Grady's Birth Story - Part 1

On Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003, we found out that I was pregnant. It was perfect really, to find out on Easter. I had had that miscarriage in December with my first pregnancy. So, I just thought it was really cool to find out on Easter...the whole new birth, restoration, new life thing. We found out in Las Vegas...we had gone there for a little late celebration of our anniversary.

The pregnancy went very well. I gained a total of 55 pounds (jaw-drop)! I started really showing around 18-20 weeks and wearing maternity clothes then...even wore some maternity pants before then. I had always had a pretty flat belly and was so not used to my pants touching me there on my belly. It was such a weird feeling that I just had to go buy some bigger pants. So funny...now I haven't had that "loose" feeling in my jeans for a while. :-)

I had lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions all throughout the pregnancy. In fact, right around the time I was 20 weeks I also started having them so much and they were so strong that I would have to stop what I was doing. Of course they are nowhere near the labor contractions, but they are still strong (have had them with all my pregnancies, but Grady's was the strongest...then again, I had never felt that either, so it may be that I'm just more used to it now).

We had decided before I found out I was pregnant that we would use a nurse midwife. The doctor I had with the first pregnancy (and she did my D&C) was fine, but just not what we wanted. I did some research and we went to an orientation meeting at the birth center. We knew after that that a midwife was the way to go for us. We chose the birth center though...didn't even think about homebirth at that point. It was great. I loved having a midwife taking care of me.

My due date was December 21st. It came and went. Christmas and New Year’s came and went. Finally on January 2nd I woke up having contractions every 7 minutes. They started out pretty strong and I was convinced we would have a short labor. I had seen Connie, our midwife at Bethany Birth Center, about a week and a half earlier. I wasn’t dilated at all at that point, but I was 70% effaced and the baby’s head was at Station 0. My labor started at 7am. I was able to still walk around, but had to just pause when a contraction came. By 10:30am they were getting a little stronger. From the start my contractions lasted about a minute and a half. I went in to the birthing center at around 10:30 or 11am. I was only 1 cm dilated! It was very discouraging. (picture taken early that morning, about an hour into labor)

So, we headed back home, stopping at Wendy’s to eat a salad and frosty of course. :-) I was hurting, but not too bad to eat part of a frosty, come on now (ha ha ha). I would just stop what I was doing when a contraction came. Anyhow, went home and labored on the couch until my contractions were coming 2-3 minutes apart consistently. I was very uncomfortable. I didn’t go into this labor with any sort of plan. I was winging it. Unfortunately, the way I deal with pain is that I hold my breath and tense up every muscle in my body. Of course that just completely works against what your body is needing to do. (picture: so very tired...and uncomfortable on the couch)

It was around 6pm by this point and Joel called the midwife on call to tell her about my contractions. My midwife was on vacation. She had told us when she was going to be out and we, of course, thought surely we'd have had the baby by then. Ahh, little babies and their own agendas. :-) She usually delivers all her clients’ babies, but her son was getting married the next day (the day Grady was actually born), so it was understandable that she wasn’t there. Sad though. Anyhow, while Joel was on the phone with the midwife on call (Suzanne), I vomited. Ugh. Not my favorite thing to do. But, Suzanne heard me in the background and said that it was a good sign (it's a sign of being in transition...8-10cm...about to push). She said to go ahead and go get checked out.

We drove to the birthing center, almost getting into an accident on the way (two cars right in front of us had a wreck). The drive was so horrible (another good reason to have a homebirth :-) ). Got there and got checked. I WAS ONLY 2-3CM DILATED! "What?!?!?!?!?" I wanted to scream. 12 hours of consistent and strong contractions (I never do that whole thing where you have contractions every 30 minutes for a while, then every 15 minutes, etc....don't clean my house to pass the time, etc....when it starts, it's on) and only 2-3cm dilated? And what about the vomit? Hadn't she heard me vomit? Vomit was supposed to mean I was at least 8cm. Hello. It was a horrible disappointment. I had 2 choices...go home and labor some more or walk around for an hour or so and see if I had progressed. We went outside to walk. The contractions were coming fast and hard. I was gagging. Between gags, I told Joel, “I don’t think I can do this.”

We went to the hospital. If I had been ready to deliver by this point...or if I had even been at least 7cm dilated or something...then I think I could’ve done it. But, only 2-3 cm after 12 hours of steady, painful contractions...I knew I couldn’t do it anymore.

I finally made it to the labor and delivery floor after some confusion about our insurance. It was like something in the movies. They wheeled me up immediately while Joel stayed downstairs to do the paperwork and insurance stuff. When I got up there, they had called from downstairs to say that I couldn't be admitted...to take me back down. I got back down and Joel met us at the elevator saying that they had just started taking our insurance that day, to go back up. It was craziness I tell you...and not fun when you are having hard, painful contractions every 2-3 minutes lasting a minute and a half. I got a shot of stadol and phenergan around 8pm or so. Of course all that did was put me to sleep, but I still woke up at the climax of every contraction, still feeling them hard and strong...talk about a rude awakening. I was dehydrated, so I had to have about 1500-2500 cc of fluid before I got an epidural. About 10:30pm (after 15 1/2 hours of labor) I got the epidural. Ahh. It was nice. After the epidural I still felt the pressure and tightness of the contractions, but no pain. (picture: smiling again with the epidural)

About 11:45pm Suzanne and the nurse came in. I was progressing the whole time, just not fast enough for their liking. At this point I was about 5cm dilated. So, they went ahead and broke my water (my bag was bulging bigtime anyway they said) and it was meconium-filled. Now, according to the birth center protocol, anytime waters have meconium in them, that mom and baby is automatically taken to the hospital anyway. So, I would’ve ended up at the hospital no matter what. That made me feel a little better. After that Joel and I just slept...hard...except for when people came in to do things. At one point I started feeling a lot of pain in my right side and they gave me a little bolus of the epidural. Then...slept some more.

At 3am they came in and started some Pitocin on me. I was about 7cm dilated at that point I think, but again, progression was just so slow they said, so that’s what they decided to do. They thought it might help a little. They turned my epidural off between 4 and 5am. I started pushing at 6am. By the time I started pushing I could feel the pain, the ripping (I tore and they also gave me an episiotomy...the attending midwife was a little more on the medical side of the midwife spectrum, i.e. breaking my water, the Pitocin, the episiotomy). OUCH!! It was very painful. Because of the pain, I pushed...and I mean hard and fast. I wanted it over and done. I only pushed for a little over an hour. Grady Lester Ebersole was born January 3rd at 7:09am, weighing in at 9 lbs. 2 oz. and was 21 ½ in. long. He came out with his fist on the side of his head too (there is an actual medical term for this, but I don't remember what it is). He also came out rooting and sucking and holding his head up...and smiling some big smiles with his gorgeous dimples. (picture: pushing flat on my back...horrible)

It was a very different experience than I had expected, but it was great. I was SO EXCITED about my little boy. He is our little noble knight from God. He’s such a joy to us and to everyone he meets. (picture: Grady's first picture)

But, I do have more to tell you concerning the recovery...also not what I had expected. That...tomorrow.