The 24 Hour Labor

I completely forgot how busy and tiring it is to have a newborn but I thought I would take a minute and write down a little bit about the delivery. Not everything was perfect, but I won't write about any of the things I didn't like.

I always have so much false labor that it is really hard to tell if I am really in labor or not, even on the fourth time. So on Sunday after church at about 5:00 when the contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart and getting strong I thought we better go in and see. The triage nurse said I was dilated to a 4 so that meant that I should be admitted. Lori hopped on the next flight hoping that she would get her in time for the birth so she could bring Dallin. Once I was settled into a birthing room, labor seemed to slow down a little. The doctor came in and checked me and said I was really more like a 3, but she wanted to check again in a couple of hours. I found that walking helped the contractions to be more intense so we walked up and down the halls for a long time. The doctor came in and said that there was a little change so she wanted to check again in a couple of more hours. So we walked more and things continued to get more intense. Finally at about midnight, the doctor checked again with a little more progress. By then I was getting so tired I just couldn't walk around anymore so I layed down and fell asleep. I guess my body just turned off because it slowed the contractions down a lot. In the morning there was no more progress, I was between a 4 and 5. The doctor suggested that I could go home and labor more comfortably there or we could start pitocin. The thought of being a half hour from the hospital scared me and I was really getting tired of labor so I opted to be induced.

Finally at about 10AM they started the drip and things picked right back up. I was thinking about MAYBE trying natural child birth, but because labor was lasting so long and Dallin was coming I decided to go ahead with an epidural. I asked for a low dose so that I wouldn't be as numb and shaky as the last time and it turned out perfect. I could still move, but had no pain. It kind of made me feel warm all over like I was in a warm bath so I felt great. They put that in at 1:00pm and Dallin and Grandma showed up right after that. I was only about a 6 by then. The doctor said the problem was that the baby was still so high up that it was slowing labor down because the head was not pushing down on the cervix. She said she expected that the cord was probably wrapped around him keeping him up high. That happened with Tanner too so I was pretty calm about it. She also didn't want to break my water with him up so high. Usually they do that to make things go quicker, but oh well.

Finally around 4:30pm, I lost my breakfast. When that happened my water broke! I have never had that happen on its own and I had never felt it because I was too numb. What a weird feeling. As soon as that happened I started feeling every contraction and it hurt bad. I felt so much pressure that I knew the baby was just about ready. The anesthesiologist came back right away to turn up the epidural. It took the edge off a bit, but I could feel everything still. I am sure I was at a 10 for a little while, but the doctor wasn't there yet. When she did come things went so quickly. She checked me and said I had to push now. She didn't have me wait for contractions or anything and didn't even want me to stop and catch my breath. Everyone got into place and after about a minute or two of pushing the baby's head was out. Back to the epidural. With the other three babies I couldn't feel anything at all, but this time, even though it hurt, I liked feeling what was happening. It was a very intense minute. Once the head was out she told me to stop pushing because the cord was around his neck. Then she told me to push again. When his body came out the cord was wrapped around him again so she kind of turned him as he came out to unwind him. I am not sure if it was around him 2 or 3 times, but he was definitely tangled up. The birth time was 5:06 pm. Oh, and of course the baby came out face up(face down is normal), which is no surprise because they have all come out that way for me. I guess it makes the birth harder, but I wouldn't know the difference.

They put the baby on my tummy and after a few seconds he started to cry a little bit. At about that time I remembered that Dallin was there and noticed the big look of excitement on his face. It was so sincere and sweet, I knew I had made a good decision to have him there. Peter helped him cut the cord and then they let me hold the baby for a few minutes. Then they only took him from me long enough to weigh and take footprints and then gave him back. They put a footprint on Dallin's arm too, which he loved. He was such a proud brother. Once they gave him back, everyone left me alone to hold the baby skin to skin for over and hour. That was so neat. The hospitals I have been to before keep taking the baby and insist on the baby being bundled with a hat on afterward. This made for such a wonderful bonding time. Poor Peter felt a little left out though.

Giving birth is definitely my favorite thing in the world. It can be intense and a little scary sometimes but it is so special. There is no greater emotion than finally meeting that little baby that you worked so hard to get. Of course I still haven't gone all natural yet so that might change my opinion. For school the next day Lori put Dallin's visitors sticker on his backpack and he got to show his class his cool baby footprint tattoo. He was very exited to share.

We had the Carter's name picked out for a long time, but when we started calling him by his name, we kept saying Tanner instead of Carter. That is why we had a little hesitation with it. But we really like the name so we went with it anyway. Maybe it is because we are used to Tanner being our baby and we need to get used to the change. Stephen is my dad's name, so the middle name was easy.