Monday, April 30, 2012

Our Little Family Begins (Corbin's birth story)

On the morning of April 23 I woke up kind of early and felt like my body was trying to clean its self out. I also had light contractions, that I have had since the 18th because I had been in "early stage labor" since then, contractions ever 5 to 10 min but not intense. But this time everything felt a little different, for instance I took a nap which I never do. The contractions started getting stronger but not enough to really bother me until after I made dinner. I ended up not being able to eat it because it did not look appetizing any more and my body was focused on getting Corbin out.
Around 7 pm the contractions kicked up even more and I started to feel like it was not going to stop and by the end we would have our baby boy in our arms very soon and Garret and I decided to go on a walk. At 9:10 pm I was leaning over the bed to get some relief to my back during a contraction. When the contraction stooped I sat down  on the floor and felt a big gush I went to the bathroom and my underwear were soaked. I changed my underwear and the on call midwife and explained the situation and she told me that it sounded like  my water had broken. She also told me to try to get some sleep if I could and to come in when my contractions were getting intense. Then I called my Mom to let her know that she should make her way to Corvallis (she was in Heppner, OR taking care of my Grandpa Wilson after having hip surgery). So Garret and I went to bed and tried to get some sleep. I would fall asleep and wake up with every contraction until around 12:30 and then I could not lay down anymore. For another hour I tried to let Garret get some sleep and deal with the contractions on my own. At about 1:30 am I woke up Garret and had him help me with the contractions. He would rub my back and help remind me to "blow away" the contraction while doing other things. At 2:30 I decided it was time we go to the hospital and I called my Mom to tell her to do the same. We arrived at the hospital at 3 am and my Mom pulled in right behind us. At that moment I told my Mom I wanted her in the delivery room, I had not told her earlier because I did not want her to hurry on her 5 hr drive and get a ticket or get in an accident. We went up to labor and delivery but the midwife who was on call at the time did not want to check me because she did not want to introduce bacteria since my water had already broken. I was then put on monitors for 20 minutes and then they let me do some laboring on the ball, where my mom rubbed my back, and in the tub.

Laboring on the ball (there were three, one for each of us)
Around 7 am they had a shift change for the on call midwife and now I had Katie Robins as my midwife. At 8 am Katie decided she wanted to check me to see if I had made any progress. She checked and said I was only 4 to 5 cm dilated and his head was  stationed at a -3 (I say only because I had been at 3 cm since the 18th), I was very disappointed.. She also said that it seemed that my water had broken up high and there was still a pocket of amniotic fluid between the baby's head and my cervix. She asked if I would like her to break it but warned me that it would make the contractions longer and stronger, and that I would have to stay on the monitors for 20 minutes again. I told her right away that I wanted it broken. Right away I felt the difference in the contractions they were much much stronger and I hated being in the bed. After 20 minutes they took the monitors off and asked me to walk the length of the hall 3 times, I only made it one and a half times with stopping and "dancing" with Garret and then decided there was no way I could walk any more. We went back in the room and I felt like I needed to have a bowl movement (biggest sign that you are ready to push) but the nurse just told me that I would most likely not be able to go and brushed it off like it was nothing. I got in the tub where I labored for about an hour. At the end of that hour I could not handle the pain any more and told Garret that I needed to get something for the pain. He said ok and went and get the nurse and she told me my options were either a drug called Fentanyl or an epidural. I said I wanted the Fentanyl. The nurse said that was fine but I would have to get on the bed to be checked, then would be given the drug and then be monitored for another 20 minutes. I said that was fine and Garret helped me get out of the tub and onto the bed.
At this time it was about 9:30 am Katie (the midwife) came in to check me and we were all surprised when she said I was fully dilated, 100% effaced and his head was stationed at 0.
It was time to push!!!!
At around 9:40 am I started to push on a birthing stool, to me everything seemed to be going great. But what I was not hearing was that the baby's heart rate would drop to about 60 bpm every time I would push. So they ended up putting an internal monitor on his head to get a better reading and make sure it was not my heart rate the monitor was reading. Once they got the internal monitor put on the told me that I could push again, but his heart rate still was dropping every time I pushed. So they decided I needed to get on the bed and push from there. (moving from the birthing stool to the bed was one of the worst parts of labor) When I got on the bed I was really ready to push our baby out. They had me lay on my left side (Garret holding my right leg and my Mom holding my left) at first and tried pushing that way, but his heart rate was still not good so they gave me an oxygen mask and asked me to stop pushing a few times which I did not realize the reason why at the time. His heart rate still did not get better so they decided to have me move to my right side and push from there, Garret and my mom changed sides too. When I got on my right side I started pushing and could feel his head coming out, again trying to distract me from pushing they had me reach down and feel his head. Only a few pushes later and our baby was born!
Corbin Gabriel Ascherl was born at 10:24 am on Tuesday April 24, 2012. Weighing 6 pounds and 12 ounces!!!!!

Over all I would say labor for me was not that difficult and did not get difficult until I felt like I should be pushing and I was no pushing. And it was 100% drug free, including recovery! I would do it again in a heartbeat to get the cutest little boy I could ever dream of!

Our Little Family has Begun
Garret cutting the cord

Garret holding Corbin for the first time
 
Holding daddy's hand


Proud Nana and Proud Mommy
Holding mommy's hand

Our cute little boy

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