My Delivery

I have noticed that all of my blog titles start with "My____." It makes me feel like this blog is very egocentric. Hmmmm...I will have to think of a way to branch out.

Anyway, here is Thor's birth story, edited to a PG rating. From the moment I saw the pregnancy test, I said I was going to have Thor on Memorial Day weekend. The problem was that there are 3 days in that weekend and my OB was only on call for 2 of them.

I was freaking out 2 weeks before my due date, June 5, because my fabulous OB Dr. Layton was going to spend Monday, Memorial Day with his family on Roosevelt Lake. Dr. Layton deliveries 95% of his own patients' babies, even if he's not on call. But if he's out of the state or out of cell phone range --like at the lake--he does not deliver them. I was convinced that I would have Thor on Monday, Dr. Layton would miss it, I'd have some OB that wouldn't follow the birth plan Dr. Layton and I agreed to, the nurses would listen to the new, horrible OB, nothing would go like I planned, I would panic, medical staff would try to talk me into something I didn't want, I would have to start yelling at and threatening everyone to make them listen to me, Gary would go into shut-down mode to deal (or more specifically not deal with) me, and in short I would have a terrible experience that would leave me in tears and not wanting to talk to anyone at all about another life experience that should have been wonderful, but yet again turned into a disaster. All of this I tearfully explained to my, again I must say fabulous, OB who has been treating my neurotic self for 13 years. Dr. Layton devised a plan to induce me at 3am on Sunday, May 29 so that my terrifying scenario would not play out.

But on Friday, May 27, Dr. Layton checked me and said that I wasn't dilated, the baby hadn't dropped, and my cervix wasn't favorable. He said there was nothing at all to indicate that I would have the baby in the next 3 days. Inducing me when I had no signs of readiness would drastically increase my chances of a c-section, something I had repeatedly said I wanted to avoid at all costs. So we decided to cancel the induction and take our chances that I would make it until Tuesday--Dr. Layton and Gary were much more optimistic than I was.

And I was right!!! Friday evening, my back started aching. By Saturday morning, I was having steady contractions every 12-15 minutes. We went to see a movie, went to lunch with friends, and did some shopping. By Saturday night the contractions were still only 10 minutes apart so I went to bed. I woke up at 12:30am Sunday morning and the contractions were 5-7 minutes apart. I called Crystal, my doula--someone hired to keep me calm, and make sure what I wanted happened during labor and delivery. I told her to be on alert, but that I was going to try to get more sleep. As soon as I laid down, the contractions sped up to every 2-3 minutes and started getting more intense. Gary got up and I told him, "don't get too comfortable." At 1:30am I decided it was time to go to the hospital.

Gary, Crystal, and I got to Banner Gateway Medical Center at 2am--one hour before my canceled induction. We went to the labor and delivery triage and the nurse said that I was 2 cm dilated and definitely having contractions every 2-3 minutes. Because they didn't have a L&D room available, I could stay in triage while they cleaned one or I could walk around the L&D unit.

I chose to walk and hopefully speed things up. And holy cow did it! Gary and Crystal helped me walk for 30 minutes before I couldn't go any further it hurt so bad. I managed not to throw up until we made it back to my room in triage. But then I couldn't stop throwing up. I had progressed to 4cm in an hour. The nurse asked if I wanted pain meds and I said, "YES! I want my epidural!" I could tell that things were going to go down hill really quickly without it.

They wheeled me down to a L&D room and the anesthesiologist was waiting. He gave me a divine epidural. Gary, Crystal, and I slept for a few hours until shift change when Erin became my nurse. She read my birth plan and was very gung-ho about making sure she did everything on it-YAY! I loved Erin. I texted a few people to tell them I was in L&D but I didn't really call or text any info after that. I didn't want a lot of people calling or coming by.

Gary, Crystal and I started taking bets on when I would be 10 cm. It was about 11:30am. I "labored down" for a while--I waited to push until Dr. Layton arrived at the hospital just in case it went quickly. I had the best epidural ever. I could still move my legs and feel the contractions, so they let me squat while I pushed. But then something terrible happened! I couldn't push anymore because an old injury I had from Sabre's delivery sent agonizing pain through the right side of my uterus if I tried to push!

The anesthesiologist came back and gave me a shot of narcotic so I could still use the squat bar. But it didn't help--it turns out I was allergic to it and developed hives all down the right side of my body! So they upped the epidural and I finally got relief.

At 1:50pm, Thor James Williams was born. He weighed 6 lbs. 15 ozs. and was 20.5 inches long.

When they handed him to me, all I wanted to do was to see his face and what he looked like, but he was too close for me to see. Consequently, all the pictures of him and me show me scrunching up my chin, trying to look down at him and it looks like I have a triple chin!!! See??

Oh, well. I was happy to finally meet him.

It was important to me to hold Thor first and then introduce him to Gary personally.

 Then we tried nursing for the first time. I have to say, Thor and I looked like we were old pros--I was surprised how quickly we picked it up, but I had watched my mom nurse babies for as long as I can remember, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.

Gary said that Thor looked like a boxer--all swollen with his nose flat. Nice, huh? But then I look at these pics again, and I think he's right. Poor baby! (Gary changed shirts in L&D because he'd been wearing the same thing for 24 hours-phew!)

I asked in my birth plan that Gary and I bathe Thor ourselves so we had to wait in L&D for the epidural to wear off so I could stand next to the warmer. While we waited, everyone got to know baby Thor. Here is Crystal:

She was a really big help to me especially right before I got the epidural and during the pushing. I highly recommend getting a doula. And here is Dr. Layton:

I am so glad that he delivered Thor. I have been going to Dr. Layton since his first year out of residency. He is a fabulous doctor--the best I've ever had and between me and Sabre, I've known a lot of doctors. He made sure that everything went exactly like we planned it, and for that, I will always be grateful.

Here is mommy and daddy giving Thor his first bath:

Then we were off to the maternity floor. Gary went home as soon as Thor and I were settled so he could pick up Sabre. She fell in love with Thor as soon as she saw him.

So Thor was born on Memorial Day weekend, just as I predicted. Luckily, not on Monday, though. I could not have been more happy with the labor and delivery or more impressed with the staff at Gateway. Everything went as planned or better. Yippee!