Hi friends! I’m so excited to be sharing with you Shane’s birth story. They are probably my favorite blog posts to read so it’s kind of surreal to me that I’m actually writing my own. I’m a bit overwhelmed to be writing it to be honest and am not sure how much I’m going to remember. I had planned on taking notes while I was in labor but never actually did it so let’s see how this goes. 😉
January 10, 2018 – My 40 Week Appointment
Let’s start back at my 40 week prenatal appointment. At this point, on January 10th, I was 40 weeks and 4 days. I had not had any contractions at this point, besides the Braxton Hicks contractions that I had been having for months prior. I did have a bit of bloody show the week before, after my 39 week appointment because my OB had checked my cervix rather roughly, but nothing ever came of it.
So at my 40 week appointment I knew my OB was going to talk induction and my plan was to put it off for as long as they would let me. I really didn’t want to get induced. I wasn’t sure whether or not I was going to be getting an epidural and I really didn’t want to have pitocin. So when my doctor suggested that we induce me the following night, my eyes got really big and I asked if we could wait any longer, haha! I was under the impression that they would induce me at 41 weeks. (I was told 7-10 days after your due date.) She said that we could wait until Sunday night, which would put me at 41 weeks and 1 day.
January 10 2018 – Later That Night
I still really didn’t want to be induced so I was praying hard that Shane would decide to make his appearance sometime before Sunday. This gave him four more days to come naturally. I am part of a Facebook group called Young Mom’s Club, where everyone uses it to chat about being a mom and get advice from one another. I decided to ask in there for ways to induce labor naturally. I got all kinds of advice – from having sex, to bouncing on a yoga ball, to eating different types of foods. I tried as many as I could and later that night before falling asleep, I had a feeling that labor was going to come sometime soon. I was feeling super crampy. Not contraction crampy, but definitely different and I kind of knew my body was up to something. I also started having more bloody show on this night and had a feeling this might mean something this time. I didn’t want to get my hopes up though so I didn’t dwell on it too much.
January 11, 2018 – 9:00AM – 1:00PM
I woke up the next morning kind of disappointed that I hadn’t gone into labor over night. (I always had the idea that I would go into labor in the middle of the night because after reading countless birth stories, it seemed like most people tended to go into labor overnight.) I had plans to just relax around the house, like usual, and take a trip to Target. I had some Christmas money that I wanted to spend and I figured walking around couldn’t hurt.
I set out to Target to shop and while I was there I could have sworn I had a few contractions that were quite painful but at this point I still didn’t think much of it. I had no idea what a contraction felt like so I wasn’t sure if what I was feeling even was a contraction. I talked to a sales lady who asked when I was due and she jokingly said that I didn’t want my water to break in the store after hearing I was overdue. Around 12:30, after walking around for about an hour, I decided it was time to head home because Tommy would be home from work soon.
January 11, 2018 – 1:00PM – 3:00PM
I got home and took the dog out. While we were outside Tommy came home. We went inside, had some lunch and relaxed around the house again. I can’t remember if I had anymore random contractions at this point or not. If I did, it was only a few. During the few weeks leading up until Shane was born, Tommy and I had been watching a ton of Hulu. We were currently on a binge of watching Survivor so that’s what we did most of the afternoon.
January 11, 2018 – 3:00PM – 5:00PM
Right around 3PM (I think), I started having contractions. At this point I still didn’t know if they were contractions so I kind of ignored them. At some point though I started thinking that they actually could be contractions so I decided to download a contraction timer. The contractions were pretty inconsistent at first, but were around 10ish minutes apart. Still in denial, I mentioned to Tommy that I had downloaded a contraction timer but said it super calmly and he didn’t think much of it.
After about an hour or two of these inconsistent and moderate contractions I actually started to believe that they actually could be contractions. I told Tommy that I was almost positive that I was having contractions and that we should probably eat something, just in case we had to go to the hospital. We debated on what we wanted to eat, me saying that we should order something and try to make it special because it could be the last meal just as the two of us. But as we were talking and trying to decide, my contractions started getting progressively more painful and I cared less and less about what we were going to eat.
January 11, 2018 – 5:00PM – 7:00PM
We finally just decided to get Burger King (lol) because it was quick and we definitely needed something quick. Tommy left to get the food and I decided to hop in the bath to see if the water would help at all. It didn’t so I didn’t stay in there very long, maybe 10 mins. Right when I got out Tommy came home with the food so we sat down to eat.
Tommy prayed about having a smooth delivery and then we ate. I was in a decent amount of pain at this point and I only ate half of my sandwich and my fries. I kept timing my contractions, which were slowly getting to be about 5 mins apart. My doctor’s office told me to call when they were 5 mins apart, lasting a minute, for an hour. After dinner I decided to lay down and work through the contractions somewhere comfortable.
Shortly after I noticed that it had been an hour that my contractions were 5 minutes apart, lasting for a minute and a half(!) so I called my OB office around 7 to tell them that I thought I was in labor.
January 11, 2018 – 7:00PM – 9:00PM
When I called the OB’s office they told me I could either come into the office and have them check me and see if I was progressing or I could head to the hospital since I was overdue anyway and they weren’t going to send me home. I decided to just go to the hospital because I was getting to be more and more uncomfortable and I wanted the option of getting pain medicine sooner rather than later.
So we left for the hospital around 7:30PM. The car ride was a bit rough. My contractions started coming more quickly and it was super painful. We arrived at the hospital around 8 and they checked me in and got me all set up. This is the part of the story where everything becomes kind of blurry and I’m not quite sure on the timing but I’ll estimate for the rest of the story.
