How the cutest baby ever to be in a belly, came to be the cutest baby ever to come out of a belly

I’m finally following through, so here’s the story of how the labor/delivery of Gus went.

First of all, I just have to say that it was all totally worth it!!! I’d go thru it all again and more in a heart beat to have my precious little boy Gus! Also, I may say “we” a lot in what follows, and that is because Dan was a part of every moment and decision of Gus’ birth, and I couldn’t have done it without him!

Before I even got pregnant, I put a lot of time and research into educating myself about the whole birthing process and the options that women have. I was born at home by a midwife, and Dan was also born at home, so that was a route I seriously considered. But after looking into it here in the Moscow area, I just wasn’t comfortable with the options and opted to have him in the hospital, esp. since this was my first time. But I was determined to have him naturally with out an epidural or other hospital interventions if at all possible. To keep it brief, the main reason I wanted this is because epidurals often snow ball into needing other interventions and medications which lead to needing a c-section more than w/o.

My whole pregnancy was very low risk, except I developed gestational diabetes (GD) in the last trimester which wasn’t a whole lot of fun: pricking myself to test by blood and giving my self insulin shots about 4+ times a day. I couldn’t eat very much sugar or carbs. The hardest was not being able to eat as much fruit as I was used to. Because of the GD, the worry is that the baby will get too big if not controlled or if the baby goes over the due date. So my doctor recommended inducing at my due date, if the baby didn’t come before that. So I hiked stairs, took long walks and did all I could to get him to come before that, but to no avail!

We went into the hospital on Wednesday night and we tried a less certain method of induction first, cervadil, because if it worked it would just kick start my own contractions instead of forcing them with an artificial hormone, pitocin. And luckily it worked and by 4 am that morning I was in labor. I labored that whole day. Dan was with me at every moment and was such a great support and help! By that evening I was only at 4 cm, though.

The Afternoon of the 1st day

I slept a few hours that night with a sleeping pill, but by 4 am, now Friday morning, I was up again laboring. At 7 am I was still at a 4, but my bag of waters was bulging, so we broke my water to get things rolling instead of using pitocin. After that my labor really picked up and got harder, and still Dan was there with me, supporting me, breathing with me, rubbing me, and doing anything he could to help me through ever contraction! He was amazing!!! By noon I was really tired and getting discouraged, but the doctor came in said I was at 8 cm! We were so excited! I was starting to feel like I wanted to push, so I thought he’d be here that afternoon. But we also got bad news then too. My cervix had formed a lip, where part of the inside was bulging out. So our doctor recommended I change positions every few contractions. He thought that the baby’s head must be coming down crooked. I was halving a lot of back labor. This whole time I’d been up and moving a lot to help keep the labor going and so I could be in positions that helped me get through the contractions. But because of the GD I had to be in the bed more than I would have liked so they could monitor me and the baby. My blood sugars were very erratic so they put me on an IV drip which was also cumbersome. It seemed like ever time a nurse came in to test my blood sugars, my blood pressure or draw my blood I would begin a contraction. It was uncanny! It sucks to have blood drawn while you’re contracting, over and over and over again!

I labored all that afternoon and by 5 pm had painfully and dishearteningly made no progress. At this point we agreed to use pitocin to augment my contractions, which is how and when pitocin was meant to be used. After an hour on that, which made my contractions come sooner together, I had still made no progress and the lip that had formed was now swelling, so I felt more like 7 cm dilated, not 8. I was so, so, so tired, and so discouraged. Our doctor had done so well, and had really worked with us to have our baby naturally, like we wanted to. He had really respected our wishes, and treated us like partners in the whole process. So when he came in and explained that even though I had been moving all afternoon, and that it hadn’t helped work past the lip, and since the pitocin wasn’t working, and I was now swelling which would only get more and worse, he thought we needed to have a c-section to get the baby out, I believed him. I was so disappointed in that moment but I also knew that he was right. He said I had done literally everything I could have to prevent having to have a c-section so I shouldn’t feel bad. I knew that too, and I think that’s why I was ok with it. I know I did everything I could.

Once we were for sure going to have the c-section I was so eager to get up there and have the epidural, and get Gus out. I’d been in labor 39 hours and was exhausted and ready to be out of pain and more than anything, have my baby boy here! It seemed to take forever!

Dan was up in surgery with me and though I had cried when I first found out that I’d have to have a c-section, I was very calm during the surgery. Dan on the other hand was very scared and crying. He sat with me and I had to talk to him. He wanted to stay with me the whole time, but I had to convince him to go with our baby boy down to the nursery, because I knew I’d be ok, but our son needed one of us to be with him and I couldn’t be while they stitched me back up.

I didn’t feel a thing until they actually pulled Gus out, and then I only felt pressure.

The first thing that I got to experience of our baby boy was hearing his first cry. It was so beautiful and I started sobbing right then, and I hadn’t even seen him yet! When I saw his beautiful face I cried even more and I couldn’t believe that gorgeous baby was mine! I’d tried to picture what he’d look like since before we were even pregnant, but my imagination never came close. I couldn’t hold him, but I kissed lots on his sweet face and it had to be enough.

Sweet Kisses

It was 2 hours before I finally got to hold my little boy. So many things I couldn’t control in the hospital got in the way and those 2 hours felt like all 9 months put together! Finally, with my baby boy in my arms with my loving husband there with me…I was oh, so perfectly, amazingly happy!

So Happy Together

Now one of us with Gus at home