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Welcome Johnathan Marcus!!
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Due Date: 4/11/07
Birthday: 4/6/07
Time of Birth: 11:01am
Weight: 7 lbs, 12 ounces
Length: 21 inches
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Birth Story:
I went in for my Doctor's appt on Thursday, 4/5, for my 39 week check-up.
When the nurse routinely checked my blood pressure, it was 145 over 93,which was really high. She asked me if I was nervous
or something and I said, 'I guess so. I'm just hoping that I've made some progress this week.'When thedoctor came into see
me, she was checking my cervix - '1 cm dilated and 50% effaced, good' - while I was asking her how far past 40 weeks she would
let me go before I should be induced. She calmly said, 'I don't think
you're going to go past 40 weeks. In fact, I'm thinking about sending you right now.' After checking my amniotic fluid
level and determining that it, too, was low, and that there was trace amounts of protein in my urine, she told me to go home,
pack my bag and go straight to L & D. She was afraid that I was developing pregnancy induced hypertension, which could
mean that I was in danger of going into a seizure if I went into labor on my own. I
called Dan and told him to meet me at our house while I went home and finished packing the hospital bags. I was going
through quite a whirlwind of emotions, as I did not expect when I woke up that morning that I would be giving birth that day!
It was a mix of excitement and fear.
We checked into the hospital, and by 1pm, I was hooked up to an IV, magnesium (to prevent a seizure), and pitocin. Because
of all of that, I also had to have a catheter. Yuck! They also had a blood pressure cuff on me so they could monitor my
blood pressure every 5 minutes to make sure that the pain of the contractions wasn't too much for me. Dr. Cashie came in
and broke the bag of waters to get things going. My body took to the pitocin really well and the contractions kicked in right
away. They started to get
increasingly painful, and I was doing my best to relax and breathe through them. At 6:30pm, after several long painful
hours of contractions, I found out that I had only dilated to 2 cm! The nurse kept telling me that my body
would relax and dilate if I got an epidural. While it was my goal to try to go through labor unmedicated, I decided that
under the circumstances at hand, I had to make a wise decision for me and the baby and I chose to get the epidural. What
a relief! I was able to relax and sleep as my body slowly dilated. At 1am, the pitocin started working a little too well,
and I had contractions coming 4 in a row with no break for the baby, which caused his heart rate to go down. They quickly
took me off the pitocin and
gave me a shot of terbutaline to stop the contractions. Immediately, I felt nauseous and began to shake uncontrollably.
They also attached an internal monitor to the baby. For about an hour, they let me contract naturally without the aid of
pitocin, while they monitored me and the baby. They decided that since we had stabilized, they would put me back on the pitocin.
At around 3:30am, things started getting intense. I could feel the contractions again, but this time with extreme pressure.
I was in a lot of pain. They checked me and I was at 8cm, and since we still had some progress to make, they gave me a bolus,
an extra dose of medication in my
epidural. It didn't help. I just kept trying to breathe through the pain.
Finally, at 4am, I was at 9 ½ cm, with just a lip of the cervix preventing the baby from coming down. With each contraction,
the nurse helped the baby's head to get past that little bit left, so he could finish his descent. She
called Dr. Cashie to come and deliver the baby.
While pushing took my mind of the pain somewhat, I was feeling so much pressure on my lower back, rectum and tailbone
and the pain shot down the backs of my legs. After 40 minutes of pushing, I made one final push to get
Johnny out. Turns out that he was occipital posterior, meaning that he was face up instead of face down, which was why
pushing him out was so painful and difficult. The doctor said if it would have taken me any longer to push
him out, I would have ended up having an emergency C-Section!
Johnathan Marcus was born on 4/6/07 at 5:26am. He weighed 7lbs 12 ozs and was 21 inches long.
All of the stuff I went through was so worth it when I got to hold him for the first time and look into his blue eyes!
I can't believe that I'm a mommy! I fall more in love with my son every day!
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