My Birth Story...

I meant to do this earlier this week but as some of you already know Mark had to be readmitted to the hospital tuesday night due to jaundice, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise since it turned out to be more than that. He stopped breathing for about 30 seconds or so which after several test were done turned out he had an infection that we had caught very early(thank god) and antibiotics seemed to have done the trick, we also found out he has a heart murmur and a small hole in his heart that should heal itself(which isn't very uncommon in newborns). We got to come home last night and he seems to be doing well. So now on to my birth story!

As everyone knows I was scheduled for an induction the morning of the 16th at 6am. I had such a hard time sleeping that night, I felt like a kid on christmas eve knowing that the next day I was going to meet my son for the first time. I got up around 4:30 since I just couldn't sleep anymore and I noticed I felt some cramping but just shrugged it off as nothing since it wasn't timeable or painful. I got a phone call at a little after 5am from the hospital telling me all the beds were full and that I was getting pushed back and they would call between 8 and 9am to let me know more. I decided to have breakfast with my mom and nephew and to go to Target to pick up a few things that I had forgot(at this point I was still having some dull cramps on and off). I got a call around 8:30 telling me they were ready for me to come in to start the induction. I went home to pick up my bags and Jason and off we went to the hospital.

We got to the hospital at 9:20 and signed in. I was taken to my room and they started to hook me up to the monitors to make sure Mark was ok to start the pitocin and begin the induction. The nurse asked if I had felt something and I told her "No,why?" her response was "Your having contractions and they are about 5 minutes apart". She checked my cervix and I was almost 4 centimeters and 95% effaced and already in the beginning of labor(This was at 10:30am)! They went ahead and started the pitocin to see if it would speed things up/make the contractions stronger since I wasn't feeling anything.

By noon the pitocin was working and my contractions were about three minutes apart and I still wasn't feeling them so they upped the dosage even more. Around 2:30 pm the contractions were 2 and half minutes apart and I was starting to feel them, it was a dull pressure for me still not painful but I found out I had to get the epidural soon if I wanted it before the broke my water otherwise I would have to wait a while since the anesthesiologist was going into a C-section soon. I got the epidural in around 3, around 3:30 my Dr came in and broke my water(which I didn't even feel thank you epidural) and I found out I was 5 centimeters. The kept upping my pitocin throughout the day, I honestly can't remember when and how often.

Around 5:30 they checked me again and I was only 6, maybe 6 and a half so they figured we would be in for a loooong night. Around 6:30 I started feeling alot of pressure and feeling an urge to push so I called my nurse so they could check and to our surprise I had dilated to 9 so three centimeters in one hour! Around 7 they checked again and I was 9 and a half(just a lip of the cervix remaining on the right side). When they checked at 8 it was still the same so the nurse tried to help things along by manually moving the cervix on the right side.

At 9:30 I was feeling alot of pushing urges so my nurse checked and I was at 10 so we started the pushing but I only got to push for about 10 minutes when someone rushed in and told us to stop because Dr. Eckel(my OB) had to rush into an emergency c-section. They had me labor down until 11 pm which wasn't easy fighting the urges to push.

At 11 pm we started the pushing once again. At this point I started to feel some of the pain with pressure and it was getting worse with every contraction. I had a drip epidural which at this point wasn't going to help since he was so close to being born. After 35 minutes of pushing with no pain meds Mark Jason Diffenbaugh was born at 11:35 weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces and 21 inches. We found out as he came out that the cord was wrapped around his neck one time and he also had a cone shaped head since it was so big(13.5 inches!). I ended up having three 2nd degree tears(a perinial tear,clitoral tear and a right labia tear) and had some issues with bleeding out too much but he is worth every bit of it. I can honestly say the second they put him on my chest nothing else mattered in the world, everything revolved around him and I stopped feeling all the pain because I was just so lost in meeting my baby boy. The second they took him off to get cleaned I started feeling the stiches and all that.

Thats the story of how my little man made his appearance into this world. I feel so blessed and amazed to be his Momma! I love watching my husband interact with our son, it makes me fall in love with him all over again. I never knew that this kind of love existed or was even possible, there is honestly no love like the love a child brings.