Quentin's birth story

So, I'm sitting here, eating a spoonful of peanut butter while little Mr. Quentin sleeps; and thought, heck I should type out this birth story of ours. I'll admit, I've been hesitant about doing it cause, labor was not pleasant for me, and its something that tore me up for a few days. I did not enjoy it. And I didn't want to write a super negative post.

Okay.

So the night before, (27th) I got the foley bulb put in. Talk about being uncomfortable. It made me feel like I was actually having full-on labor contractions. It fell out about 4 hrs later. Which made me excited! Meant I was 4-5 cm dilated.

We arrived at the hospital on the 28th at 8:30 am. After they did all their normal tests, they started me on pitocin. We were feeling optimistic about me already being 5 cm dilated. I honestly thought it was gonna happen by noon... nope. Most of the day was boring, just me hanging out, waiting for me to be dilated enough to push. The doctors kept upping the pitocin every hour or so. Nothing really changed. By around noon, they broke my water (Poor Michael! He didn't know what they meant when they said they were gonna "rupture" me. He was NOT expecting that! haha) We were hoping that would speed along my labor. It kinda did. I went to 6 cm after that.

The doctors noticed that Quentin's head was down, but off to the left. He wasn't progressing. So they wanted to warn me, that a c-section might be in my future.

Again, they kept upping my pitocin. And it was getting pretty uncomfortable. I opted to get the ole' epidural around 5 pm. They were giving me 3 times the limit for pitocin, and I WAS FEELING IT. I hated, hated HATED the epidural. I totally regretted getting it. I was toooo numb. I could lift my legs or move my toes. I did not like the feeling.

Jess (my sister) came by around 6:30 pm. And around that time, I was cranky, tired, uncomfortable and super hungry. They wouldn't let me eat since the night before, except for ice chips and popsicles. I couldn't even drink water. humph. Thank god Jess came by, she kept us laughing and kept Michael company.

The same routine happened over and over again. They came in, checked to see how dilated I was, upped my pitocin and left. Finally around 3 am of the 29th I was about 9-10cm dilated! YAY. Quentin's head seemed to have moved more to the birth canal, still a little off centered, but the doctors thought contractions and pushing would change that. They had me start pushing, but it wasn't working too well. I was too numb to feel my contractions. So they took me off the epidural.

HOLY COW. With all the pitocin being pumped in me with no pain meds, it sucked.

Jess left a little after 3 am. She had to be back home to sleep and watch Wyatt.

By 5 am, we were told LETS PUSH! Holla. I did the first 2 hours with no epidural. Quentin's head was turned to the side, we couldn't get him to turn. With all my pushing and the doctor's efforts of turning his head, he wouldn't move. My doctor called her resident doctor to come in and make a decision if a c-section was in our future. The resident was hopeful of getting his head turned straight and told me "If I have it in me to keep pushing, that it still might be a vaginal birth."

So of course I kept pushing. FOR ANOTHER 3 HRS! The cut off (that this hospital does) is 3 hrs of pushing, then it turns to a c-section. I was so so so exhausted. I would push on contractions, and then flop back and ACTUALLY DOZE OFF between pushing. My whole body was beyond tired. By hour 5, they stopped my pushing. It was 19 hrs since my water broke, and Quentin's head hadn't progressed. He was stuck in my birth canal.

The next hour happened so fast. They decided they needed to do a c-section. I was so tired and overwhelmed by then. I couldn't stop shaking all over and couldn't stop crying. My nerves were so shot and I wanted everything to be over.

They took me in the operating room, strap me down and started to cut. I told them I COULD FEEL THAT. They gave me more medication, about 4 more times. And started to cut again. I told them again, I COULD FEEL THAT. The anesthesiologist didn't believe me. She kept saying I could feel "pressure" and that was normal. NO, I FELT YOU CUTTING INTO ME.

So again, they started to cut into me, and this time it hurt SOOO badly I yelled. Thats when they believed me, and chose to put me under general, which meant Michael had to wait outside. THANK GOD.

I'm so thankful that I felt the cuts, and that they put me under general because I would have lost my mind when Quentin was born. And Michael would have too.

Quentin came out NOT breathing. He had Meconium Aspiration. The stress of 5 hours of pushing did it. They rushed him off to the NICU. I can only imagine how scary that would have been to see if I was awake.

So I woke up, and I was informed of what happened. Michael was in the NICU with him. And I was told I couldn't see him yet. UGH. TORTURE. I was so overwhelmed and upset. I first saw him in a picture on someone's cell phone. I started bawling. I didn't get to actually see Quentin until 9 pm that night. :( I couldn't hold him until the 31st. He was way too stressed out and had tons of IVs and tubes on him. It sucked. I was super depressed. I can't believe I almost lost my baby.

When Quentin was finally discharged from the hospital, one of the nurses came up to me. She was a total Grandma type. She told me she was "So thankful he is okay. His delivery was the second most scared I've have been my whole life." Whoa.

Jess and I downplayed just how scary and close we were to losing Quentin. But it was very real to me. I needed a few days to heal after all this. Definitely the most intense moment of my life. Something I never want to relive.

But EVERYONE IS OKAY NOW. Quentin is a healthy screaming baby. I've bounced back, even lost 30lbs so far. So heres to the future!