Birth Story by Featured Mama Alexis

I had my heart set on a natural delivery (in a hospital setting). I ended up with a c-section. I had membranes striped on 12/6/12 to try to help the process since I was almost 4cm already. I had some contractions that night but nothing major. I went into work the next morning (12/7) and by lunch I was keeping track on my phone the spacing. Side note, I worked at my ob office! My replacement walked out while I was at lunch and I knew that would be enough stress! By 4:30 I went back and asked my ob to check me before we finished for the day. I was around 5 1/2cm. She sent me over to l&d and by 6pm when I got there I was around 6cm. They broke my water and I was doing great until I got to around 9cm then stalled. They had to give me a small dose of pitocin to help me along. This made my contractions almost unbearable! At this point I was still pain med free! By midnight/1am I finally was ready to push. I pushed for over 3 hours with only centimeters of my poor sons head making it out. He was sunny side up. I could tell by the look on my doctors face it wasn't going as we planned. By this point I had no energy left, and still hadn't had any pain medication. She mentioned trying the vacuum to assist, I agreed because I didn't want to give up on my dream of a natural delivery. There's nothing scarier then NICU coming in just in-case something happens. After 2 or 3 attempts with the vacuum I knew we were headed to an c-section. I was exhausted, it was around 5:30am. I just wanted my son here safe and sound. I'm grateful that both of us were handling this process ok. They got me prepped for surgery, at this point I had no IV's so they had to push fluids for it. I was having to bare down some to keep him in place and suffer thru contractions as they placed my spinal while trying to stay still. My poor hubby wasn't allowed back there until after it was placed. My son was born at 6:11am on 12/8/12 by c-section. He came out as perfect as can be. My son even latched on to nurse while in recovery which made everything perfect. We're going on 18 months of nursing! I was truly blessed with a great team of doctors and nurses.