[Sarah10023]

Birth Story of Jeremy James Johnson

My water broke at 8:45 am Tuesday morning. I had just gone to the bathroom, then climbed back into bed to rest a little longer (while I still could!) then felt wet...ran back to bathroom and told Jeremy (my husband) I think my water just broke! I felt a little flustered and tried to think about what to do first…eat (they wouldn’t let me eat once I got into the hospital) change, make sure my bag was ready? Jeremy called the doula while I called the doctor. Jeremy fed me a Valentine’s chocolate he brought me late the night before. I also had a granola bar.
My contractions started fast when I got into triage at 9:15 am-ish. I didn’t leak walking across the street to the hospital, but once I got there I did continue to leak a lot while checking into triage...wet my pants! (It was sporadic.) Finally after going to the triage bathroom three times and seeing the “bloody show”(just a little bit of blood) in their toilet, they got me out of the waiting room and into a bed for evaluation! They confirmed that my water had broken and admitted me.
Once I was in my delivery room, instead of following the call list I had made as planned, I had Jeremy call my Mom and asked her to tell Dad, Robin and Becky (my sisters) for us. Jeremy called her for me on his cell phone, I spoke with her and told her I was in the hospital and that my water broke. Then I had to give the phone back to Jeremy because I had another contraction. He then texted everyone throughout the afternoon to update them.
I requested the epidural at 12:30 pm when I was 2-3 cm’s dilated. (They wouldn’t give it to me until I was in my room.) I went from 2 cm's to 8 cm's dilated in 1.5 hours...then to 10 one hour after that. Then I rested/napped during that time. It got painful fast waiting for the epidural but they were quick getting it to me. Love the epi! Glad I had it. Jeremy said they heard me yelling in pain from the hallway when Jeremy went to ask for it. My plan was to wait until 5-6 cm's so not to slow progression but it didn't. They only gave me a little pitocin but then turned it off soon after because my body didn't need it anymore. I started pushing at about 3 pm. I had to have a catheter which is standard hospital procedure for having an epidural.
They gave me a button to control the epidural and said it was not possible to overdose on it.
I breathed slowly, pushing three times with each contraction (counted to ten with each push). Jeremy held my neck and head up with a pillow, and I had my chin to my chest and held my breath with each big push. Jeremy held one leg and the doula (Tanya – Nikita’s back up since I went into labor so early) held the other.
We tried pushing with the bar and a sheet wrapped around it for a little while, in a sort of sitting up position on the bed, but baby didn’t like that…heart rate went down a little, so we stopped soon after.
They used an internal and external monitor on baby. (They added the internal one later on when the baby’s heart rate went down a little.)
They also used oxygen on me when the baby’s heart rate fell a little bit.
I didn’t want Jeremy to look down there when we made the birth plan, but in the room/moment I said he could if he wanted to. He did but didn’t see the head or the baby come out.
Most women do poop and Jeremy said I did early on, but that is normal.
Tanya (doula) could see his head/hair while I was pushing.
I could see everything a little in the reflection of the TV in the room, but only really saw blood.
I had to push with my abs just like they taught in prenatal yoga class.
I was soooo thirsty. I told them I could probably push better if I had some water to drink. J The doula finally gave me a few small sips of apple juice and the doctor “looked away”. Jeremy didn’t want her to (against hospital policy) but she did anyway. Felt better after that. Ice chips just weren’t cutting it anymore!
I got a little tired pushing for almost three hours, but it was okay with the short breaks. I even didn’t push with some big contractions to give myself a rest as the doctor suggested.
They said they’d have to use forceps to guide his head out because I had space for him to come out near the bottom of my pelvis, but he kept going towards the top where my pelvic bones were more of a v shape instead of rounded. Baby was also facing “sunny-side up” so they tried to turn him a little.
When they used the forceps at the end, they put my feet in the stirrups instead of them holding them.
They started to use the forceps at 5:40 pm-ish since he had trouble going the right way under my bones so needed to be guided but wasn't too bad. There was room but he wasn’t going the right way. I pushed for about 2.75 hours.
When they started with the forceps they also started getting the table ready for the baby, which Jeremy pointed out to me. That was very exciting!
I tore and received three “big” stitches. They did not do an episiotomy as they said it is better to tear naturally than to get one.
Baby Jeremy slipped out fast all at once right when his head came out. So cute. They put him right on my belly like I wanted. So exciting!
I said “Oh my God, he is so cute!” when they put baby on my tummy right after he was born, and Jeremy said “Whoa!” because he came out so fast…head and body all at once!
Baby had a lot of vernix on him which got on my hands and was soft, smooth and white like a good hand cream.
The placenta was hard to get out as well. They said it was attached very well.
The doctor joked that the baby was a girl and Jeremy made a face like he believed her for a second…shocked…very funny.
Jeremy cut the cord, but was unable to take a photo at the same time.
We had four names chosen, but when Jeremy was sitting with him and they were stitching me up, I said I wanted to name him after his daddy.
Baby came a few days before our 2 day weekend intensive childbirth class at the hospital scheduled for 38 weeks (daddy was happy to get out of that), also before our infant CPR class (which we then had to take after he was born) and before our FEU (Fetal Evalution Unit) ultrasound to find out a good estimate on his size using measurements of his head, abdomen and thigh bone.
I loved Dr. Amy Huang (one of Dr. Bradley’s partners). She explained everything we did and held my hand as she spoke to me. She had a wonderful bedside manner.
We kept him with us in the hospital but he was a little jaundiced so for one day they put him under the bilirubin lights. I was in a double room the first night alone with baby, then J and I had private room the second night, and the third night I was discharged but he wasn't yet so we stayed "hotel" room upstairs in the hospital so I could continue to breastfeed every couple of hours (walking across the street would have been to difficult because of my pain). We had to supplement with Similac formula each time after breastfeeding for about a week to help get rid of the jaundice. (Went back to exclusive breastfeeding only when he was one week old because the pediatrician said we could! Yay!)

He was born at 5:53 pm on Tuesday 2-15-11. Only a 9 hour labor from my water breaking to him being born! Better than I expected for my first baby. He weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces and 20 inches long. He has cute blue eyes that study my face when I talk to him, and dark blonde hair. I love him more than I ever could have imagined.
Looking back, the night before (Valentine’s Day) I finished reading all of my pregnancy books and my book club book, got the car seat and stroller ready for when we would take baby home from the hospital, and put the last few items (snacks, etc) in my hospital bag. And for the previous couple of days I felt very heavy and started walking less and taking more cabs around town. That night I prayed for a quick and easy delivery. Guess baby was giving me hints he was coming early!