January 11, 2018 – 9:00PM – 12:00AM
Once they got us into the room and me into a hospital gown, my doctor came in to check to see how far I was. At this point I was about a 5 or 6! I was super excited that I was that far along because I had been afraid that I would get to the hospital and I’d only be a 1 or 2. They asked me if I was planning on getting an epidural and at this point I was leaning towards yes but still wasn’t 100% sure if I wanted it yet. My doctor offered to break my water, but everything was happening so quickly and I wasn’t ready yet so I told them to wait until I decided if I wanted an epidural first. I was really scared of how much more painful things were going to get once she did that. I’m really glad that I told her to wait, but it also sucked because she left to go home right after this.
So like I mentioned, my doctor went home for the night and only was going to come back if I was about to have the baby. I’m honestly not sure at what time, but not too much longer (I think around 10PMish), I decided to get the epidural because I just didn’t want to deal with the pain anymore. I really wasn’t sure how I was going to handle it when it got worse. I think the worst part for me was that my contractions were so long. I was always under the impression that they would start off slower and build to be longer, but mine started out super long and just stayed the same length, which made them really hard to deal with.
Getting the epidural wasn’t that bad at all. The worst part was having a contraction in the middle of it. The numbing needle didn’t really hurt too much either. I started feeling relief basically right away though, which was awesome. After I got it and Tommy came back in the room I told him that I felt like a person again, haha. Time started to really slow down at this point because I wasn’t so focused on just getting through the contractions (since I couldn’t feel them anymore). Around this time the nurse turned the lights down and told us to try to get some sleep. (LOL)
January 12, 2018 – 12:00AM – 5:30AM
Tommy and I laid down and tried to sleep, but I had no idea how I was supposed to sleep. I couldn’t move to get comfortable and I had a blood pressure cuff on that took my blood pressure at least 2 or 3 times an hour. Definitely not ideal conditions for sleeping. On top of that, my blood pressure kept dipping just slightly lower than normal so an alarm went off probably 3 times. Each time I had to call a nurse in and they would just turn it off.
The nurse also checked me probably about 3 times during this time and I wasn’t really progressing much. She said my water was bulging every time though, but she wasn’t allowed to break it and my doctor wouldn’t be back until the morning. This was the most frustrating part because I felt like if my doctor had been there to break my water things would have picked up a lot quicker. I was so uncomfortable throughout the night and getting more and more tired, but wasn’t able to sleep. I was thankful that I really couldn’t feel contractions that much though. My legs were just so numb though and I couldn’t move my right one at all.
January 12, 2018 – 5:30AM – 7:15AM
At 5:30 my doctor came in and was able to finally break my water! I was so excited at this point because I was honestly so uncomfortable and so ready for it all to just be over. After she broke my water I started progressing further. I think at this point I was around 7 centimeters dilated.
At around 6:45ish, the nurse came in and had me flip back and forth because she said my contractions were getting much stronger and were putting baby boy in stress. Every time after I would have a contraction, she would come back in and have me do the same thing – flip back and forth on my sides. He would always recover and be fine as soon as my contraction ended. My contractions were just so long and strong at this point.
We did this for probably close to a half an hour because the doctor that was on call (who had broken my water) was actually delivering another baby so she couldn’t come in and decide what to do. They also had me use an oxygen mask towards the end while I was flipping back and forth. I actually wasn’t that worried because the nurse did a great job at reassuring me that everything was fine.
January 12, 2018 – 7:15AM – 8:11AM
A little after 7 the nurses and doctors switched and the new nurses kept up with the same routine of flipping me back and forth during each contraction until the doctor came in. Another doctor from my practice (the one I actually liked the best!) got there around 7:15 and checked me and I was at 9.5.
She had me start practice pushing, while also trying to “stretch my cervix”. Without really saying much she just had me keep pushing with each contraction and not too long after I was at a 10. She left for a little bit and had the nurses and Tommy keep helping me push through each contraction.
When she came back she told me that if I couldn’t get him out on my own she would have to help with the vacuum. I honestly only had been pushing for maybe 15-20 mins when she said this so I was a bit freaked out. I knew it was because of him being stressed though so I just focused on trying to figure out the best way to push.
The doctor also mentioned that if this all didn’t work I would have to have a C-Section. Although this was true, I think she said it to motivate me to get him out sooner and honestly it worked. I wasn’t too freaked out and just kept trying to figure it out. I eventually did and kept pushing for about an hour.
At 8:11 AM Shane Thomas Zinhobl was born and it was the greatest moment of my life. It was so surreal to actually get to feel him on the outside after him being inside for so long.
January 12, 2018 – After Birth + Recovery
This is getting quite long so I will try to wrap it up quickly. So for the first hour while holding him on my chest I was being stitched up. I had two first degree tears, but apparently one was in an odd place so it made it harder to stitch. This kind of sucked because I really wanted to try to get him to breastfeed but couldn’t because I was laying down and it was making it very difficult. He was doing so well though and was rooting around like crazy!
Everything went so well and I eventually was done being stitched up. The only other thing that was not ideal was that my right leg (the one I literally couldn’t move) stayed numb for so long after they turned the epidural off. I eventually had to be moved to another room anyway instead of waiting until I could feel it again. It was only about an hour longer and I was able to feel it again, thank God lol.
All in all, my labor and delivery went super smoothly and I honestly couldn’t have asked for anything better. My breastfeeding journey started out super rocky and only got harder and harder. I am planning on doing a whole post about that as it was the hardest thing I have ever done. Things are getting so much better now though and we are so incredibly happy to have our boy home with us. He is the perfect addition to our little family. Thank you so much for reading this if you made it this far! 😉 This has been such a fun journey to share with you all!