Logan's Birth Story

So here's my birth story. If you don't want all the details, then stop reading.

At 4 am, on July 2, I woke up, and I felt my water break. I was like, "Whoa, that was weird." I wasn't sure that's exactly what had happened, but I was pretty sure. So I went to the bathroom and then laid back down, and after laying there for about five minutes, I woke Jordan up.

"Um, Jordan?"
"Yeah?"
"I think my water maybe broke?"
"What? Just now?"
"No, like fifteen minutes ago?"
"What! Why didn't you wake me up?"

Anyway. I wasn't having any contractions, so I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go to the hospital or call my doctor, so I called Dr. Payne. He was like, "Yay! This is what we've been waiting for!" (I was scheduled for induction the next day) and told me to go to the hospital. We woke up my parents and told them what was going on, and they were super excited. I ate a bowl of Cherrios because I was too excited to eat anything else. Dad and Jordan gave me a blessing, which was very calming. We got Lexi out of her kennel and said goodbye to her, and then Jordan and I drove to the hospital.

We got all checked in and they hooked me up and informed me that I was having contractions, which was weird because I couldn't feel ANYTHING. The nurse checked me and said yep, my water broke (duh), and that I was only dilated to a 1. Gahhhhh.

Here I am in the room where they decide if they want to admit you or not.

Can I just say I was really, really glad I'd taken the
time to straighten my hair the night before.

They got me into my own room and hooked me up to an IV and pitocin (to make my contractions stronger). I labored for a while and they kept upping my pitocin because my contractions weren't regular. It took a lot of time, but Jordan and I tried to rest while I was laboring. Jordan had to sleep on this super tiny couch.

I was starting to get really uncomfortable. Penny, the midwife who works with my OBGYN, came in at 11 and checked me and I was STILL at a 1. I was super depressed, since after 7 hours I'd made no progress. Plus I was in a lot of pain from the pitocin. I finally asked for the epidural.

The anesthesiologist came in around 11:30 and put the epi in. They had me sit on the edge of the bed and Jordan face me. Unfortunately Jordan almost passed out due to low blood sugar and the nurse had to grab him and sit him down and get him some apple juice and crackers. I was jealous of that, since I was totally starving and thirsty by that time.

I tried to pass the time by watching Friends. 

Once the epi kicked in I started feeling a lot better, but I was getting tired. Even though I couldn't feel the contractions, my body was still doing the work, and I wasn't progressing hardly at all. At 1:00, Dr. Payne came in and checked me and I was at a 1.5. I started to worry about having a c-section, since my body obviously wasn't doing it's job correctly. Two and a half hours later, he came in and checked again--no progess. I was more worried than ever about having to get a c-section.

Dr. Payne said they were going to use a Foley bulb to dilate me. He blew up this little balloon inside of me and then it was supposed to slowly deflate and fall out and make me dilate to a 4. At 6:30 the procedure was finished and I was at a 4! I was so happy. I was hopeful things would happen more quickly after that, but it had taken me 14 hours to get to a 4 and I was really worried it would take 14 more hours to get to an 8. I even asked my doctor, "At what point do we give up here?" He told me at about 24 hours they would make that decision, because when your water breaks you are at higher risk of infection.

At 7:30 they checked me again and I was at a 7, and happy! Well. I was kind of too out of it to be too thrilled. Dr. Payne said, "Oh yeah, we are definitely going to get this done."

About an hour later he came in and said, "I have to do a c-section." I was like, "WHAT!" and nearly had a heart attack. He was like, "Oh shoot. No, not you! My other patient!" My heart rate slowed down to a reasonable rate and he and Jordan laughed. He said to Jordan, "It's a good thing she has an epidural. I think she probably would have kicked me." He had just come in to tell me that I would have to hang out for a while he did the c-section, and then I would probably be ready.

We waited about an hour before Penny came in and checked me again. Before she got there I kept feeling a little popping feeling in my cervix. I was sure I was getting ready to push. I was so tired and hungry that by the time Penny told me that I was ready to go, I was kind of just like, "Okay." No emotion really. I was so tired. Did I say that already?

They got the room all set up and Penny started having me push at 10:00. Dr. Payne and Dr. Price (the new OBGYN at the practice) came in a few minutes later. I could feel the contractions but they didn't hurt. Jordan held one of my legs and the nurse held the other, and Penny and the two doctors coached me through the contractions. I pushed for an hour, almost exactly, and Logan was born at 11:07 pm. Penny wiped him off quickly and put him on my tummy, and Jordan cut the umbilical cord. It was very surreal. I had felt him in my tummy for several months, but it was hard to translate that into an actual screaming baby.

They took Logan to be weighed and I told Jordan to go with the baby. I delivered the placenta (which was, like, more painful than birthing the baby), and then Dr. Payne stitched me up, which took forever. I had a 2nd degree tear and around 20 stitches. The doctors kept talking about how crazy big Logan was. After I'd been stitched up, I started shaking really badly. I felt very very sick, and I told the doctors. At first they told me it was just hormonal let down or something. I wasn't convinced.

My parents were able to come in about an hour after Logan was born and meet him. They were so excited to become grandparents! I was so grateful that they were able to be here for this special event.

This is one of the first pictures of Logan and I. I look a lot better than I feel.

I started to feel worse. Everyone kept asking me if I wanted to hold Logan but I was afraid I would drop him with how much I was shaking. I also felt like the room was spinning. I couldn't focus on anything--my eyes were rolling and nothing felt real--I felt like I was hallucinating everything I saw. I kept saying, "I don't feel good, I feel really sick," and they finally believed me that something was wrong. I had a fever of 103. I was told I'd probably got an infection from how long my water had been broken before I delivered. I stayed in my bed for a couple of hours and then attempted to get up--since they told me I couldn't go down to my recovery room till I could stand. When I finally stood up, I had crazy ringing in my ears and almost passed out. The nurses helped me back down and I stayed there for another hour. I finally stood up and they got us to the recovery room at about 3:30 am. I was still extremely weak and sick, so we sent Logan to the nursery while we tried to rest.

Jordan took really good care of Logan until the nurses took him.

I just have to say, I was so grateful for Jordan during this whole process. He was such an amazing support. He just kept telling me how great I was doing and whenever I would ask for anything he would hop up and get it for me. He was the same way during recovery. He is just so awesome. I'm the luckiest girl ever.

The day after Logan was born I was still pretty out of it. I asked for no visitors because I felt so sick and in pain. I could hardly stand up and walk, so Jordan and my parents had to take care of Logan for most of the day; I could feed him but not change his diaper or hop up to get him when he cried. But I was able to lay him on my chest and snuggle him and enjoy him. I sure love that little guy!

We celebrated the 4th of July in the hospital. It wasn't much of a celebration, but we dressed him up anyway. Our pediatrician thought he looked very handsome, and the nurse was so impressed she took him out to show the other nurses how cute his outfit was!

Because Logan was born while I had a fever, he had an elevated temperature so we had to stay an extra day, even though it immediately went down and he was fine. We were discharged on Friday, July 5 at around 11:00 and headed home!

Here's a better picture of his coming home outfit:

So that's my birth story. It has made me even more grateful for my family and especially my husband. I just love him so much and I love that I was able to give him his son. He is already an amazing father and I am trying to be a good mommy as well!