Part 1: Birth Story

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

It's 1:15am and I am wide awake from the contractions that shockingly wake me up every little bit. My induction is scheduled for 4:30am and I am supposed to call at 2:30am to make sure my bed is still reserved. At this point I decided to just stay awake, it was easier to expect the little contractions than try to sleep through them. (p.s. at that point I didn't think they were that little but after having gone through the REAL contractions... those were cake)
So Matt and I get to the hospital, check in, I am 0% effaced and dilated almost to 2, they start me on some prostaglandin gels to help induce labor and get things going.
 Basically it's this tube of gel that they.. well "give you".. and it makes your contractions worse. When I got the first dose (of three) I didn't have the pain yet but I was freaking out because it was going to happen and the nurse said it would make whatever I was feeling progressively worse. Man did that freak me out. By the third dose, I don't remember anything. At noon I was given an IV of stadol, not so much a pain reliever, it's more of a make you confused, loopy, and out of it drug. It made me basically pass out until each contraction started coming again. Or at least that's what I thought. I'm told I was like "sleep anger" passed out but still saying mean things  ? haha  By 12:45 I was dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced with contractions every 2-3min.
 I only know some details from the recap my mom and Matt gave me. My mom came to the hospital around 11am. They told me my eyes would get wide as they could and I looked like I was going to kill someone and I'd grab on to whatever was near me and start yelling "No! No! It's coming, I don't want it!!!" (those contractions were so painful, I do remember that haha). Apparently at some point I was yelling that my butt hurt and why does my butt hurt!? It freaking hurts!!!!! Why does my butt hurt??!!!! Turns out I was having back labor I guess ...? I don't know, I don't remember any of that happening.
Eventually the contractions and pain got so bad I honestly thought I wasn't going to make it through. I was literally thinking in my head, ok this is it. I'm dying now because my body can't handle anymore pain. I think at this point the other drugs wore off because I remember being wheeled into the room and screaming because of the pain. Then feeling bad in because other people around me in the other rooms could probably hear me and I didn't mean to disturb anyone. Haha it was uncontrollable. At 12:20 I got "the stuff." Big ol' needle in my back, I could care less. Nothing compared to those contractions. As I felt it poke in my spine I was more grossed out than feeling the pain, but like I said, those contractions were just so awful nothing compares. They just sucked so bad!

By 4pm I was dilated to an 8. We were all thinking I might be able to do this without pitocin. At this point I was happy and pain free. There were jokes and laughs, other than all of us being a little exhausted, everything was good. By 8pm I hadn't progressed, so I was given the pitocin. An hour later the doctor came and broke my water since it still wouldn't go on its own.
I was still doing fine and not in pain, but whenever I would feel pressure I would start having panic attacks! I must've been traumatized from the contractions earlier, they all start with some cramp like pressure and then BAM! Pain. Although after being reminded to calm the freak down and breath, I was fine ;) Also this was happening while the epidural dispenser was beeping because it was about to run out and I was so afraid to feel the pain. I was literally just so scared! The guy came in to try and replace it with a new cartridge and he went through about seven different ones because for some reason it just wasn't working, therefore only getting me more and more nervous. I was crying and freaking out, haha not because I was in pain, but because I was only getting closer to feeling my legs! Eventually it worked and I got some more of the good stuff.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Around midnight, maybe a little before, they had me start pushing. At this point it was all still fun and games, we were joking and laughing with the nurses in between pushes. I was bribing myself with a Dr. Pepper and lemons, when it was all over, the harder I'd push.
Eventually baby's heart rate was dropping too much and they had to get him out. I ended up tearing a little on the inside, being cut, and they used the vacuum. Turns out the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. ..a few times. Oops! But by 1:26am Beckham Chauncey Loper was out, safe, healthy, and huge haha. 8lbs 12oz.  21 1/4in long.

Wow. Birth is a weird thing.
I knew there was a baby inside of me, a little person.. but for some reason I was so... shocked, I guess you could say, when he came out and they put him on me. He was all of a sudden just placed on my stomach, and I was not expecting it. Looking back now, I don't know what I was expecting, maybe something more calm and someone is like hey, would you like to hold him? Instead, there's all of a sudden a warm, gooey, bloody, small person on me and my first reaction was like ah!, woah, what the heck, oh hey look, baby. haha lot's of thoughts and emotions, and I'm sure my face matched all of them.

While he was getting all cleaned up and passed around, and whatever else was going on, I was definitely starting to feel the pain. I didn't know what was going on around me or to Beck or what was happening, but I was starting to be able to feel the doctor stitching me up and the excruciating pain in my hip all of a sudden. I think while everything was numb and all of the times I was flipped back and fourth earlier trying to get labor going, something happened to my hip and I was now starting to feel all of the after effect from just being floppy and my legs/hips being moved however someone put them each time.
Eventually all was good and pain meds distracted me, someone brought me a sandwich and water, and Layla and Britt brought me that Dr.p with lemons I was working for haha.

By noon I had slept for about 1.5hrs (interrupted) in the past 36 hours. Needless to say, a lot of this was a blur and I'm mostly getting the details from the text updates my mom was sending out!

Friday, June 12, 2015

By now, splitting hospital meals sucked for everyone haha. Luckily it was a bigger breakfast, but I think Matt and I were ready for real meals.
Beck was circumcised that afternoon and did great, so I was told.
Around 4:30pm we started packing up (aka: anything we were allowed to take from the hospital) and were on our way home!

*** (Link to a slide show of his birth-day) https://youtu.be/iR-QartuUFQ

Part 2, with the more interesting things that happened and all the "real" stuff, soon to come...