LIAM’S BIRTH STORY
While it’s been 12 weeks since Liam was born, I wrote this almost immediately when we got home. Here goes (warning: it’s a bit intense).
I wanted to write Liam’s birth story down while it was still fresh in my mind. Baby boy is 9 days old and we’ve officially been home for a full week. Time flies when you have a newborn because they feed every 2.5-3 hours during the day and up to 4 hours at night. Liam takes an hour to feed so by the time he’s done I only have 1.5-2 hours to nap, tidy the house, etc etc. It’s been a whirlwind but he is so cute and we have been so lucky so far. I realize birth stories aren’t everyone’s cup of tea so feel free to skip this post if it’s too much for you 😉
I always had a feeling I’d be a few days early. My due date was June 11, but I thought it would be sweet if I delivered our baby boy on our 9 year anniversary of dating (June 7) meaning his first birthday would be the 10 year anniversary of our first date!! On Monday, June 4th, I went to my doctor and to our surprise I was already 3cm dilated. I didn’t really tell anyone because I found out you can walk around for weeks at 3cm dilated and I really wanted the experience to be ours at this point. At noon on Wednesday, June 6th I went back to my doctor’s office and was 5cm dilated (you can get admitted to the hospital at 4cm so this was pretty big). He told me to come back a few hours later if I wasn’t already in labour, and that I would be having a baby that night. WOAH. I called P, he came home from work, and we got as mentally prepared as we possibly could. I went back at 5:30 to the doctor’s office and while he was checking me, my waters broke (exactly what it’s like in the movies…haha). He told me to wait until 8:30pm unless I was in severe pain and then head to the hospital.
We watched the Warriors game (P liked this part of labour) and I started feeling contractions (but they didn’t hurt). I started to think hmmm, maybe this is what contractions feel like and I can do this whole thing without drugs! Around 8:30 we headed to the hospital and I started to have to “breathe” through each contraction. Once we got to triage, and they put me in the examining room, my contractions were 4 minutes apart and starting to get really painful. I asked for medication. They gave me laughing gas while we waited for the epidural and my doctor to check me in. The laughing gas did virtually nothing and my contractions started getting significantly more intense. I think the nurses thought I was being a bit dramatic because 20 minutes earlier I was smiling ear to ear and totally fine, but I progressed really quickly. By the time my room was ready, my contractions were absolutely unbearable. We had to go up the elevator and down what seemed like the longest hallway known to man. I had to stop against the wall for two contractions on the way. Once we got to the room, I was in so much pain and felt like I was going to black out. About an hour and a half after we arrived at the hospital, the anesthesiologist came and gave me the epidural. By this point, it was about 11PM and my contractions were 3 minutes apart, meaning I only had 2 minutes to compose myself between contractions, and I had residual pain on both sides of the contractions. Basically from my mid thigh to lower back, everything in between was in excruciating pain. P was such a champ at this point, letting me squeeze his hand, encouraging me. It was SO painful. Once the epidural set in, I didn’t feel a thing and started to get excited. My doctor came by and told me I was 10cm dilated and ready to push, but he’d give me an hour to rest since I’d been through a lot by this point.
To our luck, the clock struck midnight and I realized I would have our baby on our anniversary! The doctor came back at 12:30 and we began to push. With the epidural, I actually enjoyed pushing. It was hard work but I listened to my doctor and really enjoyed the process. I pushed for about an hour. His head was popping in and out, but once his little body got around my pelvic bone, my doctor told me the hardest part was over. I was about to meet my baby!! A few pushes later, and Liam’s little body was being held above mine. I felt tears streaming down my face unknowingly and felt an overwhelming surge of love for this human I had just met. I was clearly super excited to meet him, because I grabbed him and pulled him close so quickly that my umbilical cord snapped in half (not ideal) but we rolled with it. He was SO alert – he and P just stared at each other. I couldn’t really see him at this point because he was on my chest.
Then came the tough part – I had placenta accreta. I won’t go into details but I lost a lot of blood. By this point I was in a ton of pain, extremely nauseous, and incredibly tired. We rested for a few hours. The next morning I stood up and almost fainted from the loss of blood. I was on antibiotics, gravol for the nausea, saline from the epidural…it was a lot. I felt pretty terrible for the rest of the day, and learned my hemoglobin count was at 70 (120 – 160 is normal). We stayed in the hospital for 4 days because of my blood count. Liam got discharged before I did!
When we finally got home, a huge rush of emotion came over me. I think I had finally allowed myself to understand the overwhelming nature of my delivery as well as the fact that our son was home. It was an intense moment as my hormones were clearly working overtime as well.
Over the past week we’ve gotten into the swing of things. Feeding is challenging because of the frequency of feeds he requires, but he’s a happy, healthy boy and we couldn’t be luckier to have him.
I have so much more to say but will leave that for another post.
All in all, I was fortunate with my labour since it was short and the actual delivery was enjoyable but I gotta say, I have so much respect for moms. If you know, you know.