Samuel's birth story part 1

Samuel Colby Thomas was born via c-section on November 2, 2012 at 11:02pm.  He was 7lbs. 3 oz. and 20 1/4 inches long. I wanted to write down his birth story before I forget. 

Our original plan: go into labor naturally, labor at home as long as possible, control pain naturally, have a vaginal birth, and keep our sweet baby boy in our room with us as much a possible.  Yep- that was the plan.

His birth story begins on November 1st.  You can read that story here.  So after that crazy drs. appointment, we were off to begin final preparations for our little man.  My brother drove my mom down from Indianapolis (and he got back home after midnight- what an amazing brother I have!)  We finished laundry and a few other things we needed to take care of.  Will took Kristen and I out for 1 last dinner as a family of 3.  We were told to call the hospital at 5am on Friday, and they would tell us what time to come in.  We all went to bed excited and anxious for the next day.

Kristen apparently caught some sort of stomach bug, and spent the night throwing up- ev.er.y.where.  So we were up all night with her.  Perfect way to begin labor, right?

So at 5 we called the hospital and were told to check in by 6:15.  So we left mom with the puking girl (I'm not sure who got the better end of the deal that day! Us, or mom!) and headed out.  They started my pitocin and about 8am.  Will and I were able to get some sleep in the morning.  We were nervous about the day, but ready to get going.  I was a little upset to find out that I was pretty much confined to the bed that day because of the pitocin, but since I came in dilated 2 cm. already, I figured labor would progress quickly and we'd be ok.  His heart rate was a little all over the place, and so the nurses monitored that closely.

At 1:00, I hadn't made any progress, and so the dr. broke my water to try to get things moving.  It also helped them know how strong to make the pitocin, because they were able to insert a tube and measure exactly how strong my contractions were.  The plan was to move things along a little quicker at this point.  The nurses were upping the pitocin, and contractions were painful, but we were working through them.  At 5:00, the dr. checked me again for dialation and I was 3 cm.  (At this point I just about threw someone out the window!) I figured I had to be close to 6-7 cm based on my contractions and pain.  If I was that far, I knew I could make it through the rest of labor and delivery.  However, when the dr. told me I was only 3 cm we had some decisions to make.

Since we had been up all night the night before with Kristen, and we had labored for so long already and hadn't made hardly any progress, I realized that I wouldn't be able to be worth much to either of my children if things continued to progress at that rate.  Also, even though we told Kristen that it may be Saturday before she met her brother, she was very worried about me, and it helped her to talk with me on the phone.  I wasn't able to do that when my contractions were so strong.  Samuel was struggling too- his heart rate was all over the place.  So, we decided to get an epidural.  Best. decision. I. made.  I was able to rest, Samuel calmed down, and I was able to talk with Kristen and assure her that I was ok.

At 7:00, I had dialated to 4 cm, and was resting (yay!).  We also had some bloody show, so I was tired, but feeling better about things.  Nurses were continuing to up the pitocin and contractions were strong and regular.... at 10:00, I was still at 4 cm. 

Quite frankly, at this point, I was done.  I had gone 2 cm in 14 hours of labor.  Also, I was thinking about my nephew Caleb's labor and delivery, and how he was in more stress than the drs. realized he was, and he ended up in the nicu for a few days because of it.  I just sensed that Sam was under more stress than he was showing, and the MOST important thing was that he was safe. 

We chatted with the dr. and she said that I had a narrow pelvis, and it just wasn't progressing very well for delivery.  She said we could continue to labor for another couple of hours if we wanted to and see if things started moving, but after that, she was going to do a c-section.  She thought, however, that we were about as far as we were going to get.  I agreed with her, and so we decided to do the c-section right away.




It was a good thing too.  He had a little cone shape on part of his head from where he was trying to come out, and he had a big bruise on his shoulder.  He also had a knot in his cord.  Basically, the boy wasn't going to be able to get out on his own, no matter how long we labored.  We were thrilled, and I sobbed at God's goodness to bless us with a son.