MY LABOR AND DELIVERY BLOG

Welcome to the world, Bryson James.

He’s here! If you follow me on other social media channels, then this is old news. But if you’re new to my blog and/or social channels, my husband and I welcomed our first child, Bryson James, to this world on January 14th. Now, before we get into the nitty gritty of my labor and delivery story, I have to apologize. I had big plans of consistently writing and keeping up with my blog during maternity leave and, well, that just didn’t happen for a multitude of reasons. Here we are ten weeks later and I’m finally getting around to sharing our son’s birth story. I appreciate all of the texts, comments, messages, phone calls, and well wishes from so many of you. As total and complete rookies, we had no idea how crazy, exciting, exhausting and completely unimaginable giving birth and “those first few weeks” would be. I have a lot to fill you in on and, as promised, I will be chronicling my postpartum journey. The first few blogs will be a little retrospective, but I’ll try to keep up with blogging moving forward. So, without further adieu, here’s how it all rolled out.

EARLY LABOR

Last I left off, I was 40 weeks pregnant (read that blog here) and biting at the chomp to meet this little man. As a first time mom who was convinced (and perhaps hopeful) her son would arrive early, I was getting somewhat impatient. Bags were packed; Game plan was set; all we needed was a baby to start making his way out. I had my membranes stripped twice, hoping that this medical technique would bolster some movement.  Due to my impatience and total misery, at my 40 week appointment, my midwife agreed that I could schedule an induction date. I received a phone call on my due date to let me know an induction date was scheduled for the following Wednesday, at which point I’d be 40 weeks and six days. At that point, I basically threw in the towel and conceded to the fact that I’d probably be induced. While that wasn’t exactly something I was hoping for, I thought to myself, “well, I’m a planner. God knows that, so he must want me to have the luxury of knowing exactly when I would go into labor.” Plus, the brand new labor and delivery rooms at the hospital are pretty fancy, so it wouldn’t be SO bad to spend some extra time in there. Oh naive Christina.

Sunday rolled around and, still hanging onto the hope that perhaps he’d come before the induction date, I engaged in all of my “get baby out” activities. I ate spicy foods; drank my red raspberry leaf tea; kept moving; sat on my bouncy ball for hours, etc. Did I start to feel like things were happening? Nope. So, when I woke up at midnight feeling as though I was experiencing period like cramps with a touch of constipation, I wasn’t really sure what to make of it. I noticed that these pains would come and go, so naturally I woke my husband up. Could this be it?

We started timing my contractions and they were all over the place. Some would be five minutes apart, some were more like fifteen minutes apart and the intensity varied. If someone were to ask me what those early contractions felt like, the only answer that comes to mind is “like I had to go to the bathroom really bad, but just couldn’t do it.”  At 2:30 AM, I called the hospital and the doc on duty gave me the typical “until they’re five minutes apart consistently for an hour, hang tight.” Mind you, we live thirty minutes away from the hospital, no traffic. With traffic, specifically rush hour traffic, you’re looking at one to two hours. Woof. So we waited, sneaking in little bits of shut eye in between painful interludes. By 5:00 AM, we still hadn’t reached a consistent interval of time or level of intensity.

Then, at approximately 5:30/6:00, my water broke and the flood gates, quite literally, opened.

ACTIVE LABOR

We rushed to grab my hospital bag, Matt’s hospital bag, and our stem cell kit. I had big plans to shower, wash my hair, and “get ready” before we left for the hospital. Silly Christina. We’re lucky I brushed my teeth and put pants on. By the time we got into the car, my contractions went from 6-8 minutes apart to 1.5 minutes apart. They were so intense, my dad had to drive us to the hospital so Matt could “coach” me through the pain. Poor, poor Matt. Let’s take a minute to give him a shout out because I’m pretty sure I went from his loving wife to the Exorcism of Emily Rose in a matter of minutes. Thank god there was a mild snowstorm the day before because “rush hour” traffic was unusually light that Monday morning. We arrived at the hospital in about 35 minutes, at approximately 7:30 AM, and legitimately ran to the Labor and Delivery unit.

If you recall, I was on the fence about whether or not I wanted an epidural. In my birth plan, which did make it into the hands of the nursing team, I believe I wrote “if needed.” Well, that quickly changed to: IMMEDIATELY. In fact, the only legible phrase I could mutter as I entered my labor and delivery room was “Epidural. Please. Epidural.” I’ll go into more detail about my birth plan and what changed in a different blog, but let it be known that I well never, ever again question whether or not I want an epidural. It was life changing.

POST EPIDURAL LABOR

At this point, my midwife informed me that I was about 5 cm dilated and things appeared to be moving quickly. Now, different people have different experiences with epidurals. I must have had a superb anesthesiology team, because they got that sucker in as fast and precise as possible. It took everything I had not to move while they administered the epidural, but when it was in, it was the biggest sense of relief I’ve ever physically experienced. Matt, who had to leave the room while they gave me the epidural, said it was like night and day. I felt so calm and ready to relax before the push period began.

IT’S GO TIME

Well, that break in action didn’t last very long. The nurses came in about an hour later and I had already dilated to a 9.5. Bryson’s heart rate was dropping every time I had a contraction, most likely due to my VERY low blood pressure. I believe I mentioned this in a past blog, but I already have naturally low blood pressure and epidurals typically lower your blood pressure even more.

I kid you not, about ten minutes later, Bryson James Sgambato made his grand entrance into the world. Weighing in at 7 lbs. 12 ounces and 21 inches long, this little dude changed our lives forever.