He's Here!!!

Dane Barrett Rogers
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 (10 days early)
12:17 pm
8 lbs, 3 oz 21 inches


My actual birth story is about 4 pages long, which is obviously just TMI to post on here. So, here is my attempt at a really condensed version for public consumption.

I woke up around midnight Monday morning with cramping, like menstrual cramps. I got up to go to the bathroom and felt a large gush, which I thought was either my water breaking or me peeing myself. It was actually blood, and a LOT of it. We rushed to the hospital and were admitted and monitored for about 8 hours. I was about 2 cms and 80% effaced. I was having regular, but mild contractions. Baby was doing just fine in there, and my bleeding slowed. We were given the option of staying and being induced or going home to wait and see what happened. We headed home.

I spent the day trying to rest and dealing with moderate, but irregularly patterned contractions. Around 9pm Monday night the pattern was steady - every 3 minutes, 45-60 seconds long. By 10:30pm I was needing Vince's help to work through them. Our doula came and we decided to head to the hospital. Got there and I was a good 4 cms, which was a bit disappointing, but my contractions were really strong at this point so we stayed and walked the halls, got in the tub, etc. Around 8am the nurse checked me and I was 9 cms. I labored a bit longer and started feeling the urge to push, so they let me try that for a while. Nothing felt right, and it made me hurt really bad. So, nurse checked me again, and when she did, my water broke. She then said I was 8 cms. My water must have been bulging so much at the last check it was pushing my cervix more open than it really was, and when it broke it shrank back to the more accurate 8 cms.

I should add that my bleeding that started the morning continued all day, and increased as my labor increased. When my water broke it was a huge bloody mess all over. After my water broke the contractions immediately got really strong and started coming one on top of the other, and I was involuntarily pushing with each one - we tried everything to get me to stop and I just couldn't. Up to this point I had been coping really well with my Bradley techniques, but this was horrible and out of control, and I was begging someone and anyone to help me stop. Because I was pushing and wasn't dilated, my cervix started swelling shut, I was still bleeding everywhere, my vitals went haywire, and they couldn't get the baby's heart beat on the external monitor. So, within a matter of minutes, I had an internal monitor, an IV, an ekg monitor, BP cuff, pulseox monitor, epidural and a catheter placed. I instantly felt so much better.

With the epi we all got a break to rest, my cervix was able to recover and finish dilating, and then I got to push. The epi was kind of lopsided, so my entire right leg and bottom were totally numb, but I had some feeling and movement in my left leg, and I could still feel all my contractions in this area on my left lower belly, which honestly turned out to be perfect because I could still feel contractions (and had to breathe to work through them) and know when to push. It took 2 hours and a bunch of positions, but I got him out with only a very mild 1st degree tear and a couple of stitches. He was turned sort of sideways, so he didn't crown the way he was supposed to, so he had (and still has) some funky bruising and swelling on the side of his head, but he is perfectly healthy. He came right to my chest and his apgars were 8 and 9. He nursed like a champ from the start and really didn't cry all that much, and still doesn't.

When my water broke, everything changed, and I could tell the doc and the nurses were VERY worried. I thought for sure (as did my doula) that I was headed straight for a surgical birth. I think the universe gave me the perfect team of Vince, my doula and the hospital staff to get me through it with a lot of my goals for my birth intact.

Like I said, this is the short version, so if you have any questions, ask away. The long version has more details, and more of my after-the-fact thoughts and feelings in it. If you would like to read it, email me and I can send it to you.

These are my final belly pics, taken in between hospital admissions, 38 weeks 3 days.


And, my first attempt at loading video!!!