Birth Stories
Patrick's Birth
1/23/96
9.10pm
7lb 6oz, 19 1/2 inches
On Sunday 21 January, 1996 we went out to dinner with friends who had
a son who was 4 1/2 months old. I jokingly asked her if she felt like
she was going to burst just before she delivered her son, she told
me that she felt like that all the way through. At that stage I felt
like I couldnt possible get any bigger and I still wasnt due until
12 February 1996.
On the monday night we stayed up and watched a movie and didnt get
to bed until about 10.30pm (extremely late for me in the end of
my pregnancy).
At about 1.30am on Tuesday morning I needed to go to the bathroom. As I
sat on the edge of the bed to steady myself before I stood up I felt
fluid running down my legs. I knew straight away that this was my
amniotic fluid. I woke my husband up and went to the bathroom. Luckily
the fluid was clear.
I rang my OB's after hours service and was called back by her associate
who was on call that night. He told me to go to the hospital.
After a few quick calls to our family's back in Australia we made our
way to the hospital. I was feeling really good and hadnt felt a
contraction yet. If it wasnt for my water breaking I would not have
known that I was in labour.
When I got to the hospital the first thing they did was put fetal
monitors on me because my water had broken and they wanted to prevent
infection. During this time I could hear a woman down the hall
delivering her baby. She was screaming (she had back labour) and this
terrified me.
The hospital put me on an IV drip as I couldnt eat or drink anything and
they didnt want the baby and myself to get dehydrated.
At 5.30am I started to feel light contractions. I was still only 1cm
dialated. My husband and I tried to sleep but we were too excited and
just sat in the dark talking to each other about all stupid kinds of
things. It was a wonderful feeling just waiting for it to happen.
At 9.00am they decided to start inducing me because nothing was really
happenning. They gave me Pitocin and it sped up the contractions but I
didnt feel much difference.
All morning the contractions started getting stronger and they kept
starting and stopping the pitocin because they didnt like Patricks
reaction with his heartbeat.
At midday they offered me some painkillers. I was reluctant to take
anything that could affect the baby but they assured me that this was
only a minor one to take the edge off the contractions.
I took two shots of this painkiller(it only lasted 1 hour) and after the
second one wore off they decided that I could have the epidural even
though I was only 3 cm dialated. This was 2.30pm.
The aneth was great and I hardly felt a thing. This was good as I was
terrified of the epidural..
At 6.30pm my OB came in and checked on me. She was quite mad as no one
told her I was in labour. She said that had she known I would have
already delivered.
At this time I was only 5cm and she told me that she was going home to
have dinner with her kids and she would give me until 8.30pm. If I got
to 7 or 8cm then she would let me go, if I didnt then she would C
section me.
At 8.30pm I was still only 5 cm dialated.
Within minutes the aneth was there increasing the epidural and they
ushered my hubby into the another room while they prepped me.
After they prepped me he was allowed in and at 9.10pm with a funny
little cry we welcomed Patrick James Peter into the world.
His nose was all mashed up from being pressed against my spine and he
had a bruise around his head which indicated how far he got into the
birth canal.
His apgars were 8 and 9 and as far as we were concerned he was perfect.
The OB stitched my back up and I was allowed to hold my baby as they
wheeled me into recovery.
At midnight they wheeled me into my room and as we passed the nursey
they held Patrick up to the window so that we could see him.
I recovered fairly quickly with no complications and the next baby that
I have will be born by C-Section as well. We are planning a brother or
sister for Patrick sometime next year.
Anyway that is our story and Patrick had now just reminded me that nap
time is over and feed time is here.
You can now read birth stories two ways:
After listening to our readers, we found that many of you read a collection of stories during your lunch hour. So we decided to break the stories down into groups of five stories per collection. The newest stories will be added to the bottom.
While others preferred the categorized stories, broken down into similar types of stories. The new stories here will be posted at the top of each section.
Would like to know how to have your story included?
