Matthew's Birth Story

Okay...here it finally is! Warning: long and detailed.

On January 22nd, I went in for a scheduled induction, because I was over 41 weeks and had made no progress towards labor. The started by giving me Cervadil, which is a medication that helps you dilate. In my case, it also made me contract irregularly. They hurt but were not unbearable.

Still smiling, because the cervadil had been in only a few hours.

Once the Cervadil was in, I just got to wait around. I took a nap for awhile, because they told me I should get some sleep.  When I woke up that's when I noticed the contractions and honestly, it just felt like a bad back ache.  The pain was gradually getting worse though. There seemed to be a lot of uncertainty on whether I could eat or not. At first it was a clear liquid diet and I really appreciated the food. Then they said I could have regular food. So Avery went and got me some junk food (it was what I wanted and no I don't care if you disagree with it), unfortunately by time he got back they had decided I couldn't eat regular food, grr!  I tried again to sleep and Avery read to me from a book that I can't even remember to try and distract me from the pain. It worked and I was thankful he read to me. It helped me stay calm.  Our Doula, Keri, came to check on me every few hours too.
After 12 hours (at around 1am on January 23rd) they removed the cervadil and checked me. I was still only 1 cm dilated. At this point, I cried my eyes out, because I was in pain and irritated that the induction wasn't going as well as we were hoping. The medical team re-grouped, gave me a shot of fentanyl and put in a catheter to see if it could help me dilate more. It took the residents 3 tries to get it in and the fentanyl lasted about 10 minutes.  I also started bleeding and I was a bit scared, but it was normal they said. The contractions got worse and I couldn't lay still, I just kept getting up all night, thinking I had to use the restroom, until 3:30am when they checked me again, a little progress had been made and they gave me more fentanyl. This time it worked for about 3.5 hours until my ob/gyn arrived to check on me at 7am. He told me to get the epidural at that point and I did. The epidural felt fine going in and I was so happy to get it. (Unfortunately, this started the long process of trying to figure out why I was still feeling the contractions despite the epidural....I had what they called a "window" which means an area where the meds just can't seem to hit.  They were very nice though and kept giving me more meds & boosters to try and get it to work.)  Through out the day, my family and friends were texting, wondering how I was doing. I am so thankful for my cousin's wife, my Mom, and my friend Becky for keeping people informed as I was not in the mood to be on Facebook.  At 1pm, they removed the catheter and were able to finally start the pitocin. Our doula came to help me get through the end of it, because due to that window I was in a ton of pain. The doula and Avery had to hold my hands to get me through the contractions. I remember Keri telling me to try and relax every muscle in the short break between contractions so I'd have energy to push. I was crying to get through them at that point. At 3pm, they discovered my water had broken on its own and I hadn't realized, because I couldn't feel anything. My doctor was called and at 3:30pm I started to push. At 4:12pm HST on January 23rd, Matthew Orson entered the world. He looked perfect! (I am guessing due to him being overdue! He wanted to stay in longer just to look good for us. Hahaha!!) They laid him on me while I was stitched up.  Despite reading that epidurals can make babies tired, he was not. He was very alert and breastfed with no problems. After the stitching (which took awhile and scared the medical student out of Ob/gyn practice, LOL!), they took Matthew to get cleaned up and got me ready to go to the post-partum floor. As they were moving me I suddenly felt very ill. I'd had so much medication that my stomach got upset. I remember them asking me to try and move my legs...I couldn't. So the nurses did the moving for me. Once I got upstairs, my Mom came and we waited for them to bring Matthew up from the nursery. I missed him! The awe of having him was intense...I just stared at him for hours until exhaustion took over. We stayed in the hospital 2 nights, because he had mild jaundice.

His first picture!

First family photo!

He was 8 lbs. 3.8 oz. and was 21.5" long.

Leaving the hospital on January 25th.

Hanging out at home in his swing.

He will be 3 weeks old on Monday. I can't believe how quickly the time is passing, which is so cliche and I can't believe I am saying that. We move to Bangor in just a few weeks, which I also can't believe that our time in Hawaii is so quickly coming to an end.