's face to mine so I could kiss him on the cheek and finished cleaning him up and handed him over to Nick while they put me back together. And like clockwork, I started to get sick for the next few minutes....
After surgery, I was wheeled into the recovery room with my boys. Amazing. Nick put Jake on my chest and he went straight in for the kill and started to nurse. It was incredible. We were in awe. Our son, our miracle, was finally healthy and here with us. Perfection.
Around 10pm, once the feeling came back into my feet and toes, we were moved into our Maternity Suite where my mom, brother and Christa were able to come up to meet Jacob. I was still pretty out of it, given at this point, I had been up since 6am Sunday morning but I do remember the evening. Around midnight, the 3 of us finally went to sleep for the night... the happiest & most blessed day of our lives October 10, 2011.
